Hello everyone...long time no talk

Bit I hope your pup recovers from his injury...my lovely Diego RIP--had his leg broken when he was a kitten and when he recovered you never even knew that he had been injured...the bodys ability for resilience is amazing..

Im feeling kind of in a schaudenfreude mood in these dark cold days, I suppose it has a lot to do with the weather and i always seem to forget that my mind is my biggest strength....that manifestation of our own power comes from within not outside...something so simple yet its a slippery concept for me


but i want to wish everyone well and happy holidays in the dark time...

im much more of a lurker than an author but i always enjoy this thread and the magnificent people who remain.....

Hi Bit so glad to hear that the pup is responding to your training, i believe that animals come into "Our Lives" not us into thiers...all of my beloved felines found me and im eternally grateful for their presence...my Bronwen that i have had for 10 years dissapered 3 weeks ago and has not returned...I think she is a hostage somewhere and im hoping she is being taken care of properly...she apparently decided that she wanted to wander and that is how she came into my life so i take comfort in the fact that not only is she intelligent but shes also autonomous and the universe willing will return hopefully...

It was heartbreaking to go to the humane society because i just wanted to take all of them home with us....My beloved Diego has not visited but I know in my heart that he will. A very good friend of mine is doing an egyptian ritual for him and that takes 70 days so he is in good company with all of his guardians as they prepare him for Bastet and her companions.....I miss him everyday but know he is in his happy hunting grounds with all of the stalking and hunting he could want...


Your Pup sounds like quite the Psychic and how exciting for you and Gryph to have a familiar like him...I bet he is going to get stronger and stronger with each day and those teeth and gums are probably just hurting a bit and its in his nature with want to chew probably lol but he is being structured by responsible loving humans and lucky him that he is soooo loved by you two.

No need for any apologies at all, i always enjoy your thoughts and words and your kindness

I hope that you and yours are safe and well this yule season
and all of the animals are safe and sound...: )

Just came in from the 587th puppy walk...
 

Whew
 

Oh my gosh, I almost missed this! {{{{{{{{{{{{{{Foxy}}}}}}}}}}}}}} Hi, honey! So glad you checked in!

I'm reading and growing, stretching my mind and skills. The latest book (I just finished it) is Soul Retrieval, by Sandra Ingerman. FASCINATING book. I bought it for Gryph, actually, but ended up reading it myself because I was curious.

I've been feeling disconnected for a while, haven't been able to meditate, so after I started the book I bought a couple Sandra Ingerman CDs. I figured, this is the premier Shamanism teacher, so Gryph should have access to her, right? And one of the CDs is guided meditations, shamanic journeys--so I thought, hey, two things at once, show Gryph that I support him on his path, and also get myself kick-started back into meditating and Circling again, right? Bring myself back into balance?

Sandra Ingerman has a loud voice, and she drums REALLY fast, and she never shuts up to let you get down into a meditative state... and if you persist, and finally manage to get there despite her voice?

She WHISTLES really loudly like a bird's cry. *buries face in hands*

What could we do but laugh, as she repeatedly popped us out of meditating/journeying? I guess she's not necessarily the teacher for us, although we have been enjoying her audiobook about soul retrieval.

So. At this point, I can send energy when I'm careful about it, and I can still of course get people grounded whenever I talk to them, but for the most part my meditating skills are on hold. It's the brain fog from the fibromyalgia. Gryph keeps it mostly at bay with energy work and that allows me to function on an everyday level--yanno, cooking, taking care of the dogs, getting the bills paid and the taxes filed--but although I can connect enough to hear the Goddess, the Ancestors, and our Allies, I cannot go deeply enough to do really profound work. So I figure the best use of this time for me is reading and learning, and when the brain fog eases, I can start working again.

Oh my golly, your last journey circle?!! {{{{{{{{{{{{{{Foxy}}}}}}}}}}}}}}} Dunno how a person could be granite for that! Are you ending the drumming circles as well, or just the journey circles?

How interesting, the way your work is evolving! It'll be fascinating to know what kind of things start happening, what you find, how it changes things. I would be really interested in what you discover when you work with the woman who has fibromyalgia!

What I've noticed over my life is that I seem to attract vampires and malicious-yet-small spirits (you know, the kind that take glee in making one extra clumsy?). The vampires are the most serious and drain me pretty badly, but are clearly external to me. I have no idea if there is any possession, but I am already so crammed full with just being me that I dunno where anything else would squeeze in!

*wry laugh* I tried to avoid saying that I'm "full of myself" since that has such a negative connotation! I guess I could say that I feel completely myself. :cheesy:

{{{{{{{{{{{{{{Foxy}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}

That hug has been passed onto Gryph ~smiling~ and he says "hello!" We're both sending you love for this momentous day and evening.

It's been a long time since anyone called me Sunshine--you made me smile, darlin. Thank you.

I have to say, your three rules are spot on! I have also recognized those things, but not quite so succinctly as you have.

It seems you and I are very much alike. I also lamented not having that tribal background; I felt cheated even as a child by that lack. But it's true that when you don't have the background, you're also free to work without those constraints. Let's face it, humans have a tendency to get hidebound in our traditions and to therefore sometimes miss things which would work perfectly well, simply because they aren't part of the established traditions. So lately I have come to recognize the strengths of forging my own path; I look back and can see, "yes, I learned this better, and that, because I had to find my own way."

It helps a LOT that I am far enough removed from the pain of that forging to not be focused on it... indeed, sometimes now I manage to forget. :rolleyes:

This really is an amazing time to be alive and learning, isn't it? Sometimes I wonder how I ever managed without the internet, and each time I think about it, I'm conscious of the utter miracle of it all. When I was a kid I didn't even know what a computer WAS, and the only ones in existence took up entire rooms. When I first got a computer, there was only DOS and it was cumbersome and limited. When I first got online, Windows was an upstart.

Today the world is at my fingertips, almost instantly, any time day or night. I can literally learn about ANYTHING. Not only that, but my next computer will most likely take up not a huge room or two, but only the space my school notebook filled with lined paper took when I was a child, and I will most likely be able to use it anywhere in the world.

I think my "tribe" is online, Foxy. I actually have bookmarked two different sites about my own ancient heritage--if blood counts for anything when you believe in reincarnation, lol--and they're filled with information that I would have had to become an archaeologist to discover just thirty short years ago. It's tickling me no end that the people called themselves "The Purple People" because I can look at my extended family and see the preponderance of women who unabashedly ADORE the color purple, even three thousand years later.

It's also food for thought that in the description of these people who lived so very long ago (Canaanites), I find my own values reflected... a people who were skilled merchants and builders, and who believed in negotiation rather than war, always. I suppose in a way that's healing for me, because my other heritages are Celtic and Germanic, both so uncomfortably warlike!

I think maybe I'm rambling. Ooops. :rolleyes:

What I've learned since I have come to be with Gryph is the value of those ass-kicking Allies you mentioned. Once we realized how VERY vulnerable I am to random spirits, Gryph set up an early warning system with the Allies for me. We knew it was working the night I heard a rattlesnake buzz a warning in the bedroom... it was really Trooper pawing at his crate in his sleep--yanno, he was running in a dream--and I knew that sound when I heard it... but within about thirty seconds I realized I was hearing it again and again in my head as a rattlesnake and it really scared me. I woke Gryph up to tell him about it and sure enough, when he did a scan, there was a nasty intruder where I thought the snake was.

The next time it happened, instead of hearing something, I saw a malevolent face in the cat litter. I scooped the pattern away and told Gryph, and again--there was a spirit trying to get into the house there.

The next time, I saw a skinny man in a white shirt and yellow baseball cap cutting through our side yard (that really annoys us when strangers cut through our yard) and I rushed to the front door to ask him not to do that anymore... but he wasn't in my yard! And then I realized two things. His feet made no sound on the gravel, and I cannot actually see out that window--it's blocked off with opaque plastic.

It seems That House is full of what Gryph calls "portals" and new ones are opening as fast as the old ones get closed. I think we would have our hands full, and I would certainly be overwhelmed, if our Allies weren't looking out for us.

I begin to understand why it was important that we should live in THIS house, out of all the others available in our neighborhood... and why WE should live in this house, out of all the people available in our neighborhood. You don't often find people who can bring stability to such an active place. I suspect that after we've been here for a while we'll be pretty good at it, too: practice makes perfect, and we will certainly be getting a LOT of practice, lol!

I'm so glad to be talking with you again. I love being able to compare our ideas and experiences.

You know something... it would be so very interesting to know what kind place your patient with fibro lives in, whether it's a peaceful stable place, or wildly active (or something in the middle). I don't know if having fibro might contribute to a place opening up or not--I never really thought about it before--but I wouldn't be surprised to find out that having fibro makes a person more sensitive to spirits, since it seems to have been the key that opened me up psychically.

Take care, darlin, and let us know how the journey circle went? Gryph and I both love hearing from you!

Sunshine

MayDay
 

Hello everyone! I am not a pagan, but I recognize the multiplicity within my roots, including the Ancestors. If it does not offend anyone, I will just drop by and learn, ask a question now and then, and respectfully listen.

Hi waxnrope, welcome! I think you'll find the Pagan community welcoming, especially if your path includes reverence for the Ancestors.

What kind of questions did you have? There are probably enough of us that someone will have answers. *smiling*

New here. But, not to the path....
 

My $.02
 

Religion is for people who are afraid of Hell;
Spirituality is for those who have already been there.

Merry meet! And everyone is welcome, thank you all for stopping by!

{{{{{{{{{{{{{Magic}}}}}}}}}}}}}} Darlin I am always SO GLAD to reconnect with you! I look forward to your contributions!

Massive, I don't think you've offended anyone. I suspect most of us share your basic attitude of "live and let live."

chefjenn, I used to have a fridge magnet that said that! The only thing I would add? "And Shamanism is for those who aren't afraid to go back" lol!!

So, did anyone attend local Beltane celebrations?

{{{{BIT}}}}

Actually, I was fortunate enough to attend a small Beltane circle with some very close friends. It was kind of Beltane / Birthday celebration, which was awesome!

I am fortunate to have such friends...and that includes all of you here.

:cheer:

Oh, I'm sure you probably need financial prosperity as much as we do or even more, Magic! It's a great mantra. If you say it every single time you find yourself worrying about money it will change you AND your money circumstances.

I said it multiple times a day at first because I was in despair about our money. The first thing that changed was me; the despair lifted and I began to see things with hopeful eyes. That allowed room for change in our lives, and meant that the forces for change didn't have to buck through as much negativity, so even small positive changes could get through. That was a rocky path though; I was still prone to despair off and on for several months.

Then money started coming in before the end of that first month, ten bucks here, twenty bucks there--slow, yanno? never anything we could actually count on--but just enough to keep me saying the mantra. I started saying it October 1st a year and a half ago and on October 31st, we were told about That House. On March 17th (after a lot of failures!) we closed on That House. I am firmly convinced it was the mantra that brought us financing, because we were turned down by every conventional source we tried. If our credit was acceptable, the house was not, and vice versa, until we finally said the heck with it and gave up... but I kept saying the mantra, and then private financing appeared.

I kept on saying that mantra every day for over a year. It made a huge difference in how well we were able to pay the bills. I still say it, but not as regularly. I wonder if it might have been a mistake to stop saying it every day, yanno? But the things which I was using as prompts to say it have changed. Maybe I should start again. After all, who doesn't need to prosper?

So, back to Beltane, we attended a local picnic in a park, complete with two Maypole dances. It was great! There was a plant swap, a May Queen crowning, lots of sparring with foam swords to choose her champion, and a ton of really great food--WITH, I kid you not, a couple of bins to scrape plates into for compost!! Of course Pagans would think of that, lol!

My favorite part is that an eleven year old girl beat ALL the champion candidates at sparring, some of them over and over. She beat most of the adults, too; it was great. Gryph was the only one who held his own with this girl.

After Gryph and I had gotten home and relaxed some from a busy day filled with sun and new friends, I said, "...wow... I feel like I finally found my people..." and yanno, it still feels that way. The picnic was VERY much like a family reunion where you find adult cousins you hadn't met before, and discover that you're all really similar in important ways: that "shared family" bond. It was just like that! I really loved it and I want to get more involved with this community.

An intriguing part of the day was that the May Queen could have been Arwen's younger twin. It was kind of odd, feeling like I knew her when I'd never met her before, lol! And I think I'm going to have to consciously remind myself a lot that she is her own self, and not our Arwen, or I'll be expecting her to do and say things that she won't. :sunglass: :cheesy:

[QUOTE=Bit;100496]Oh, I'm sure you probably need financial prosperity as much as we do or even more, Magic! It's a great mantra. If you say it every single time you find yourself worrying about money it will change you AND your money circumstances.

All good things shall come to me
And I shall have prosperity
As I will so must it be

Happy belated Beltane, y'all. :)



Anybody here listen to podcasts? I really love druidcast and paganfm, and a few others. :)

BB

{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{Nat}}}}}}}}}}}}} Thank you for the music, darlin!

I confess, I am a Luddite Lite... never figured out how to listen to podcasts. *sheepish look*

Okay hmm. I tried making direct links but they did not work.

For Pagan FM, you should be able to listen to the latest episode by clicking on the mp3 link down below each show description

PaganFM comes out once a week and it's a really comprehensive radio show (and the host is trans).

For Druidcast, there's a "direct download" link at the bottom of each show description. Druidcast just has really great folk-music, poetry, folktales and interviews mostly. The host is Damh the Bard (ever listened to him? He's a musician you can find on youtube). I really enjoy it. It's more focused on druidry and Celtic mythology, but because it's a bardic tradition, they produce lots of beautiful stuff. I think you'd like it.

If neither of these options work, I would highly recommend downloading itunes. Then you can find them by clicking on the "itunes store" on the left-hand side of the program and then searching for the podcasts. If you need help, please feel free to ask or pm. I think the pagan podcasting world is really strong and kinda neat - it is a bit of "oral tradition". :)

Hello, LadyBlue, merry meet!

Nat, thank you for the links!

So is anyone keeping track of the changes around them as the seasons progress? This is something I've been doing for a couple years, and it occurs to me that I could post it here. I was inspired by something Starhawk wrote about in one of her recent books, which is paying attention to one particular place over time in order to reconnect yourself to the Earth.

I always remember reading (many years ago now) that it's silly to make a distinction between the city and the country, between artificial and natural, as if concrete and glass were not natural materials. It's true that everything which is ON the earth is also a part of the earth--it's not like asphalt is brought in from outer space, yanno?--and so we have the potential to connect strongly with the earth no matter where we are.

It's also true that there is wild and untamed nature all around us no matter where we are. That was hard for me to understand at first; I had to start looking at weeds and bugs and city birds in the proper way to get it. The truth is that they don't depend on us and would be here whether we were, or not.

Another truth: our own yards and gardens and pets can connect us to the earth as well.

What I've noticed is that when I write about the things I see, it sparks me to consider things I wouldn't necessarily think about otherwise.

I'll post my latest musings and observations in a separate post.

Noticing the Natural World: May 2010
 

Ahhh, Spring has settled into Wichita and shall not be dislodged. In early March, she was still dancing with Winter, and that continued through the whole month. The late-March snowstorm came the next-to-last weekend of March, and then the "weather waves" started, a pattern that includes a bright hot sunny day followed immediately by a big storm from the west which drops the temperature considerably, and is in turn followed by day after day of steadily increasing temperatures until we have a bright hot sunny day followed immediately by a big storm from the West which... well, you get the picture. *smiling*

It's just amazing to me how all our weather comes from the west, rolls in across the ocean and sweeps across the continent. Even when we get what Gryph refers to as an Alberta Clipper--the jet stream dipping south from Canada into the US--it's driven by weather from the west. I haven't yet figured out the significance of this in magical terms, but it doesn't seem to me that it was ever mentioned in any of the teachings I have read or heard about the directions and their symbolism; West=Water, yes, or even the Ocean, but never a word about weather... yet there it is, for a hugely significant part of the northern hemisphere, weather comes from the west. Rain, snow, ice, storms of all kinds; tornadoes, straightline winds, withering droughts, all born in and driven from the west as a function not of Water but of Air, of Wind, ferocious and untamed.

A strange match for the sweet gentleness of the idyllic Summerlands, yes? And yet it took me a while of musing and wondering about it before I caught that connection between the West as Source of Deadly Weather, so to speak, and the Land of the Dead. Maybe it was more obvious to seafaring peoples? Or maybe the Summerlands are just tied in my mind to Avalon, and to popular depictions which conveniently leave out everything about death and skip right to the idyllic afterlife, like some Pagan version of Heaven...

In any case, when Memorial Day comes to the US the last weekend in May, I'll be thinking about the West, and cycles of the weather.

All the trees have taken advantage of the weather waves, and have leafed out. The streets which had been open to the skies are now enclosed, sheltered by mounds of greenery. It started after the last snowstorm, wisps of palest green that suddenly opened into drifting billows, whiter than clouds. They lasted about a week, then as the blossoms dropped faded once again into palest green, opening slowly into the softness of spring greens. Now in the midst of May they've darkened, not quite to summer green but well on the way.

The earliest flowers have all come and gone, many, it must be admitted, victim to roaring lawnmowers. The ground was utterly speckled and peppered with drops of golden sunshine in mid-April. Stems and occasional fluffy seedheads still linger here and there. The dandelion leaves clearly benefitted from their early "harvest" as they're now putting great energy into new growth. The henbit and corn speedwell did not benefit in the same way; an occasional patch still catches the eye but for the most part they're done for the year. Star of Bethlehem responded to early mowings by flowering without leaves, a good month earlier than they flowered last year; whether this is because of the warmer drier spring this year or is solely due to mowing I can't tell. Violets are still growing everywhere and may give us a second flush of blossoms if the lawnmowers don't get them, but I think possibly there hasn't been enough rain for that.

Forsythia was a disapointment to me this year. It bloomed exuberantly all over the neighborhood, but the scent was actually, well, kind of nasty! I mourned the ending of winter when I smelled them.

The exquisite pinks of the redbuds made it a little better. Then the lilacs bloomed for more than a week, and perfumed the air with a heady warm sweetness that totally made up for the snow going away. Now the old-fashioned irises are doing their best to carry on with the job, purple and white alike. The roses have opened and are quickly spending their glory--no weeklong blossoms for them--and the various trees are still spreading sweetness. It started with the maples at mid-March, added early elms, segued into the oaks in early April, paused for a brief but brilliant burst of crabapple with the lilacs, and now is into more elms, the ashes and hackberries.

Half a robin's eggshell sits on Gryph's desk, a reminder that the cycle of birds has changed as well. Gone are the juncos of March, slipped away unnoticed with the crows. Hawks now rule the skies and robins rule the ground, splitting the neighborhood into territories, filling the morning with song from rooftops and treetops alike. The solar music boxes in my neighbor's yard have reverted to mere Arbor Vitae shrubs again, as the sparrows no longer come to the surface to soak up the sun. Indeed, they've moved out into the trees, built nests and laid eggs. The young birds are starting to show up foraging now, their short stubby tails, streaky brown feathers, and innocence charming me every time I see them. One flew up under my broken window screen to land on my kitchen windowsill the other day. No telling who was more amazed when I lifted the curtain and peeked out, her or me! She stayed a while, eyeing me from every angle before deciding to fly away.

Bugs are a subject I wish I could ignore. *sheepish smile* Haven't seen too many mosquitos this year yet, but then it hasn't rained as much as last year AND we started mowing the lawn earlier. Small flies are out, and the ants woke up and started foraging about a week ago. Bees have been awake on and off since the lilacs bloomed; they seemed to really love the henbit but left the lilacs completely alone. The fat brown beetles that hurl themselves at our lighted windows showed up last week, so we started leaving the porch light and living room lights off at night--no more beetles.

Lightning bugs aren't due until next month. I look forward to THEM, lol!

It occurred to me yesterday that once the season has truly changed, I settle into it and look forward to the rest of it. Now that Spring is solidly here and Summer is on her inexorable way, the gardener in me is awake and happy. I suppose this is what it is to live in a four season climate, this constant change, nothing lasting more than a few months, the Wheel always swinging about. It's so strange compared to the 9 months of heat I was used to!

I'm still looking forward to the snow again,
Cath

Whew
 

{{{{{{{{{{{{{{Foxy}}}}}}}}}}}}}} Thank you so much, darlin!

Yanno... it never occurred to me that Canada could have a drought? I honestly thought only places farther south could be drought-stricken. I learned something today! Glad you got the moisture but I hope you get Spring, also!

I have no resources on Angels for you but I do have a story. Once Gryph and I got together, he started sending healing and Allies to my family, mostly gryphons... but yanno, my family is all deeply Christian, so I asked him if the Allies would please appear to my family as angels, because I honestly didn't think they would be able to be effective unless they appeared as something my family members would recognize and trust.

The Alies have grumbled a lot about the "disguises", but they're pretty good at what they do and there's been some remarkable healing taking place for everyone in the family ever since they started helping.

Then Gryph started coming under attack again last week--it happens when he's stretched too thin--and so I asked my mom to put him on her prayer line. "Oh!" she said, "we've got to get some angels over there for protection!!"

When he got home, I relayed the message... *tilts head, curious* and asked if the angels had to disguise themselves as gryphons for him. He laughed pretty hard. :cheesy:

For me, I usually ask angels for help but I haven't ever traveled with them; when I talk to them--usually Michael or Raphael--I need them to be on a human scale.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I looked up Raziel. His name means "Secrets of God." The God in question is of course El, but hey, I'm being picky, lol... I suppose that I like knowing the angels predate the religion of the Hebrews. Anyway I mention this because what I found (in an admittedly cursory search) is that Raziel doesn't show up in the lists of angels until the Middle Ages, and he is consistently associated with magic.

{{{{{{{{{{{{{Foxy}}}}}}}}}}}}} Hi darlin!! How are you this fine weekend? Busy, I'll bet!

Do your politicians do that "no such thing as global warming" stupidity also? I thought that curse was special to the US. *snort* Ohhhh yeah, let's just ignore 50 years of climate science, and when the predictions start coming true let's just say it was a coincidence... sheesh, politicians! :eyebrow:

That's very interesting about Raziel. Oddly enough, I almost typed Azriel... Angel of Death... I speak in my mind as I type and I really did say to myself "Azriel".... caught it just before I typed it. The meaning of Azriel is "God is my help" which is a pretty interesting name for the Angel of Death, lol.... the name is more commonly spelled Azrael, and can also be translated as "whom God helps". I would presume we would say "the one whom God helps".

I did find a reference to Raziel as the Angel of Death, but only on a page about Raziel; a search on "angel of death" didn't pop his name up at all, and he didn't come up on the Azrael Wikipedia page either.

hey, look what I found!
 

Wow, this is a great article on Feminist Witchcraft, well researched and well put together! You might enjoy it!

http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=nlxx&c=words&id=13973

You also might enjoy the rest of the articles on WitchVox.

http://www.witchvox.com/index_mov.html

Bit - Reading your posts a bit (sorry for pun). One of the few things I miss from days in the East are fireflies. Two years ago in late June, when I was back in the area I grew up in I saw them again for the first time in many, many years. I wonder why you don't see them West of the Rockies.

Ha! I like the pun. :cheesy:

I wondered that about fireflies too. The only thing I can think its that it's the Rockies themselves; they're a divide between so many species which only exist on one side or the other. Maybe the winters are too severe through the range to allow fireflies to spread?

Aww heck, so much for that theory; Gryph tells me there were fireflies in the mountains of California when he was a kid.

Well, maybe they're really sensitive to pesticides? I know in Phoenix (all through the metro area) pesticides have been routinely and, imo, indiscriminately sprayed for decades; maybe other cities have done so, also?