Thank you, Mr. Swift

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I really can’t abide anyone who claims to be a christian. This goes double for “catholics,” “Presbyterians” or anyone whose religion takes more than 6 letters to spell (or two syllables). Mostly this is because I grew up in the NorthEast (US) which, along with bureaucrats and homosexuals, has a disproportionately high number of smug catholics who seem to regard contemplating a bloody man as an act of religious piety (come to think of it, these three things frequently overlap) . . .  I have come to the conclusion that christians are evil, not because they have a hard time doing as much good in the world as they seem to think others should do, but because they have such appalling taste. I mean, take care of the poor, promote abstinence, and go to church on Sundays. But do you have to do it while wearing tweed jackets, frumpy dresses, and hats that belong to an age almost half a century ago?

I’m making a point here. The above is a re-write of the below paragraph with one word (and its associations) changed. It would have been even more pointed had I used African-American instead of ‘christian,’ wouldn’t it?

“I really can’t abide anyone who claims to be a pagan. This goes double for “witches”, “wiccans” or anyone who spells “magic” with a “k”. Mostly this is because I grew up in Canberra which, along with public servants and lesbians, has a disproportionately high number of smug hippies who seem to regard recycling as an act of religious piety (come to think of it, the three things frequently overlap)… I have come to the conclusion that pagans are evil — not because they get in touch with the devil or warp the minds of the young or are responsible for more bad heavy metal art than anyone else, but because they have such appalling taste. I mean, sure, get in touch with the Great Spirit, run through the woods and kill a goat. But do you have to do it while wearing crushed velvet harem pants, Robin Hood shoes, pentagram jewelery and a purple satin cape?”

From: “Bring back the witch hunt” by Brendan Shanahan, printed in Australia’s Daily Telegraph, March 2, 2007. http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,21308511-5001031,00.html

(My thanks to The Wild Hunt blog for pointing this out.)

Toronto Pagan Conference

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What a blast! This is a great conference – with a clear emphasis on education. The people are wonderful, warm and welcoming; the topics intriguing; the setting perfect

That’s it in a nutshell. Want to know more? Read on.

There was a solid program on Friday – which I missed (but never again!), including a presentations on conflict resolution from Judy Harrow, building community from Jim Findley and Ethical Withcraft from Deirdre Norman. Absolutely the kinds of topics I would have enjoyed. I heard only good things about Harrow’s talk – apparently it drew a good-sized crowd who felt they learned a lot from her. (I don’t mention the other two becuase I didn’t hear anything, not to imply that they weren’t good.)

I also missed Deo’s talk (The Elemental Square of Opposition) at 9am on Saturday. (Mostly because I was trying to track down the status of my wayward baggage and frantically attempting to recreate my talk scheduled for 10:30. Turns out my talk was actually at 11:30, so I had time to hear the end of Andy Bigger’s talk on alternative approaches to ritual. I thought it was going to discuss ways of doing ritual – either structurally or mechanically – than what is common to much of Paganism. It turned out to be a lecture on the historical roots of ritual – and how what was once non-mainstream became codified. Interesting concepts

My talk went well, despite a lack of sleep a mild fever and a voice that occasionally went away. I drank about a gallon of water and pretty much blew through the three Cs of negative group dynamics – Cohesion, Conflict and Continuity. Yep, 3+ chapters of my book in about an hour. Whew! The group was a little slow to start, but we ended up getting some great questions discussed and I really enjoyed myself. (There were about 20 people there, a good crowd for such a small ‘con).

Afterwards, I went to lunch and ended up sharing a table with two participants. Psych from Spiral Nature (who came to my Cyber Paganism talk last year) and Liana (my apologies if I misspell your name – that’s what it sounded like and I never saw your badge to double check!). Amy Taylor, the programming coordinator joined us and we had a great time talking about the Con and how it’s grown over the three years it has been in existence.

Somehow, I’ve ended up committing to speak again next year—this time on the topic of Pagan Clergy (the next book I want to write, quite frankly). Can we have a clergy without physical structures, like churches? If so, what role would they fulfill? I’m looking forward to noodling about it and having an informed dialogue with such an interesting community.

I then joined a panel with Helmut, Pamela Fletcher and Amanda Hyde. Since Helmut is a blacksmith by trade, he travels throughout Canada and has a lot of contact with many different Pagan communities. Over this last year he was struck by how many witches he was meeting had no idea there was a larger community available to them. I was there because of my perspective as a witch who practices exclusively online, Pamela is a co-founder of TPC and a long time organizer of Kaleidescope (now in its 18th year), Amanda is the organizer of Hamilton PPD. All of us have a lot of experience with reaching out to our community, and beyond.

Some of the questions raised were: are we truly reaching out? If so, is it far enough? Is it possible we are worried about reaching people who don’t really want to be found (related to that comes the question: aren’t we a religion of self responsibility and Seekers? Shouldn’t others seek us, rather than being sought?)  Once woman brought up the fact that we used to go to bookstores to find out about what is going on, but the bookstores have closed down. I pointed out that what we are re-creating in cyberspace are the gatherings we had/have/want to have in physical life.

It was a good discussion – I’ll be interested to see what, if any, decisions arise from it.

Next year, I will plan to take more time off from work so that I can attend all three days. It’s a great ‘con in so many ways. As a presenter, I felt taken care of – they give us candles and incense as gifts. This is the first, and only, group that has ever – and I mean EVER – thanked me for presenting. The schedule is completed and posted almost a month beforehand, and it is not changed except for emergencies. The con, in its third year mind you, is not only breaking even, its paying off the debt from previous years.

Organized. Interesting. Educational. Fun. This is how I would describe TPC in a nutshell.

Oh! I almost forgot – the presentations are recorded onto a CD available for purchase. More than 25 lectures will be available after March 15th for $20 (Canadian, I think). Its one of the ways TPC raises money for the Con each year. I strongly recommend it (I know I’ll be buying one because I want to hear Harrow, Daniel Girard’s Building Community, and Michelle Belanger’s lecture on Dream Walking.)

Traveling

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I made it to Toronto yesterday — but my luggage apparent’y remained behind in Chicago. It was a tight connection to the last plane out, and I knew it was a 50/50 chance . . . and I lost.

The bad news is that they ‘can’t find’ my luggage, and in one hour I’m going to be presenting here at the Toronto Pagan Conference. My key talk, Magickal Group Dynamics, the one with a ton of handouts and detailed notes for me to follow so I get as much information as possible into a single hour. In my luggage are those handouts, business cards, and — most importantly — copies of my book. I was going to give one to Deo and another to Judy Harrow. Now, I have nothing.

Not even a toothbrush (which is mightily disgusting, let me tell you). I’m ignoring the ratty hair (thank goodness it isn’t long enough to mat, yet) and the slightly droopy clothes. This is because I was smart enough to wash my socks and ‘dainties’ in the sink last night and draped them over the heater. So, underneath, I am actually clean and comfy.

Sadly, I am running a fever and the head cold has not abated. I’d deal if my luggage were here, but its too much and I just want to go home.

Enough self-pity. I’ll post a real commentary about TPC after my talks.

It’s Here!

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My author’s copies of Magickal Connections arrived today — what a sweet surprise! Truly perfect timing, too, since I can take them with me to Toronto this weekend!

It really looks good — and J. likes the Dedication. 🙂

Secrets Revealed

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J. turns 35 in May, and that is a milestone birthday (in my view). So I decided to give him his dream vacation. Unbeknownst to him, in early December I purchased airplane tickets, a hotel room, and center-theatre 8th row seats for Mary Poppins . . . in London.

Since then I’ve been a mistress of mis-direction and outright lies.

Oh, I laid a clever path. In January I “confessed” that I was going to take him on a trip for his birthday — to DC. That covered the need for a week’s worth of packing, taking time from work, and prevented him from making any other plans during that time.  I’ve held simultaneous conversations with his parents, in one email telling them how nice it would be if they joined us in DC; in another, telling them the true plans for the trip. We talked about seeing the symphony and going out of town to visit various Civil War sites.

I was a clever girl.

But I can’t keep a secret. Lying is intrinsically foreign to my nature. Last night over dinner, I broke. I just couldn’t keep it in, and he spotted the glow. He guessed I was keeping a secret, and he even let me off the hook to tell him what it was. But the words just popped out before I could dissemble or prevaricate.

“Would you mind if we didn’t go to DC for your birthday?”

“Of course not. We’d have to tell my parents.”

“They already know. Because you’ll be spending that week in London. I hope that is ok?”

He just looked at me. For a long moment I almost started to worry that I’d done this wrong. That somehow I had really misunderstood. “I’ve gone too far” I thought.

His smile was what I needed to see right then, and I got it. He was, he told me later, really sorry he’d made me worry, but I’d just given him his dream and he couldn’t quite believe it.

It was a good thing we were finished with dinner because he wanted to get right home (our other plans were no longer interesting). He had planning to do!

And I am downright smug. Oh, I wish I could have held to my plan to keep it a secret for another 2 months, until we got to the airport to pick up the rental car and instead went to the international terminal. That would have been a perfect surprise, and a fantastic story.

But this way he gets to plan and dream and revel in the happiness for a few extra months.

I win. 🙂

Muy Thai Stories

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J. really enjoys Muy Thai. It turns out that he really wants to get into the sparring side of the sport (I’m more interested in the physical conditioning.) That happens in the invite-only Friday night class. I’m proud to say that he’s improved so much over this last year he was invited to go.

Before I go further, I want to give you a glimpse of our instructor, JS. JS is in his mid 30s and incredibly fit. He is strong, fast and a superb instructor. When he works out with you, he is holding back anywhere from 90 to 50 percent, depending on your skill, strength, and readiness. At my best, I could take about 50% from him (and that was a lot.)

So, sparring with JS is a serious affair — it requires a mouthguard, cup, and head gear. It also involves getting hit, deliberately, so you come to understand that you can get hurt and still keep going. J had a breakthrough about it, in his words:

“So, I’m working out with JS and we’re doing jabs and covers. I stopped and said “JS, I want to say something, and I want to be very careful, and clear, about how I put this. I really want to do the Friday class, but I think I need to get hit first. By you, rather than a stranger.

JS looks at him a moment, and replies: “Let me get this straight. Are you asking me to ‘go off’ on you?”

“God no! Just, ummm, get me used to getting hit.”

(JS going off on J is like a Rottweiler attacking a Boxer.)

Ok, another story to amuse:

Last week, J was feeling pretty tired in class, so he was paired with a grandmother, M. Yes, I’m serious, she is a grandmother. But M is also a fitness trainer in superb condition. She’s new to Muy Thai and so isn’t used to getting kicked and punched. They were doing high covers and J was being careful to connect, but not too hard. So M says, “you can hit me harder, I can take it.” J steels himself and hits her harder — enough so that her head kind of wobbles back and forth and she’s a touch dazed. “That’s perfect,” M says.

“I’m going to hell” J thinks, “I’m hitting a grandmother.”

DM thoughts

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Today I re-arranged my office. Since we moved in, my desk has been in the SouthWest corner, monitor (and therefore me) facing east. Now my desk is in the NorthWest corner, but rotated so now I face South.

At tonights Dark Moon ritual, the energy shift was palpable. I barely called a circle when it started to pulse through me, and my HP (the leader for tonight) remarked that it was incredible how powerful tonight’s energy was.

It’s never matter which direction I face — the energy always felt the same. Is it a shift in my being? My perspective? Working so consistently in one space — and that space OWNED by me (and therefore intimate on a primal level). Its tough to explore, I really hate moving my office around, and there are few configurations I can employ. Besides, this direction feels very good — why change?

 I think I’m quite pleased with this discovery.

Spamming the Blog

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Did you know that blogs get spam? That is, the authors get spammed. I guess the idea is that lazy bloggers will automatically approve all comments to their posts and therefore provide free advertising for everything from politics (anti Bush!) to sex-related ads, gambling sites, and other such trash.

Sometimes the comments are hilarious. I’ve had this one in my ‘defer’ pile for a months or so now:

Pay Day Loans | pocjw@lycos.com | ontimepaydayloan.com | IP: 222.112.249.128

The Irish also worked on the railroads in the same time frame and have their own stories of being the sacrificial lambs to set the day before pay day, Pay Day Loans (site deleted)

Historical? sort of. Accurate? Maybe. Amusing? Definitely.

I guess this one hits a nerve because I am Irish (primarily, I’m really a Euro-Mutt, but that’s another post), and my grandfather made quite a nice living on the railroad. Not, as this post implies, as someone who laid tracks but as a conductor and manager. (That’s the ‘lace curtain’ side of the family.)

So, thanks for trying to point out the plight of my ancestors getting screwed, in a post advertising a new way to get screwed. (In Washington state there is currently a debate — an angry debate — about whether to pass a law limiting the interest charged for so-called ‘payday loans’ to 63%. Yes, sixty-three percent.)

Bright Imbolc Blessings!

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We had a lovely, lovely, lovely ritual last night. A whole new text, only loosely based on previous years, was ours to manifest. It came out great. (It is a bit tricky for me to say things like this, as I am the primary ritual writer for JaguarMoon.)

We’ve been unhappy with our circle casting for a number of years. For one thing, the words are lifted right from Silver RavenWolf and Gypsy (which I only discovered a couple of years ago.) For another: they refer to a direction/element/color system we don’t actually follow.

Black Spirits and White/ Red Spirits and Gray/ Hearken to the tune I say . . . East is red for the break of day/ South is white for noon’s tide of power/ in the West is twilight gray/ North is black for the place of power

That was the original. Like I said, we don’t follow that color system for the directions. We like the feel, and the rhyme, but not the substance.

But I don’t write well when the Muse is not present, and a new circle casting just didn’t come to me. (We’ve tried a few alternates over this year, but they were all pretty clunky.) Then, about two weeks ago, Inspiration came and the words just flowed.

We are *much* happier with the new text and will be incorporating them into future rituals.

While I was re-writing that section, I was nagged to take a look t the body of the rite. Sure enough, changes were needed there as well. The original had an elaborate dance and kiss — based on the Farrars’ ritual (see: A Witch’s Bible). Its ok, but as I was refelcting on it I realized that the whole ‘give me but one kiss’ and giggling dance betwee the Youth and the Maiden wasn’t really appropriate. Imbolc is the time of Lugh, the Young God. (Yes, it is also a celebration of Brigit, but this is the God’s time of year, why are we focusing so much on Her, not Him? He is young and glorious and the whole winter doldrums thing is getting Him down, just a bit. Ostara is the time of Their sacred marriage (just as Beltane is the time of Their loving and Litha is when the tide of power shifts to Her). So we basically took Her out of the ritual (She’s there, but not as an Aspect or Name) and focused on Lugh. On the practical side, we lit the sacred fires and cast or dreams into the fire to manifest in the coming year.

It was a good ritual — clean and cohesive. I’m looking forward to re-writing Ostara to bring it more inline with the idea of the Marriage.

Slave to the Galley

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The galley copy of my new book (Magickal Connections) arrived on Wednesday and its been consuming me. I’m not supposed to make wholesale changes (too late!), or worry too much about proofing (because there is a a professional copy editor going over it). But I’m a Virgo and I can’t help but give it a close read.

So close, in fact, that I will blow my Monday 2/5 deadline for returning the mss. I hope they don’t care too much.

The book, overall, looks really good. I like the fonts they’ve chosen and the graphics have mostly come out fine. (I wish I’d known they were going to be b/w because I would have insited that the image for ‘freeform’ be changed. The point is sort of lost without the color.) The layout is good and my idea for ‘boxes’ seems to be working well on the page.

MC is real.