Each year at my birthday, I set aside time to review my accomplishments of the past year and set goals for the coming year. Then I give myself until the end of the calendar year to make adjustments to my goals. I’ve been writing this post for about two months now, time to publish it . . . (I can, occasionally, get so caught up in the organizing /to do list making that I never actualyl get to the projects themselves.)
Sometimes, when I’m asked to write a piece, I find myself doing something completely different. Today, this is what resulted.
Comments welcomed (and encouraged!)
Its our last update for the year, and its a particularly good one.
We have three articles, two on Creative Visualization by the foremost expert, Shakti Gawain and “The Search for Peace” by new author Isha.
We have a review of Llewellyn’s 2009 Herbal Almanac (which includes an article by me on “Four Seasons of Crafts”), Faith and Magick in the Armed Forces, Magic When You Need It, a couple of children’s books (Watchers and Rabbit’s Song), the forthcoming Green Egg Omelette, new fiction (Closing Arguments) and Ellen Dugan’s controversial How To Enchant a Man.
18 reviews in all, making a total of 120 reviews posted this year.
I am generally an optimist — I look for the positive in people and events around me and tend to stay away from making dire predictions. Its part and parcel of being a witch, I know how my thoughts can influence outcomes.
UPDATE: Although the news media is announcing that Prop 8 passed, apparently as many as 2 million more votes (absentee) still need to be counted.
This is an oportunity to make magic. If you believe in human rights, please send a little energy (or a lot, as you see fit) to work some juju and see this rude, nasty, discriminatory proposition rejected. Every vote counts, and magic works best behind the scene.
Pass this along. Spread the word. Send the energy.
Apparently California has approved the ban on same-sex marriages. To paraphrase what one person said, so eloquently: The rights of farm animals were protected and the rights of humans rejected.
Maybe its time we came at this from the other direction? Maybe its time to make marriage the truly religious sacrament that the supporters of male-female only people make it out to be. Eliminate all benefits: visitation rigths, taxes, automatically benefiting from the partner’s death . . . all of it.
That would go a long way towards healing the discrimination. Because it is discrimination. And it stinks.
Samhain Litany of the Dead
October 29, 2008 CE
Dagonet Dewr, Compiler – dagonet.dewr@gmail.com
Celayne, Co-Compiler
Feel free to reproduce with attribution
As always, this is done by research and accumulating information throughout the year. I may have — no, I’ll guarantee I did — miss people, especially in the Pagan section. For that, I apologize in advance.
I’ve disliked my tradition’s Samhain ritual for years. YEARS. Its got a vaguely condescending tone to large swathes of it, it doesn’t show so much as TELL, there are bits that don’t align with anything else in our mythos, and — worst of all — it is incredibly wordy. (Less of a problem in person, but online — deadly!)
Since last year, yes a full year, I’ve had it on my ‘to do’ list to rewwrite the Samhain ritual. Let me just point out that I am not a procrastinator. But I am at the mercy of the Muse and although I tried to tackle this task a number of times throughout the year, I failed. I had conversations with various people. I researched alternate styles and methodlogies and mythos’.
I failed.
Today, at 1:30 — a mere five hours before we were to gather in preparation for the ritual — the Muse came to visit. Two hours later I had a completely redone ritual. Completely.
And you know what? Its damn good. (and I don’t say that lightly.)
Many blessings, Muse. Many thanks.
The Johari Window was invented by Joseph Luft and Harrington Ingham in the 1950s as a model for mapping personality awareness. By describing yourself from a fixed list of adjectives, then asking your friends and colleagues to describe you from the same list, a grid of overlap and difference can be built up.
Which words do you associate with me? http://kevan.org/johari?name=Lisa+Mc+Sherry
I’m interested for a variety of reasons — and you know I can take criticism. I promise I’ll share the results (presuming more than five people reply 🙂 otherwise it isn’t terribly valid.)
The Season of the Witch – what on earth does that mean? Traditionally, Samhain (pronounced SOW-in or SOW-aine and which non-Pagans call Halloween) is the celebration of the end of the old year and the beginning of the new. The word comes to us from Old Irish word for the month beginning on November 1. The feast celebrates the end of the harvest – a huge effort for agricultural communities as they rushed to gather the grain and fruit (August and September) and then slaughter the meat needed for the harsh winter months (October). Once that was over, they could rest and throw a party.
Great news! The Pop Culture Grimoire is out! The first article in this anthology is by me, a ‘ritual’ created by music. I believe its a new way of looking at magick and I’m quite pleased about it.
Check it out at Amazon.com.