Thursday, November 12, 2009

Norse Gods & Heroes

Heilsa! Welcome to Abbott’s Inn’s Nordic Tradition 8! We’re glad you could make it! Do check out the other groups on 7 other networks! What do you know about Norse tradition? Do you have a favorite Norse God or Goddess? My favorites are the Vanir, rather than the Aesir. The Vanir are the old Gods and Goddesses, while the Aesir are the newer deities, and the ones most people think of when they think of Norse or Germanic deities: Odin, sometimes spelled Odhinn, Frigga, Loki, Thor, etc. The Vanir are more the agricultural deities Freyja, Frey or Freyr, etc. I like Freyja because She is the Goddess of love, fertility, prosperity, cats, and Witchcraft. Freyja is one of Stephen’s favorites, too. For Freyr, my favorite Norse god, he was a symbol of the young god sacrificing himself for the good of humankind. He was also a sea god, very appropriate for a country full of Vikings. I got this formation out of the book Mythology: A Visual Encyclopedia.. If you can get this from your friendly local bookstore or Amazon.com do it.. It is a great book. Gertrude Jobes’ Dictionary of Mythology, Folklore, and Symbols says that during a war between the Aesir and Vanir, Freyr was taken hostage, and later counted as one of the aesir. He was brother and husband of Freyja as well as Gerd. He brought the rain and fertility for the crops. He was the son of Njord and Nerthus or Skadi. He, along with his sister/wife Freyja was god of prosperity and peace. In his youth he was lord of Alfheim, the home of the Alfar or the elves. Stephen’s favorite Norse God is daddy Odin the AllFather. I think he’s Stephen’s favorite because he has a trickster aspect.

If you ever have a chance to acquire the Hammer of Thor game do so. It is a wonderful way to learn about Norse mythology. You play the game by putting together a party of gods, goddesses, human heroes both male and female, and you adventure on the world tree Yggdrasil. One of the things you try to do is gain magickal treasures. The combat system is entertaining balanced and enthralling. You can’t see how strong you are until you actually begin to fight. In the game you usually don’t fight to the death, but in reality, the Norse Gods and heroes did, to do otherwise is cowardice. We would like to find out from you if you know of any other games about Norse mythology that you can turn us onto. Besides Hammer of Thor, another Norse game is Swords and Shields by Milton Bradley. All Stephen has left of his copy is the board. If you know where he can obtain another copy, please post here. The object of the game is pretty simple: you have 2 sides: one side is swords, about 10 in number the other is an army of 10 shields. In the center is the Viking king. The goal of the game is to surround the Viking king with your army. At the same time, attempting to eliminate as many of the other side as possible without giving up your position of strength around the king. A variant of swords and shields was played in the mead halls of ancient Viking warrior kings. Stephen really hopes you can help him find a new copy of this game. If you can help us find this game, Stephen and I will play the games and give a blow by blow description here.

Another way to embrace the old Norse Gods and Goddesses is the runes. I have three sets of runes. My first set are the Ralph Blum Runes, which I don’t recommend. Blum is a Christian, and the Christians have no business playing around with the Runes. My second set I made myself out of salt dough after reading Leaves of Yggdrasil, which really brought the Runes home to me. My third set is a set of semi-precious stones with the runes engraved on them in gold. Of the three, my favorite set is the third set. I also have the instructions for crocheting runes. Many of the Runes are directly related to the old Norse Gods and Goddesses. For example, in the Elder Futhark, you have Freyja’s Aett, Hagal’s Aett, and Tiu’s Aett. Runes play a very important role in mythology. I have a theory. The reason that Odin had to go through the torture of hanging on Yggdrasil for 9 nights and days, losing his eye, and getting the lance in his side, was that the Runes originally were the province of women; that is, Nerthus and Her priestesses. Stephen’s theory is that Odin sacrificed himself to himself in the dead of winter, the God of Norse shamanism the blood from the lance wound dripped into the snow, solidified into the Runes, thus the Runes being a living force. My theory is that the original blood in the Runes was menstrual blood. My theory goes along with that of Donald Tyson, whose Runes are red. Odin being the God of Norse shamanism links us up with Adventures in Shamanism. Runes were used in many different ways. Runes were used by Norse warriors carved on their weapons in invocations to deities, spells (bindrunes, etc.), thus making the weapon a magickal one.

Bind-Runes are a combination of two or more Runes to form a spell. I sometimes will “read” a house that is built in the English half-timber style, since the visible beams form Runes. There is a whole magickal system based upon bind-runes. When shaking the Runes in a reading, whatever Runes land on each other can be made into bind-runes. Besides being used as spells and to inscribe the warriors’ names on their weapons, they were used as a lettering/writing system. Runes were also used to inscribe monuments and tombstones with the dead person’s name, exploits, or maybe just a reminiscence. They also inscribed their dragon-ships when they went a-viking. Viking is a verb, by the way, not a noun. By the way, this is slightly off-topic, but Google either “Viking kittens” or “The Immigrant Song” by Led Zeppelin. You will get a real visual treat, but make sure you have no liquids in your mouth, or your keyboard will get slattered with your beverage. The cornerstone of Norse magick is the Runes. Besides bind-Runes, there is another technique where you become the Rune yourself. They’re called stadhagaldr, which are mudras and body positions in the shapes of the Runes. It’s a whole system based upon forming Runes with the body. It’s basically a Germanic version of the Hindu mudras. What do you folks think? This is the time for you to do some research on the relationship between the stadhagaldr of the Runes and the Hindu mudras of Sanskrit. We could say a lot more about the Runes, but will save it for Abbott’s Inn Nordic Rune Corner 8, which is the next group we will do on Facebook. Norse Shamans embroider Runes on their shaman coats. Prudence Priest has Runes embroidered on her priestess robe.

The holidays are coming up, and with them many treats. I know of many Scandinavian treats, which are often done this time of year. One example is Fattigman, which is like a sweetened fried noodle. I featured it in my story, which came out in December ’06, Yule Yelps [The Fattigman Files]. It was about a small town in Minnesota, which was settled about a century ago by Norwegian Asatruar. The story has both werewolves and The Wild Hunt. My pen name is Rita Trevalyan. Google it. If you can find it for sale anywhere, please buy a download. I think you’ll like it. It’s a romance and a very dark look at the holidays. My subconscious was allowed to go hog-wild with this story, and dark is how I see Yule, even though it supposedly is the birth of light. This is the dark time of year. Enough of the personal stuff.
The skalds were the Norse bards, and sang the sagas, which are the main way that we know about the Norse deities, and heroes. One hero is Siegfried or Sigfrith, of the Volsunga Saga (Which is what the Ring Cycle of Richard Wagner was based upon). Brunhilde is another Norse Hero(ine). Beowulf is another hero like this. These are all we can think of. Why don’t you guys do research on Norse heroes and get back to us?
I just Googled “Norse Heroes” and hit the motherlode. There was a whole alphabetical list of them. One hero was Arngrim. Here is a contest for you. Fabricate a Norse hero, and tell us all about him. Stephen came up with Olaf SkullCrusher. See if you can do better. The winner gets a free reading with either the Norse or Viking Tarot Decks.

Agilaz (in Anglo-Saxon Egil) fought off a While bunch of enemies while in his fortress. He was a skilled archer. He and his wife Aliruna were besieged in their keep until Egil fought off their attackers armed only with his bow and arrows.

Bjorn Ironside carried on many successful raids in France in the 9th century. See what you can come up with. I got these from the motherlode mentioned in the large paragraph above.

Dell has really messed up Stephen’s work. Don’t buy Dell. Also, if you’ve been watching those Blue Hippo commercials, don’t do business with Blue Hippo either. The CEO is a cokehead and a ripoff artist. His computers, if you even get one from him, suck out loud. If possible, they’re even worse than Dell. We mention these things because we care about our Pagan community, and we want people to know what is going on both with us and in the world at large. Doc said that 1 in 6 Dell computers (of both kinds) don’t work right out of the box. Stephen must’ve gotten that one in six because he’s had nothing but trouble with it from day one about 17 months ago. We were working on a new blog for Keen and lost it because Bailee sat on the keyboard, and made it crash twice.

Yahoo has been revamped completely. I got the new Yahoo toolbar, and added a bunch of our stuff to it. The new Yahoo has retooled both the toolbar and the home page, where you can add your own stuff. Also Yahoo has improved its messenger in the video talk aspect. We are still dissatisfied with Yahoo’s draconian policy of deleting certain groups after just 6 weeks of inactivity. It would be ok if they were even handed about it, but they seem to only delete certain groups, while others they leave alone. For this reason, and because of their draconian categorization process, we will not be putting any more groups on Yahoo. Google has also revamped their toolbar and googletalk.

Do not do business with IMVU. The new management of IMVU is a bunch of right-wing Republican Puritans who are utterly anti-Pagan, anti-women and anti-sex. I had my bank disallow IMVU from deducting money from my checking account. Fully 40% of the people on IMVU are Pagans. If all the Pagans left, we might not put the network out of business, but we could definitely make it feel the pinch. I think that even the Pag-Symps would leave after the Pagans left, especially the ones interested in cybersex. Charles, also Carey, the new CEO is a conservative Baptist, who has no business running a network like IMVU. In the name of “making the Internet safe for kids”, he and his henchmen are making IMVU no fun for anyone. I feel that having an age restricted section is protection enough for the little nippers, and that adults should have a section where they are totally free to do as they will. Stephen is furious, but I am indifferent. IMVU was nothing to me but an exercise in frustration that I spent way too much money and time on. I think it’s a waste of time and money, but Stephen lives most of his life on IMVU, and so is really bummed out by these developments. They have blocked out all the cool body enhancements and furniture Stephen got from Twinkle so they can’t be seen by anyone but him. IMVU is being investigated by: the FBI, Better Business Bureau, FCC, and FTC for its fraudulent and unethical business dealings. They have a file on IMVU the size of my 3rd exhubby, and he is big. He’s gotten even larger since we’ve split up. It makes me wonder why Doc had the heart attack, and not him. If you have any fraud complaints, contact the FBI Fraud division and the Better Business Bureau. .

I have just joined Stephen on KEEN. I am also doing readings outside of KEEN. I charge $15 for a fifteen minute reading. I got a webcam, and a mic/headset, so will be able to do readings on Yahoo and Windows Live as soon as they get hooked up. I am hunting for a publisher, since FireDrake’s Weyr unfortunately got closed down. Readings and classes are our currency. I am also helping Stephen promote our friend Walter Rhoads’ art, their art gallery Gallery 14 and Julie’s tax service. I’m doing everything to raise money except sex. I refuse to get involved in porn, and I don’t have a very sexy voice.

Stephen wants to thank all of you for calling him at (land-line) 916-455-2267 or
(cell) 916-612-2504 and ordering either a divination reading or a class for just $31.95. With webcam and voice on Yahoo IM, Windows Live Msgr, or Skype, it’s almost like being here. For the reading, you got to choose a deck, method, or tool from a vast array of decks/methods/tools. For the class, you got to choose from a myriad of topics in the vast area of magick. Some of you couldn’t decide between a reading and a class, and so for just $59.90 you knew you could have both.a reading and a class; how perfect is that? You can have a reading then in the class find out how he did it. Or you can have two classes, or two readings as long as they are on two separate and different topics/questions. And thank you too for using and spreading around his Zodiac referral number 1-800-280-8496. You told your friends, relatives, in-laws, neighbors, coworkers, colleagues, teachers, kids’ teachers, fellow parents in your PTA, bus drivers, beauticians, and anyone else we might have left out. If you know of any other categories I may have omitted , do tell me. We would like to have other sites where we can have our groups.

So basically what we want is some action from you people. We want your feedback. We know we can always count on Dylan to give feedback, but he’s a partner in this venture. How about the rest of you? This is supposed to be a cooperative effort here. For those of you who are on Red Light, Stephen is doing readings for the cost of 10 rays, and classes for 20 rays. Red Light is a network that is more liberal than IMVU has become, since that Charles guy took over.
Tegwedd ShadowDancer
Stephen Abbott
Inky
Bailee Beasley Beastly
Little Boy
Frikki & Frakki
Dr.Livingston I. Presume




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Sunday, November 8, 2009

The Romani People: Their Psi, Their Magick

One group who has trained its children in the use of the psychic sciences is the Rom, aka the Romani, known to most gaje as the Gypsies. For many centuries they were thought to have come from Egypt, hence the name “Gypsies”, short for Egyptians. Unfortunately, they mostly use their psi to see how they can relieve non-Rom of their cash and valuables, hence the term “gyp” as in “He gypped me.”, which is the old ethnocentric term for “he ripped me off.” They also tend to have and foster a fatalist view towards destiny and the future, which to them in engraved in stone, and cannot be altered. We who understand how quantum mechanics works know that the future is fluid, destiny is what you make it, and that an event changes merely by the act of being observed. Just the fact that you know what may be coming changes it, and if you don’t like what is coming, you can take steps to change it. But if you do like what is coming, it is your responsibility to take steps to see that it comes about. The origin of the Rom is as mysterious as they are themselves. It is thought that they left India sometime in the 9th century, which is about the time that the Muslims came to India, and started throwing their weight around, as Muslims often do. They have the same sense of entitlement that Christians do, which bugs the hell out of me. Anyway, the Romani people were pushed out of India, and slowly traveled west. They brought their skill at divining with paper cards with them. They had gotten the cards from the Chinese, and developed the art as a way of supporting themselves. In the meantime, during the Italian Renaissance, the game of Tarocchi was developed, and the cards were developed. The Rom switched from divining with the Chinese cards to divining with the Tarocchi cards (Tarot in French, which is where we get it from.

Back to the Romani, most people are so focused on 6 million Jews being killed in the concentration camps during the Third Reich that they fail to recognize that over a million and a half Romani perished in those camps. How do I know all this? Well I’ve read books on the topic, and I also looked it up online. The Rom have their own website, “The Padrin”. Raymond Buckland, the Witch who was responsible for bringing Gardnerian Wicca to the United States back in the ‘60s is part Rom, or Traveler, as they call them in the.British Isles. He has two decks out. One has the unfortunate but undoubtedly commercial title of “Gypsy Fortunetelling Kit. The deck is much like a normal deck of playing cards except that there are some cards added that depict the Romani experience. I don’t read with it much. But what I do find valuable is the accompanying book, because it told me how to use my crystal ball, which was a gift from my 3rd ex-hubby. You want a dimly lit room. I like to have the living room dark, but have light in the hall, or some other room in the house then have a candle burning on the table where I have the ball set up. I have a black velvet cloth to cover the table. The candle should be dark blue for psychism. I have a psychic portals incense that I burn on charcoal to put my mind in the right space. Then I take my glasses off, because I want a soft focus, and I gaze at the crystal ball. Buckland, or Uncle Raymond, as I like to call him, says that it will become foggy, but I have yet to witness that phenomenon. Mostly what happens is that I get an image in my mind. There is a saying which goes YMMV, Your Mileage May Vary. That goes in spades in Scrying. I am fortunate enough to own a crystal ball, but there are other things to scry into. You can scry into a bowl of water. Stephen 6580 favors the magick mirror. You remove the silver paint from the back of a mirror and paint it black. Let it dry thoroughly, and then wash the back with mugwort water. That is a solution which you make by boiling mugwort leaves in spring or purified water. Let it cool. Put it in a clean glass jar, and keep it in the dark until use. You can just pour your mugwort water over the mirror and gently pat dry with a clean cloth. Do not wipe as this will remove the herb’s virtue from the mirror. Let dry.

I mentioned before that Uncle Raymond has 2 decks out from Llewellyn. The other occupies a place of honor in my heart as one of my favorite Tarot decks of all time. In fact it’s one of the few that I have in a wooden box. It is the Romani Tarot, and it is a very powerful deck. The artwork is drop-dead-gorgeous, and the scenes are very evocative of scenes in Romani life. I don’t know whether it is still in print, as it came out in the early 2000’s, but check with either Amazon.com or Ebay. Also, Mind-n-Magick may have a copy in their store. But if you get a used one, check to make sure that you’re getting the deck as well as the book. I made the mistake of buying a used deck from Amazon, and their 3rd party seller neglected to send me the deck along with the book. I didn’t even care about the book. It was The Book of Doors, a quasi-Kemetic deck and book set. I wanted the deck. Naturally, I panned the seller soundly. Thus far he has not offered to make good on the botched order, so I’m going to make sure Amazon doesn’t use that seller again.

I’m offering a new service on KEEN. If you know that I have a certain deck, you can request that I read you with that deck. There is one exception to that offer. If you are getting a free 5 minute reading, you get read with whichever deck I happen to have on hand. For example, this week, I am featuring the Tarot of the Elves, but you can request the Romani Tarot, or the Morgan-Greer Tarot, or any of the other 400-some decks that I own. If you like, in future blogs, I can feature some of my decks and discuss their virtues and shortcomings. Please let me know if you’d like me to do that in future blogs.

Isaac has just finished having chemo and radiation. Please send him all your healing energy. And he needs money to pay for all of this, so buy his books directly from him. I’m currently reading his “Neo-Pagan Rites”. It’s the go-to book for those who want to plan public Pagan rituals, from ones with just a few in your living room to several hundred in a hall or at a park. He goes through what works and what doesn’t, and why. His book is for everyone from experienced ritualists to the novice just starting out. He begins, as he often does, with definitions. I’m lucky, in that my definitions pretty much agree with his. Of course, he being the master of definitions, he put into cogent words what I had been thinking for years, but hadn’t been able to spell out. Go to http://neopagan.net/ and you will find his books listed. His email is ibonewits@neopagan.net. I don’t know whether Phaedra is answering his emails, or whether Isaac is in any shape to answer your own, but go to the site, and see which book(s) you might like to buy. I realize that it says on the site to buy the books at your friendly local metaphysical shop, or at amazon.com, or b&n.com, but that is outdated. The more current word is that they need to move the inventory they have on hand, and Isaac needs the cash he can garner from selling the books directly, and donations, all the donations he can get. Remember that as my guru the Swami Beyondananda says “Does are better than stags because with a country full of stags, you have stag-nation, but with a country full of does, you have doe-nation.” But personally, I would prefer a country full of bucks. All the bucks you can send my way will be most appreciated.

If you have a question that calls for a date or time period, Stephen6580 is the go-to guy. He uses the Celtic Wheel of the year time system, and can pin point when something is supposed to happen to within a week, according to the cards that are drawn. Readings go for up to a year and a day. He is a great reader, and has taught me much about the Tarot in particular and divination in general. For a clairvoyant, you can’t do any better than Astro Wing 3323. Stephen has stated that I am a clairvoyant. He’s only half right. According to the KEEN rules and definitions, I’m what is known as a pseudo-clairvoyant. I can get vague images, but not names, either of people or locations. I taught myself remote-viewing. I can sit in the passenger seat of a carm and see where there may be clogs in the traffic ahead. With a finger exercise I do, I can at times clear it up by sending everyone on their way on alternative routes. If it is an accident, I clear out the rubber-neckers. That’s what slows traffic down with an accident, you know. It’s not the accident itself, it’s all the people trying to get a look at it as they drive by. Once the highway patrol get there, they clear the road pretty quickly. There wouldn’t be as many accidents if people would just pay attention to their driving and not follow the person in front of them so closely. Give yourself a good stopping distance between you and the vehicle in front of you. The California Uniform Vehicle Code decrees that you should allow at least one car length for each 10 mph that you are driving.

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Celtic Romance But Were Afraid to Ask

This group talks about some of the famous lovers in the Celtic tradition. Such names as Fand and Cuhulain, Emer and Cuhulain, Morgaine and Arthur, Guinevere and Arthur, Guinevere and Lancelot, Tristan and Isolde, Elaine and Lancelot, Igraine and Uther, Igraine and the Gorlois the Duke of Cornwall, Deirdre and Noaise, Merlin and Nimue, Merlin and Viviane and many others.

Nimue was great comfort to the knight Pellas when his lady courted and bedded Gawain. There were multiple relationships in Celtic romance. Melwas, lord of the Summerland, became love-struck with Guinevere when she rode out on Beltaine to greet the May. Arthur attended by his faithful companion Lancelot was willing to call out all out war to get her back. It is probable that Melwas treated his captive with respect and love.

Keep in mind, though, that this group is about all Celtic romance, not just the Arthurian romances. Also music plays a great role in Celtic romance. But it only stands to reason. Ever tried to seduce or romance someone without playing your favorite romantic music? It was much the same 1500 years ago or so. I have an audio cassette with music to seduce a man to. Now that I have a computer with a CD burner and Rhapsody, I’ll probably burn a CD with better music on it. Taliesin introduced his harp to people as “his lady”. It may have been a transformational device that turned human every so often. Dagda’s harp had eyes. Dagda and the Lady Boyne. There is also the theory that Bridgit was not his daughter but his wife.

The story of Noaise and Deirdre is typical of the Celtic romances in that they don’t end well. Deirdre, Noaise and his brothers escape to Scotland, where they live happily for many years, under the protection of the local king. Through trickery Deirdre’s husband the king Conchobar manages to get the four back in Ireland. Of course, Noaise and his brothers are killed, and in varying accounts of the story, Deirdre commits suicide or is kept prisoner by her husband.

And of course you all know the story of Tristan and Isolde, how they drank the love cup that was supposed to be shared by Isolde and Mark, her husband to be. That didn’t end well either. Celtic romances have a tendency of not ending well. I suppose that means that my relationship with Doc was a Celtic romance.

Cuhulain had many lovers. One was Fand. Another was Emer. Still another was Scathach. She was the one who ran the warriors’ school. Still another was Aife. Stephen says that Cuhulain was the most prolific and prodigious Celtic lover, I say it was Fion MacCool, who do you say it was? What about Brian Boru? I think Mary O’Connor would say Brian Boru. Mary O’Connor is an acquaintance of mine, member of St. Ita’s Renaissance Guild. Which woman in Celtic romance was the most prolific? Stephen says Queen Maeve. I thought it was Scathach. What woman would you say was the most prolific?

Cuhulain saw Emer across either the River Boyne, Shannon or some other river when he heard women’s voices. He marries her only after schooling in the martial arts (and perhaps as well the arts of love) by Scathach and her sister Aife. Forgall, Cuhulain’s father-in-law-to-be, hoped that the Amazonian Scathach would kill him, but instead Cuhulain has affairs with both women. Plainly Forgall did not do a charisma roll on Cuhulain before sending him to Scathach’s school, or he would have known the effect Cuhulain would have on these women. Cuhulain was like an ancient rock star, with women all over swooning over him. Even married women were no proof against his charms. Fand, the faery wife of Manannan mac Lir became his lover as well. We can only guess how Manannan mac Lir felt about it. I doubt that he was the kind of understanding husband who, realizing that he could not satisfy his wife, would move over and just let Cuhulain do his job. Stephen says that Cuhulain was an ancient Celtic stud-muffin. Cuhulain had a mad passionate affair with Fand while her husband was off doing something else, but Emer found out, and chastised him in front of her women. Conchobar had his Druid Cathbad brew up a forgetting potion for everyone involved to take so there wouldn’t be a war. In the Masons it is part of a Mason’s obligation that you do not screw around with your lodge brother’s wife. Apparently they didn’t have an agreement like that in Ulster. But according to Edain McCoy’s Celtic Myth & Magick, Manannan mac Lir had already left Fand before the affair with Cuhulain began. But Manannan, realizing that the relationship between humans and faeries would result in Faerie being destroyed, so he drew his mantle between the two, making them both forget the affair.

Cuhulain also had a relationship with Morrigu. Morrigu was the crone aspect of the Morrigan, also known as the three Babhs. This was a triple Goddess similar to the Norse Valkyries, with similar powers. She is there during his major battles. Ferdiad was Cuhulain’s only male lover. According to the Dictionary of Celtic Mythology, Ferdiad was Cuhulain’s boon companion. They may even.have shared female lovers. Ferdiad was beguiled by Queen Mabh who promised him her daughter if he would fight Cuhulain in her defense. The Morrigan tried to keep Cuhulain from fighting his last battle, by getting him to not eat dog. The washer at the ford fed him dog which he was under a geas not to eat. A geas is a compulsion to do something or not to do something. It’s like a taboo. Taboo is a Polynesian word for something which is forbidden. It’s a kind of magick spell. In my ebook, Aengus Og, the Celtic god of love, has a geas placed upon him by the Morrigan that he cannot find love for anyone else until he finds love for himself, and is placed in the middle of 21st century San Francisco. The title of the book is “Aengus’ Sweet Duet”. Google it. See if you can pick up a download.

Dell has really messed up Stephen’s work. It took him 5 hours to send out just one 5 free minutes message. He wanted to show me so I’d know how to do it when I accumulated some clients. .He has over 3000 clients so figure out how many hours it’ll take him to send out that many. Don’t buy Dell. Also, if you’ve been watching those Blue Hippo commercials, don’t do business with Blue Hippo either. The CEO is a cokehead and a ripoff artist. His computers, if you even get one from him, suck out loud. If possible, they’re even worse than Dell. We mention these things because we care about our Pagan community, and we want people to know what is going on both with us and in the world at large. Doc said that 1 in 6 Dell computers (of both kinds) don’t work right out of the box. Stephen must’ve gotten that one in six because he’s had nothing but trouble with it from day one about 15 months ago.

Yahoo has been revamped completely. I got the new Yahoo toolbar, and added a bunch of our stuff to it. The new Yahoo has retooled both the toolbar and the home page, where you can add your own stuff. Also Yahoo has improved its messenger in the video talk aspect. We are still dissatisfied with Yahoo’s draconian policy of deleting certain groups after just 6 weeks of inactivity. It would be ok if they were even handed about it, but they seem to only delete certain groups, while others they leave alone. For this reason, and because of their draconian categorization process, we will not be putting any more groups on Yahoo. Google has also revamped their toolbar and googletalk.

Do not do business with IMVU. The new management of IMVU is a bunch of right-wing Republican Puritans who are utterly anti-Pagan, anti-women and anti-sex. I had my bank disallow IMVU from deducting money from my checking account. Fully 40% of the people on IMVU are Pagans. If all the Pagans left, we might not put the network out of business, but we could definitely make it feel the pinch. I think that even the Pag-Symps would leave after the Pagans left, especially the ones interested in cybersex. Charles, the new CEO is a conservative Baptist, who has no business running a network like IMVU. In the name of “making the Internet safe for kids”, he and his henchmen are making IMVU no fun for anyone. I feel that having an age restricted section is protection enough for the little nippers, and that adults should have a section where they are totally free to do as they will. Stephen is furious, but I am indifferent. IMVU was nothing to me but an exercise in frustration that I spent way too much money and time on. I think it’s a waste of time and money, but Stephen lives most of his life on IMVU, and so is really bummed out by these developments. They have blocked out all the cool body enhancements and furniture Stephen got from Twinkle so they can’t be seen by anyone but him. IMVU is being investigated by: the FBI, Better Business Bureau, FCC, and FTC for its fraudulent and unethical business dealings. They have a file on IMVU the size of my 3rd exhubby, and he is big. He’s gotten even larger since we’ve split up. It makes me wonder why Doc had the heart attack, and not him. If you have any fraud complaints, contact the FBI Fraud division and the Better Business Bureau. .

I have just joined Stephen on KEEN. I am also doing readings outside of KEEN. I charge $15 for a fifteen minute reading. I got a webcam, and a mic/headset, so will be able to do readings on Yahoo and Windows Live as soon as they get hooked up. I am hunting for a publisher, since FireDrake’s Weyr unfortunately got closed down. I also need to get on Skype. If you can talk me through getting on Skype you get a reading. Readings and classes are our currency. I am also helping Stephen promote our friend Walter Rhoads’ art, their art gallery Gallery 14 and Julie’s tax service. I’m doing everything to raise money except sex. I refuse to get involved in porn, and I don’t have a very sexy voice.

In other news, Isaac Bonewits has started chemo and radiation. He has a semi-permanent IV shunt in his arm so he can get the chemo at home, since it requires a full work week of treatment once a month, and this will keep him from having to be in the hospital every month. I should tell either Isaac or Phaedra about aloe vera juice or gel and vitamin E oil. My father found them to be very soothing and efficacious when he was having radiation. Do go to his website at http://neopagan.net, and make a donation, and/or buy a book or two. I saw one that I want to buy that I don’t have. His essential guide to Wicca and Witchcraft is the one book I don’t have. Do send him healing energy so that he can go into permanent remission and so he can continue to write. It’s good therapy for him, and we like reading his books. Check out his music CD and see if it’s still in publication.

Isaac has decided to keep records for Keen just like he does for Zodiac, with date, time name of client, state or province, birth-date, and favorite number. He received this revelation in a dream. I think that it will be more efficient for him. Stephen says that this seems to be more productive for him since he had 15 calls today, between the two services. We are both keeping our dream journals. I put one together the same way that I put mine together; with a three ring binder and ½ package of notebook filler paper. Cost: $0, since I had the binder and the paper on hand. I have about three reams of college ruled notebook filler paper. Sometimes in August the two big-box office supply stores have good deals on it. I stock up then. Stephen wants to thank all of you for calling him at (land-line) 916-455-2267 or (cell) 916-612-2504 and ordering either a divination reading or a class for just $31.95. With webcam and voice on Yahoo IM, Windows Live Msgr, or Skype, it’s almost like being here. For the reading, you got to choose a deck, method, or tool from a vast array of decks/methods/tools. For the class, you got to choose from a myriad of topics in the vast area of magick. Some of you couldn’t decide between a reading and a class, and so for just $59.90 you knew you could have both.a reading and a class; how perfect is that? You can have a reading then in the class find out how he did it. Or you can have two classes, or two readings as long as they are on two separate and different topics/questions. And thank you too for using and spreading around his Zodiac referral number 1-800-280-8496. You told your friends, relatives, in-laws, neighbors, coworkers, colleagues, teachers, kids’ teachers, fellow parents in your PTA, bus drivers, beauticians, and anyone else we might have left out. If you know of any other categories I may have omitted , do tell me. We would like to have other sites where we can have our groups.

So basically what we want is some action from you people. We want your feedback. We know we can always count on Dylan to give feedback, but he’s a partner in this venture. How about the rest of you? This is supposed to be a cooperative effort here. For those of you who are on Red Light, Stephen is doing readings for the cost of 10 rays, and classes for 20 rays. Red Light is a network that is more liberal than IMVU has become, since that Charles guy took over.
Tegwedd ShadowDancer
Stephen Abbott
Inky
Bailee Beasley Beastly
Little Boy
Frikki & Frakki
Dr.Livingston I. Presume