Today my tradition celebrates Beltane. Daystar would argue that today marks the beginning of summer. Since it hailed last night and was nearly freezing cold, I’m not sure I can agree. Dragonsgrail has returned from her most recent journey to the Underworld and I am looking forward to working with both of the them once again.
The seasons are changing, turning ever onward, and I feel the land’s energy awakening. It should be a long summer/growing season to make up for the late cold.
Back in January I wondered aloud if I was stuck in a rut or genuinely taking advantage of the season to be quiet.
Krishanna replied:
I think in general terms, many pagans are control freaks and try to control their lives rather than accepting life on life’s terms sometimes. There is a certain magic inherent in life, I think, and if you are too busy trying to manifest or force events to happen the way you want them to play out, you miss seeing the magic and miss allowing it to work. XO~ Krishanna
I’ve been ruminating on her words ever since.
In looking back at the patterns in my life, whenever I ‘forced’ a situation – however that came about – the end result was not great. It wasn’t always catastrophic, but I can’t think of a time when it went well. I am, I have come to discover, very impatient for the stuff I want to see happen. So I tend to try and hurry things along and that is when what I am doing becomes CONTROL, not manifestation.
I’m not talking about survival spellwork here, the spells many of us have done because the situation was desperate and we needed more than a little help to get back into balance, or at least a place of security. I’m talking about the conscious manifestation of dreams and desires – the things we want that depend a great deal on others. Like making a major purchase, or retiring from the work force.
Back in January I was feeling frustrated and trapped. In another few weeks I was in sunny Mexico, reading a trilogy of books a friend had just recommended to me. I used the energy from that to reach out to a career coach to talk about the negative messages I was hearing and how to deal with them. In talking with her I realized that the negative feedback wasn’t as awful as I had first thought, and my ego got a good stroking. (It needs it, now and again.) That led to more energy and confidence overall, and one day an idea for a new book came to me.
All I had to do was wait just a bit longer.
Another concept that came up at dinner is that of material possessions. There gets to be a point when owning more doesn’t make sense. I’ve always been a fan of quality over quantity, and function as more important than quality (sadly, but economically sometimes necessary). Even so, as I get older I’m finding that I want to own fewer possessions, and they all must be beautiful. And functional (of course). For now that still means that I need to buy some ‘important’ pieces of furniture – ‘real’ bookshelves for one, a better designed desk for another. I still think I have too much furniture in the bedroom . . . but I can’t eliminate it all at once.
If someone gave me several million dollars (yes, the old game) what would I do? I’d spend it on intellectual things, not material, for the most part. Yes, I’d move – but not to a ‘showpiece’ house, or even one substantially bigger than what I own now. I like the size of my house, I just want one that isn’t connected to another house, has a mudroom for the dog, and a ‘proper’ guestroom. That’s all. The biggest change? The new house will have a garden, serious land in fact. I don’t want to see a neighbor (and yet still have high-speed internet access). But that won’t cost me millions. The rest of the money will be invested, and I’ll go pursuing knowledge. I’d take courses because they sound interesting. Learn French *in* France; cooking in Italy, tour the Greek Islands on a private boat (not mine, but a locals) with long stops to see what each island offers. A private guided tour of the Louvre, the British Musuem, the Victoria Albert . . . there’s a year right there.
Big dream item: I’d open a pagan publishing house to produce unique books for the community. Authors would be paid $10k (or somesuch) flat fee, and the books would be printed on high-quality paper, with lots of illustrations. If I made my production costs back, I’d start paying the author a serious royalty. As a writer who’s never made money (on widely praised books) I feel the pain of not making money from one’s blood, sweat, and tears. If I were seriously wealthy, I wouldn’t care if this business never made money. It would be one of the ways I would service, and support, my community.
So, my dreams of wealth are all about improving myself, and making a contribution to my community. So typical of this six-time Virgo with all those planets in the first house.
What else can I do but salute and praise Him for adroitly managing my travel to Philadelphia. In the classic sense of combining practical and magickal practice, I made sure that I carried on my luggage and was open to positive events occurring. (This is my preferred mode of travel to a place; on the way home I often check my bags because I don’t care if it’s delayed.)
We left Seattle essentially on time (which is important considering how early — 6am – it was). The ride was smooth and comfortable, and we arrived about 30 minutes early thanks to a tail wind. I disembarked and headed straight for lunch at La Tapenade (I love their bacon and egg panini). Sandwich in hand, I looked for my flight (due to leave in about an hour) to Philadelphia. Oops! It’s delayed until 2pm. Good thing I have lunch, I thought. Across the way I saw a flight finishing boarding for PHL, and although I didn’t want to try and get onto it, I thought I’d wait until the agent was free to check to see if she could upgrade me (I always ask). She asked me if I wanted on board and I explained that I was ok to wait until my regular flight boarded in an hour. Unasked, she checked on my flight and informed me that it was now due to leave at 3pm – making me two hours late for my arrival.
Do you have room on this flight? I asked. Did you check your bags? She responded. No, I have them in hand. Here you go, she said, and handed me a ticket.
And so I boarded the plane, and we took off at about 1pm, arriving – 45 minutes before my scheduled arrival time – at 3:30pm. Amazing.
Hail Mercury!
is out — and I have two articles in it!
Of course, the whole book is great. But it’s my first Llewellyn sale and I’m thrilled. Oh — and the 2009 Herbal Almanac will have an article in it (actually, two) by me as well.
Although I am a reviewer, I have a lot of ‘occult’ books I haven’t read in a long time, or got because they looked interesting and never read at all. (If given a choice between a juicy fantasy novel I’ve read before and a dry nonfiction new book I will consistently choose to re-read.)
I’m hereby committing to reading every book, likely alphabetically (by author), that I do not immediately remember in great detail. Some of them may end up as reviews here (and cross-posted to Facing North, of course), others just as swift blurbs that capture my immediate thoughts. A few will likely be purged. (I hate purging, however. I always feel like there was something useful that I might want later.) It’s necessary to do, however, if only because I only have so much bookshelf space (45 linear feet) and it’s nearing full.
On the stack: Andrews’ 1st 3; Ruth Barrette’s Women’s Rites; Blair’s Goddesses for Every Season; Blamire’ Glamoury; Blawyn & Jones’ Chakra Workout; Bleakley’s Fruits of the Moon Tree; three ‘Idiot’s Guides’ (Wicca Craft, Spells and Spellcraft, and Hypnosis); Collins’ Building a Magickal Relationship; and Coyle’s Evolutionary Witchcraft.
Hmm. I wonder how long this will take.
What a great pagan convention! This group is very well organized, the people are magnificent, and the hotel is nice, too.
Despite a mind-numbingly long travel day on the 22nd, I managed to find my way to the Hilton Detroit (Troy) fairly easily, although driving in the dark without glasses was quite tough — and I got lost and had to call the hotel a couple of times for directions (both times I was within 2 miles — embarrassing!). My room was very nice — king bed, cozy down blanket, and a really good (fast!) room service brought me an excellent hamburger and a glass of wine.Sadly, I was so tired, I was wired, and it wasn’t until 2am before I could fall asleep.
My first presentation was at 11:30am (MGD) and I was more than a little worried because the funny (and excellent) Dorothy Morrison was speaking next door. Nonetheless, I had 20 people there to hear me talk about the 3 Cs that cause dissension within groups. It was an excellent crowd, too. Lots of examples supporting my points, good conversation and information sharing as well. The one disconcerting note was the laughter from Ms. Morrison’s talk next door, punctuating our more serious discussion oddly. One of the best talks I’ve given, ever. Most of them followed me to my book signing at 1pm and I basically sold out. I even need to mail one person a copy because I needed to keep one of each to display at my next two presentations.
I left the signing a bit early to take a water break and get set up for my Creating Community in Cyberspace talk. Sadly, only 6 people. (I keep telling organizers that people *say* they want to hear about this, but never actually go to my talks.) But they were interesting folks with a nice disparity of backgrounds and experiences. I almost ran over my allotted time, in fact. Nice to be able to do that with such a small group.
I was pleased to see a couple of offerings at 4pm, specifically “When Love is Gone: Divorce in the Pagan Community” and “Coven Craft,” the latter which is for those who are considering starting a coven, as well as the Candy Ritual for kids.
* * * A note on that: this is a VERY kid friendly convention. There were constant events and workshops for kids that I thought were well-thought-out, education, and interesting. Everytiem I saw children, they were in a group, with a tween or teen in attendance to wrangle them, and it was something the organizers CLEARLY had put thought into.
The classes I missed on Th and Fri (I couldn’t take *that* much time off of work) were: Morrison & Sellars’ Wingnuts, Bobbleheads, and Unconscious Magick; The Magickal Essenc: Oil Crafting; Sheya Temple (Shamanic self-Transformation); Interconnectedness: The Soul of the Web; Give a Reading, Get a Reading; and Jupiter/Saturn Dynamic Pattern.
Sunday morning I slept late and had to hurry to pack a bit and get to my 9:30 talk: Life Cycle of the Magickal Group. Only four people, but it looked like all the talks were small. I guess the Saturday night festivities were a tad too rambunctious! No matter. We had a great conversation and shared valuable insight with one another.
This is a con I will be attending next year — and I’ve told Daystar that it’s important enough that he attend that I will pay for his room. Yes, I’ve got money on the line. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
It’s Feb 22nd and I’m on my way to
I’m quite excited by this event – and also thrilled to see that they are already advertising (and requesting teaching submissions) for the 2009 event. Theme? The Devil (this year it’s Temperance). I am doing three presentations: Life Cycle, MGD, and Creating Community in Cyberspace. The last one is ‘new’ and I hope the presentation I put together goes over well. Of course, I also hope that people will attend. If it doesn’t go well, I’m going to have to stop doing these presentations – it’s too expensive, both financially and in terms of my time and energy.
I have high hopes, however.
Sadly, although I was accepted to speak (“Magickal Group Dynamics”) at Pantheacon this year, I will not be able to present. You see, they couldn’t give me an acceptable time slot although I was able to speak at any time slot on Sunday or Monday, except 9am. Why not 9am? Simply because the first flight out of Seattle into San Jose arrives at 8:50am. So if there are NO delays (unlikely, given that it is winter, and Mercury is retrograde) I would at least be late by about 15 minutes to my own presentation. Why not stay over the night before? Because I can barely afford the $200 for the flight, but adding another $200 for a room and dinner is beyond my means.
I’m pretty sad about it — I like PCon, and there are a number of people I enjoying hanging out with who are going to be there, not to mention bunches of my fellow writers. But I could only ask for a reasonable accommodation and apparently it couldn’t be granted.
from: http://www.usconstitution.net/dream.html
“I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.
Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.
But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.
In a sense we have come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked “insufficient funds.” But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check — a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children.
It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.
But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.
We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. They have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.
As we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, “When will you be satisfied?” We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied, as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro’s basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating “For Whites Only”. We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.
Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.
I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.”
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.
This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
This will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with a new meaning, “My country, ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim’s pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.”
And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!
Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!
Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!
But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”
For a particularly stirring moment, watch it: http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm
Thank you, Dr. King, for providing us with a succinct, stirring reason to keep hope alive.