. Many things have happened here since we created the first Putties for Pagans several weeks ago. As you must know, everything is a putty toy to putties. We have watched them go crazy with drinking straws. The cardboard tube that holds a roll of paper towels also affords a lot of amusement when the paper towels are gone. But their favorite thing is a ball. We have this green round thing that holds a lot of the smaller balls, that they roll around in. It is so much fun to watch them bat the balls around the circle. We laugh and laugh and laugh. Stephen found a blue rubber ball in the street, and brought it home for the putties. It’s too large to fit in the round thing, but it does sit very nicely on top of the track. The putties bat it around in circles.
The putty mantra is: bite bite bite, chew chew chew, buzz buzz buzz, lick lick lick, fart fart fart, scratch scratch scratch. Trashing is a major putty activity. They trashed Stephen’s divination board, his bed, and then when we were doing a ritual Tarot reading to mark the Full Moon, they trashed the card arrangement. Bailee lay right on top of it, which is her wont. She imitates a beached whale at such times. I don’t care, I will lift her up, either to place a card in the proper position, or to pick a card up from under her. I put catnip on the toys, and the putties went crazy. There is putty klutz fu, falling off the table, or attempting to jump onto the table and missing it. “I meant to do that, I’ve been planning to do that all week.” George Carlin, our favorite stand up comedian-philosopher. He was supposedly a comedian, but I consider him to be a [ho;osopher because he spoke the truth.
Then there’s Pye pye pye-wacket. Pye pye pye-wacket chocolate covered Pyewacket, yum yum yum! She licks and bites noses while buzzing, which is my word for purring. We call her the Pyewacketeer, the Funny Looking Splotched Thing, and the accordion putty.. Bailee and Frakki are inseparable Stephen calls them the lezbo-putties. Inky is First Putty, who lived in pits, and learned to use his claws in self-defense. [a take off from a Firesign Theatre routine] . Inky has many other names, two of them are Inka dinka doodle do and Putty duog man. Bailee is Bailee Beasley Beastly, the Triple B Threat, or as I like to call her, 3B! Of course, when you call her that it’s always with an exclamation point after it, and in a high pitched voice. She’s also Ma Bailee, and Machine Gun Bailee. Little Boy is also a Putty Duog Man, First Daddy (because he’s sired so many kittens, and is a paws-on daddy. He stays engaged with his kids, even though he’s been neutered. Dr. Livingston I. Presume aka Princess Henrietta the Navigator. We thought she was a boy for over 9 months until one day this last spring when I looked under hir tail and discovered that s/he was a girl cat. It was at that time that I declared that the middle initial I stood for Isadora, which means “gift of Isis.” She is also called “Monkey Putty,” because of her penchant for climbing to great heights and jumping down upon a human’s shoulder or chest.
Frakki lives here. Frikki lives elsewhere. We call them the twins because they both look Siamese, even though their parents don’t look Siamese. Both Oreo and Little Boy must have had some Siamese in them. My theory is that about 5 years ago or so there was a very active Siamese seal point tom in the area. Then there is Putty Bear the Gray Bandit. He came in saying “This is MY house. I LIVE here. These are MY humans Where’s MY dinner?” Megan, Stephen’s daughter, calls him Smoky. He was severely beaten by a dead beech leaf. He and the beech leaf got into a fight, and the beech leaf won! He came away from the putty combat whining and whimpering. All 7 are fierce and great hunters. They bring in grasshoppers, crickets, and praying mantises. I don’t mind them destroying the grasshoppers and the crickets, but I wish they’d leave the praying mantises be, because praying mantises destroy bugs.
Each one has a distinctive personality. They all love putty combat. Currently it’s Pyewacket, Princess Henrietta the Navigator, and Frakki as a tag team picking on poor Putty Bear. Eventually Putty Bear will be twice the size of any of them, and proceed to take out his revenge up[on them, one at a time. Stephen will sell tickets. He said I could have the snack concessions. That’s where the real money is. It would be even better if we could merchandise the whole thing. Think of it, little stuffed Pyewackets, Putty Bears, Dr. Livingstons, Frakkis, key chains with resin miniatures of each putty, pins.
The Necroputtycon is the “Way of the Paw,” the manifesto of the Putty Conspiracy. To be puttied means that you have at least one putty lying or sitting on you, and the rule is that you cannot move until the putty gets off. There is majorly puttied, completely puttied, and severely puttied. They love to be sung to. One of the songs we like to sing to them is “How much is that putty in the window? The one with the scraggly tail. How much is that putty in the window. I do hope that putty’s for sale.” Bailee and Pyewacket are both love sponges. All the putties are putty yogis, masters of putty yoga. There are special putty asanas, as when they lick their own hind ends. Pyewacket goes insane for salami slices. The putties make all their balls disappear.
When feeding the putties, say “Putties!” in a high pitched voice. They respond best to high-pitched voices. The white female, whom I named Guinevere lets Stephen pet her whilst she’s eating. I say funny nonsense things to the putties like “Wubba wubba wubba the girl.” As I said before, the putties love to be sung to, They don’t seem to care whether you can carry a tune in a pail, or if you’re off-tune. They aren’t critics at all. I think they just like the attention. They also like it when you recite or read poetry to them. It can be the classics, like “Tiger tiger burning bright in the forests of the night.”, modern poetry or your own. They won’t know the difference. I have three songs I sing to Ma Bailee: “Hry there Bailee Girl” to the tune of “Georgy Girl,” “Bailee Go ‘Round the Roses,” and the Temptations’ hit “My Girl”.
They always know when we aren’t feeling well, and gather around to offer their comfort. When I’d first gotten my gall bladder removed, both Bailee and Pyewacket liked to lie on my main incision. I was really sore there, though, so I’d move them to a more comfortable spot. Pyewacket would knead me and bite my nose, buzzing the whole time. They both like to chew on our glasses. Bailee also likes to chew on my jewelry or buttons, so I have taken to wearing my necklaces under my tee shirt or tank top. The Deadly Watch Chain, the Dreadful Headset, and the Baneful Beads are still among the putties’ favorite toys. The Dreadful Headset is a headset that has already been ruined. Putty Duog Man Little Boy is a Drool Master or Master Drooler.. We have all these little songs we sing to the putties. We either make them up or set the words to a song we already know. The putties have made cuteness into a magickal power. I call them “Qute Ness Monsters.”
Dogs have owners, cats have staff. We’re their servants. But we make them “bark” before we give them food. And if there are two putties, and one slice of salami, there are sure to be lots of growling. The putties will follow us if we have food. They have this whole spy network going, and report back to Ma Bailee. Putties are fantastic creatures, and they are inscrutable. George Carlin liked putties because they just didn’t give a sh*t, and neither did he. The 100 putty phenomenon is when a putty sticks in her paw, gets a single piece of food, then puts it in her mouth. It’s a takeoff of the Hundredth Monkey Phenomenon, where the monkeys were washing their sweet potatoes in salt water, because they taste better that way, and when 100 of them were washing their sweet potatoes, the colony across the way all washed their sweet potatoes. Lately Pyewacket has started a new wrinkle of it. She sticks her paw in the water dish, then licks her paw draw. Bailee started it with the food, and taught it to the other putties. Next we’ll hear about putties across town doing it, then it will truly be the 100th putty phenomenon.
When we still had Oreo’s 2nd litter here, and she had weaned them from her, the puttiettes started to suckle on Dr. Livingston. This was funny because not only had she never had a lirrwe, but she had been spayed several months before. We didn’t think she would be lactating, but the kittens sucked on. Misty lost part of her tail, and we haven’t been able to solve that mystery. Pyewacket is a very tough putty; she can lick anyone in the house, and often does. She will also knead you if she likes you. It’s nice to be kneaded. The putties like to lie down on Stephen’s computer keyboard, and his divination board. Our finances are so bad that we are considering hiring out the putties to our friends as comic relief. We then came up with a song about it “Pimping out the putties, pimping out the putties, we shall come rejoicing, pimping out the putties.” The putties keep Stephen from playing his video games by unplugging his computer. I just looked at Inky, our black male, He was lying in his back with his paws in the air. So funny. When they do something bad, they get the tooty dance as a punishment.
Saturday night a bunch of us witches gathered to plan a ritual to get rid of some entities that have been attacking a friend of mine. She was trying to get everyone to get out on the patio so that I could give a class on a couple of techniques of mine that will be necessary in the upcoming battle. And she used the line about “Trying to organize Witches is like herding cats.” I thought that was pertinent. Herding putties is a difficult task indeed.
I was scratching Pyewacket’s belly, and she was making these funny .noises, halfway between a meow and a purr. Then she was doing the 100th putty thing with the food in the bin. I put some more food in the bin and she redoubled her efforts until I lifted her up and carried her over to the food dish. Later we were forced to open up the food bin so that Bailee could do 100th Putty. I came into Stephen’s room and did an impromptu vaudeville occultism thing. Trouble is, neither of us can remember which song we did. I say we because he joined in the song. We’ve decided to join the 21st century and do not only the tooty dance but the tweety dance whilst tweeting on twitter.
I’ve just been kneaded by the buzzing Pyewacketeer. Another funny thing to say to a putty is yabba yabba yabba. Bailee is the keeper of the phone, and has crossed her paws. The putties are the only ones I can drink under the table, and that’s only because they’re already under the table. I was having a conversation in putty language with one of the putties and apparently I must have invited her to lie on my bed because there Pyewacket was, lying on my bed. I scritched her a little, promising to scritch her more in a couple minutes. But when I came back, she was eating. Stay tuned for more adventures of Putty Bear, or as Stephen likes to put is, The Beech Leaf Chronicles.
I was cooking some Italian sausage to put in the spaghetti sauce. I give the sausage skins to the putties. I tried to give Putty Bear one, but Pyewacket grabbed 4 out of the 5. Frakki got the only one she didn’t get, so poor little Putty Bear got none. Some major putty combat, and growling broke out among Pyewacket, Frakki, and Dr. Livingston. Tell us your funny putty stories. Are your putties as funny as ours? .
My blog at both Blessed Be UK and Avalon was removed because I was asking for sorely needed money. Apparently, unless you are rich enough to afford one of their exorbitantly priced pro-memberships you can’t ask for money. If I were rich enough to afford a pro-membership, I wouldn’t need to ask for money would I? The owners and administration of both these sites discriminate against poor people. If you have a presence one either or both of these networks, please write a blog protesting this grossly unfair and prejudiced policy.
Vandals removed the bench from the bus shelter by the Extra Storage lot on Lawrence and Stockton Blvd. This happened at least 4 months ago. . Why are the Regional Transit people taking benches away from bus stops when they should be putting more in? It’s yet another way in which ordinary people are being shat upon just because they either aren’t rich enough to afford a car, or choose to take mass transit because they’re environmentally aware, or too old or blind to drive. Where are people supposed to sit whilst they wait for a bus that only comes when it feels like it? I’m lucky because when I start walking and taking the bus again I have my sporty red and black walker, which has a seat on it. So I have a chair wherever I go. I take my walker with me as a protest because I noticed early on that this town is notoriously short on places for people to sit either whilst walking to the shops or waiting for a bus that might or might not come. And now they’ve taken another one away.
Almost three months ago, I broke my right ankle. It was in a gallstone attack. I went to the bathroom, and was going to go to my room again when I was hit by a wave of pain so severe that I passed out. I must’ve sat on my ankle hard because when I tried to get up, my ankle went crunch! I sank down on my rear again against the door. Stephen and I had a dialogue: ”Are you all right?” he asked.
“No, I’m in a lot of pain.”
“I’m calling 911.”
“Ok.”
He asked me the questions the dispatcher asked him. I answered them. At length they arrived. I took my book and my purse with me. We went to Kaiser Morse hospital. I gave them the address. They knew how to get there. We arrived after a few minutes. They admitted me, and the next morning, my ankle was operated on. Then I spent from then until Wednesday the 7th in the hospital. I came home, and am now in full recovery. Six weeks ago I got into my room, and finally got access to my computer. Will give you updates as we proceed. Update: a month ago I got out of the house. My physical therapist taught me how to hop down the steps using my aluminum walker. I used it to go to the liturgy meeting, and then Sunday I went to our Grove’s Lughnasadh ritual, where I donated a dollar, and offered some whiskey to Miach for my own healing, the healing of my friend Snoodlady, who was in the hospital with a serious sinus infection that gave her double vision and vertigo, and my friend Cherye who has a nasty staph infection in her legs and feet. On two fronts there were immediate results. Snoodlady felt well enough to come home on Monday, and I learned to carry my walker whilst in my wheelchair. My physical therapist taught me some exercises to do in my wheelchair, and I worked myself up to 32 of each. The last one I learned was the wheelchair pushup. I did 32 of them today, for which I am very proud of myself. Stephen thought that you should know. ..
Yes, August 20th was my surgery day. And it happened as I hoped it would. I don’t remember what I dreamed whilst being under anesthesia. I did admitting, answered verifying questions, got something to relax me, and then woke up in Recovery. I was still pretty out of it, and a little sore. I put my clothes on, and Carl caught up with me. I came home, and relaxed. Healing has already started. I didn’t feel like having much of a supper. I found out, because the nurse weighed me, that I had lost 9 lbs. That was before the surgery, so I don’t know how much my gall bladder weighed, as full of gall stones as it was. Also I’m wearing a fiber glass cast, so I don’t know how much I’ll lose when I lose the cast, and can finally start TAKING SHOWERS!
Two weeks agoI lost the eboot. I’m walking. I’m no longer using the wheelchair. Soon the Durable Medical Equipment people will come and take it away. I still have a bit of healing to do as far as my bones are concerned, but Dr. Van Voris says that walking will stimulate the bones to regenerate. I am thrilled. Stephen is thrilled too. He no longer has to fetch my dinner or drinks, so he is relieved. Also I can help him with cleaning chores, like vacuuming. I can also get to my medical appointments on the bus, so that is a big load off our friend Carl’s mind. I pushed the wheelchair into the house, up the steps, and over the threshold. Also I have clearance to eat most foods in small amounts to see how I tolerate them, but I’m still restricting my sugar intake severely. I want to lose even more weight.
Stephen got his Vampire deck from Llewellyn today. It’s another late birthday gift to himself. You should see it, it’s gorgeous. I want one, but my money is earmarked for more vitamins.
We need paid readings and donations. Send donations to my Paypal account tezra.reitan@gmail.com and to Stephen’s email account at any of his email addies. If I get $5 donations, I shall send the donor a copy of one of my ebooks. For $20, you can have all five ebooks. This past month, the month of August, was the worst on Keen in the 10 years since Stephen (Frog) has been on the service. He made -$25 on KEEN in August. He owes $2000 in rent, and I owe $1000. What does it take to get you to open your pocketbooks?
Remember, if someone from a Ning network asks you to pay, say “No way!” The only way this’ll work is if we all stick together and call the a**holes on their BS. We have to be willing to walk away from our networks, because they are counting on people being scared to walk away from their networks. This guy Jason Rosenthal is a bully, and there’s only one way to deal with a bully, and that is, to stand up to him.
Stephen managed to scrape the $87 together. But it meant cutting into the rent money. He is already $2000 in the hole for the rent, and I am $1000 behind, because I can’t afford to pay $500 per month in rent.. You guys have not been doing your part. It’s not as though he’s begging for hand outs. He is willing to return value for value given. And $32 flat for a reading or a class is really a bargain. Ordinarily he charges $32 an hour, so $32 flat is a very good deal. Remember it’s 916-455-2267. Raise me on Windows Live Msgr or AIM and I’ll give you my phone number, and the hours you can call me.
Back before my accident, Stephen was able to scrape $50 together to pay our friend to put our website together, and she’s working on it now. I’m looking forward to seeing it. It should be very impressive. Fear not, we’ll keep you abreast of all developments on this front. Abbott’s Inn International School of Magick will then be on the internet map, so to speak, in a big way. Stephen has a website through Yellow Book. www.abbottsinninternational.com is the link. The phone number is 1-888-611-7982. Call him sometbrb
ime, and ask for a reading.
Inquiring minds want to know: How do we add music to our sites? Please let us know. The person who helps us do that earns a reading on webcam on the popular IM clients. The person who helps us establish ourselves on the Paganspace.net chat client earns a reading. We’re using readings as currency here because we have no other medium to use for an incentive. All the money we make goes for paying the bills of bare-bones living.
We’re in survival mode here, subsistence living.
Stephen is hopping mad right now (appropriate for a frog, no?) because his ex-wife Debbie is taking one of the twins and giving her to a strange woman who lives at their complex. He has grown quite attached emotionally to both of them, and doesn’t like to see the pair split up. I was prepared emotionally a long time ago for this eventuality. I just don’t know why it took Debbie so long to do it. I suspect that she calculated it so as to cause the most hurt to Stephen. Yes, she is that cruel. She claims to be a Wiccan, but doesn’t abide by the Rede at all, and never has a good word to say about anyone. I try not to think about what she says about me, but I shudder at the emotional abuse she piles on their daughter. Stephen was so emotionally distraught that he broke a pair of his glasses accidentally right after she called. Debbie never lifted a hand to care for these animals from the day they were born. Until my accident, we took turns feeding them, then Stephen took it over. It was he who shelled out moneys for food and kitty litter. Debbie has never compensated him in any way for the expenses. She just demands money from him. It was I who arranged for the twins to get spayed. We thought we were getting Frikki back, but the woman is holding onto her.
The new version of the Mind-n-Magick toolbar is available, so get it.
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Friday, October 1, 2010
Saturday, August 21, 2010
A Tribute to Isaac Bonewits
I’ve been doing this part on my own because Stephen’s gotten one call after another tonight. But now he’s sitting in my wheelchair ready to pontificate. This is one of our oldest groups. We have some sad news tonight. Isaac went to the Summerland last Thursday morning. When we first founded this group on Yahoo, Isaac Bonewits was very pleased because he really likes the “DruidCraft Tarot”, which is the inspiration for this group. He died of colon cancer. So people, if you’re 50 or older, get your colon checked every 5 years. Isaac was only 60 years old when he died.
Stephen knew Isaac for over 40 years. He made Stephen a 3rd Order Druid in late ’71 (almost Samhain) and before Samhain Stephen founded Hazelnut MotherGrove. Isaac and Stephen had many adventures, many of them humorous. Isaac did many favors for Stephen over the years. One major favor Isaac did for him in the mid 70s to early 80s. Carl Weschke hired Isaac to be Editor in chief of “Gnostica News”and Isaac turned around and gave Stephen and Bill Heidrick of OTO fame a Tarot column in that publication. Stephen used the name McCaully because of SSI. Stephen wrote “Tarot Questions and Answers” When he came it was called “Gnostica News”. When he left it was called just plain “Gnostica.” He also wrote articles about the Tarot for the publication. Stephen still has many original issues of the “Gnostica News”/”Gnostica” in his collection of documents tracing back the history of Neo-Paganism (a term Isaac Bonewits coined, by the way.) to the early ‘70s. Another old publication Stephen collected was “The Pentalpha Journal,” in which several of Stephen’s articles appeared. “In search of the Lady Rhiannon’s Mystery,“ “Celtic Lunar Goddesses from A to C” “The Druidic Cross Layout” are the articles’ titles. They are most likely on the Internet, if you want to Google them.
Tonight we had a poignant memorial ritual for Isaac. It was so poignant that I actually started weeping, and shed a few tears. Actually I was thinking about how Isaac and Doc actually finally got to meet. Isaac got to sing at his own memorial. Sean had several MP3s of Isaac singing on his laptop. He sang “Hymn to Brigit,” and “Hymn to the Morrigan.” I invoked fire and told a couple of Isaac stories. Stephen told a couple Isaac stories and sang a Bonewits hit “Be Pagan Once Again.’ The last song was not by Isaac, but one he requested: “Into the West” written by Howard Shore and sung by Annie Lennox. I never realized until now what a pure clean voice she has. Sean led the ritual. Everybody who wanted one had a part. We raised a lot of energy tonight. I must confess to absorbing quite a bit of it to sustain me against tomorrow, when I go under the knife. I thought I could see Isaac standing there betwixt Jill and Mike, smiling. He was a much younger man than we got used to seeing in Isaac’s elder years.
This is Stephen’s take on the ritual: There were about 15 people there. It was short (that means it was shorter than 4 hours). Stephen was intrigued by all the airplanes. He could see Isaac making a statement about all the inordinate number of airplanes. He was also amused by the fact that the speakers that were supposed to augment the laptop’s lousy sound system didn’t do it. All 15 people said something. It was a testimonial to Isaac’s influence. Stephen and Sean made arrangements to get together to create an oral history about Isaac. Stephen has reams and reams of Isaac stories. If you ever get to talk to Stephen in person, just ask him about his 40 year friendship with Isaac and he’ll talk your ears off for several hours. “Jen was supposed to lead everyone in ‘Into the Mists’, but she ended up doing a solo. I think that showed spontaneity that those rituals very seldom have.” Then Stephen also liked that every one had something to say about Isaac, and that he’s working for us on the other side. “It’s a curious thing to me that there’s so many more dead male Pagans than female.”
“We cry, and confess weakness, something that in this culture males simply won’t allow themselves to do,” I said.
Stephen finally got in touch with Aigean and they talked about Isaac, druidry, and Abbott’s Inn International School of Magick. Stephen thinks it’s significant that it was Medford, OR that Isaac and Phaedra were going to move to if Isaac had lived. He would’ve been a member of Aigean’s grove, Clan of the Triple Horses. It’s really going great guns up there. I’m going to have to call Aigean tomorrow, and talk with her. She is some kind of able, bright lady. The last few days, with TV being a vast wasteland, we’ve been listening almost exclusively to the Pagan Radio Network at www.paganradionetwork.net. Hie yourselves there and download their free toolbar. It’s killer. You can be doing anything you want on your computer and listening to PRN. I was listening to “A Darker Shade of Pagan”, which I love. Have I mentioned that I love the group “Faith & the Muse”? When I write, I write to music, and that group often sets just the right mood for me. It’s very evocative. It puts pictures in my mind. Stephen mentioned that even with all that was going on, what with my ankle in a cast, my gall bladder woes, all the housework he’s having to do by himself, and his money woes, we’re still posting discussions on the internet.
I heard voices, which were louder than the CDs I play at night whilst I sleep, and I was too sore to sleep anyway, and all charged up from the successful carrying out of the operation, so I got up You see, the day for which I had waited so long had at last arrived. I got to Admitting at the hospital early. We completed the paperwork. I have to get Janvier’s cellphone number, and give it to Kaiser for the next time I have to have surgery. I don’t even remember going under the anesthesia, but when I awoke, I was in the recovery room. Anyway, I heard Walt’s voice, turned on my light, and got into my wheelchair. We talked, then Walt left. Stephen found his missing watch, and we decided to work. His pocket watch says “Grandpa” on it because while his daughter is way too young to make him a grandpa, he is grandpa to some of the putties, namely the former kittens of Little Boy: Dr. Livingston I. Presume, Frakki, and Pyewacket. He had an opportunity to get a “Dad” watch, but likes the joke of being grandpa to putties.
We would like to hear from you about Isaac, please tell us what you thought of him. Where were you and what were you doing when Isaac died August 12th at 8 am EDT, 5 am PDT? Stephen was working on his computer and I was asleep. Did you read his books or Google him? I have 3 of Isaac’s books. How many of Isaac’s books do you have? I have my old copy of “Real Magic [sic]”” Essentials of Druidism” and “Neo Pagan Rites.” Stephen has “Real Magic [sic]” “Authentic Thaumaturgy” and Essentials of Druidism.” Isaac, Stephen, and Doc, were all devotees of Brigit. My Renaissance persona is also a devotee of the Blessed St. Brigit. Isaac was not just a Druid and a Wiccan, but a Thelemite as well, and had interest in two of the religions of the African Diaspora (Umbanda, and Vodun).He also was interested in the Norse religion, but he hated Nazis with a passion equaled only by Stephen’s. If you have read one of Isaac’s books, What did you think of it, and if it’s not one of the books mentioned above, tell us what it is, and how may we obtain it inexpensively? We might not have had Isaac if he had gone to the seminary instead, and not hooked up with Anton Szandbox Lafeces. From there, he discovered Neo-Paganism, and the rest is history.
Another thing that Stephen and Isaac shared was their love for critters, putties, dogs, and lizards. Stephen was the influence on the lizards, because he was known as the “wizard and his lizard”. Like Stephen loved all aspects of magick. Also like Stephen he had a strong interest in divination. Isaac liked to say that Stephen was the best Tarot reader he had ever met. As far as I’m concerned, Stephen should have a PhD in divination. Humor was important to Isaac, and he was a master punster. Like Stephen, Isaac was an avid gamer, especially Fantasy Role Playing Game. Authentic Thaumaturgy was published by Greg Stafford. Like Stephen Isaac had a strong interest in shamanism. Isaac also loved being involved in bardic revels. Isaac also was very much involved with Magick and Tantra. Isaac had a very strong stage presence, and he and Stephen often gave lectures and presentations which were very popular and well attended. The two men shared a strong interest in the Qabalah. When all is said and done, neither man wanted to be known just as Druids. Both men had grandmothers connected to their magicks. Both had a strong interest in fantasy and science fiction writing and reading. What similarities did you have with Philip Emmons Isaac Bonewits? Inquiring minds want to know. Like Isaac, I have a strong interest in science fiction and fantasy, divination, punning, and the Qabalah, especially the Tree of Life. Of course I am interested in all aspects of magick.
What do we glean from all of this? What is Isaac’s legacy? So many of us are dead, and what is wrong with our medical profession that they couldn’t save these people? Many of them died too soon. Gwydion Penderwen certainly did, as did Doc. But we can take comfort in their being ambassadors for us on the other side, interceding for us with the Shining Ones [as if we need anyone to intercede for us, as if being priests and priestesses we cannot approach the Shining Ones ourselves]. Stephen is going through the 5 stages of grief now. Currently he is on anger. He’s cried out. Personally, I’m curious about what will happen when he gets to the bargaining point. Both Stephen and Isaac have given their entire adult lives to druidry. What does it mean that Isaac founded the ADF? We’ll tell you what it means, the ADF is a thriving organization and movement around the world. But this is not all. He founded the Schismatic Druids of North America, which in our opinion is the beginning of the ADF. Both Isaac and Stephen founded the Aquarian Anti-Defamation League. It was founded because of the screwed up hiring practices of Pagans, and the hatred of Pagans back then. We should bring back AADL because conditions are almost as bad as they were then. Isaac, Stephen, Selene Cumin Vega, and Anodea Judith all worked on the Pentalpha journal. Isaac, Stephen, and I were instrumental in getting the NRDNA off the ground, with a side order of Wiccans thrown in for extra flavor. Isaac, Clayton O’Clearach, Stephen and I were the founders of the Great Wild Beast Furtherment Society. It was we who created Crowleymas, a splendid alternative to that moronic Columbus Day. The very idea! Everyone knows that Columbus was a Johnny-come lately to the New World. The Irish and the Norse had both been here before Columbus. Both Isaac and Stephen founded Celtic Night. These show that Isaac’s legacy isn’t just about druidry.
How does Stephen fill the void of Isaac’s loss? Please send him ideas. Stephen feels a profound sensation of loss, emptiness, and numbness. He’s lost his direction and focus. He hasn’t thought of anything else but Isaac’s death since he passed 9 dasys ago. It’s borderline obsessive on Stephen’s part. He needs direction. What are your ideas?
They took the bus bench away from the sidewalk in front of the Kmart parking lot. Why are the Regional Transit people taking benches away from bus stops when they should be putting more in? It’s yet another way in which ordinary people are being shat upon just because they either aren’t rich enough to afford a car, or choose to take mass transit because they’re environmentally aware, or too old or blind to drive. Where are people supposed to sit whilst they wait for a bus that only comes when it feels like it? I’m lucky because when I start walking and taking the bus again I have my sporty red and black walker, which has a seat on it. So I have a chair wherever I go. I take my walker with me as a protest because I noticed early on that this town is notoriously short on places for people to sit either whilst walking to the shops or waiting for a bus that might or might not come. And now they’ve taken another one away.
Seven weeks ago, I broke my right ankle. It was in a gallstone attack. I went to the bathroom, and was going to go to my room again when I was hit by a wave of pain so severe that I passed out. I must’ve sat on my ankle hard because when I tried to get up, my ankle went crunch! I sank down on my rear again against the door. Stephen and I had a dialogue: ”Are you all right?” he asked.
“No, I’m in a lot of pain.”
“I’m calling 911.”
“Ok.”
He asked me the questions the dispatcher asked him. I answered them. At length they arrived. I took my book and my purse with me. We went to Kaiser Morse hospital. I gave them the address. They knew how to get there. We arrived after a few minutes. They admitted me, and the next morning, my ankle was operated on. Then I spent from then until Wednesday the 7th in the hospital. I came home, and am now in full recovery. Six weeks ago I got into my room, and finally got access to my computer. Will give you updates as we proceed. Update: a month ago I got out of the house. My physical therapist taught me how to hop down the steps using my aluminum walker. I used it to go to the liturgy meeting, and then Sunday I went to our Grove’s Lughnasadh ritual, where I donated a dollar, and offered some whiskey to Miach for my own healing, the healing of my friend Snoodlady, who was in the hospital with a serious sinus infection that gave her double vision and vertigo, and my friend Cherye who has a nasty staph infection in her legs and feet. On two fronts there were immediate results. Snoodlady felt well enough to come home on Monday, and I learned to carry my walker whilst in my wheelchair. My physical therapist taught me some exercises to do in my wheelchair, and I worked myself up to 32 of each. The last one I learned was the wheelchair pushup. I did 32 of them today, for which I am very proud of myself. Stephen thought that you should know. ..
Yes, August 20th was my surgery day. And it happened as I hoped it would. I don’t remember what I dreamed whilst being under anesthesia. I did admitting, answered verifying questions, got something to relax me, and then woke up in Recovery. I was still pretty out of it, and a little sore. I put my clothes on, and Carl caught up with me. I came home, and relaxed. Healing has already starting. I didn’t feel like having much of a supper. I found out, because the nurse weighed me, that I had lost 9 lbs. That was before the surgery, so I don’t know how much my gall bladder weighed, as full of gall stones as it was. Also I’m wearing a fiber glass cast, so I don’t know how much I’ll lose when I lose the cast, and can finally start TAKING SHOWERS!
We need paid readings and donations. Send donations to my Paypal account tezra.reitan@gmail.com and to Stephen’s email account at any of his email addies. If I get $5 donations, I shall send the donor a copy of one of my ebooks. For $20, you can have all five ebooks.
Remember, if someone from a Ning network asks you to pay, say “No way!” The only way this’ll work is if we all stick together and call the a**holes on their BS. We have to be willing to walk away from our networks, because they are counting on people being scared to walk away from their networks. This guy Jason Rosenthal is a bully, and there’s only one way to deal with a bully, and that is, to stand up to him.
He managed to scrape the $87 together. But it meant cutting into the rent money. He is already $1800 in the hole for the rent, and I am $800 behind, because I can’t afford to pay $500 per month in rent.. You guys have not been doing your part. It’s not as though he’s begging for hand outs. He is willing to return value for value given. And $32 flat for a reading or a class is really a bargain. Ordinarily he charges $32 an hour, so $32 flat is a very good deal. Remember it’s 916-455-2267. Raise me on Windows Live Msgr or AIM and I’ll give you my phone number, and the hours you can call me.
Back before my accident, Stephen was able to scrape $50 together to pay our friend to put our website together, and she’s working on it now. I’m looking forward to seeing it. It should be very impressive. Fear not, we’ll keep you abreast of all developments on this front. Abbott’s Inn International School of Magick will then be on the internet map, so to speak, in a big way.
Inquiring minds want to know: How do we add music to our sites? Please let us know. The person who helps us do that earns a reading on webcam on the popular IM clients. The person who helps us establish ourselves on the Paganspace.net chat client earns a reading. We’re using readings as currency here because we have no other medium to use for an incentive. All the money we make goes for paying the bills of bare-bones living.
Stephen is hopping mad right now (appropriate for a frog, no?) because his ex-wife Debbie is taking one of the twins and giving her to a strange woman who lives at their complex. He has grown quite attached emotionally to both of them, and doesn’t like to see the pair split up. I was prepared emotionally a long time ago for this eventuality. I just don’t know why it took Debbie so long to do it. I suspect that she calculated it so as to cause the most hurt to Stephen. Yes, she is that cruel. She claims to be a Wiccan, but doesn’t abide by the Rede at all, and never has a good word to say about anyone. I try not to think about what she says about me, but I shudder at the emotional abuse she piles on their daughter. Stephen was so emotionally distraught that he broke a pair of his glasses accidentally right after she called. Debbie never lifted a hand to care for these animals from the day they were born. Until my accident, we took turns feeding them, then Stephen took it over. It was he who shelled out moneys for food and kitty litter. Debbie has never compensated him in any way for the expenses. It was I who arranged for the twins to get spayed.
The new version of the Mind-n-Magick toolbar is available, so get it.
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Stephen knew Isaac for over 40 years. He made Stephen a 3rd Order Druid in late ’71 (almost Samhain) and before Samhain Stephen founded Hazelnut MotherGrove. Isaac and Stephen had many adventures, many of them humorous. Isaac did many favors for Stephen over the years. One major favor Isaac did for him in the mid 70s to early 80s. Carl Weschke hired Isaac to be Editor in chief of “Gnostica News”and Isaac turned around and gave Stephen and Bill Heidrick of OTO fame a Tarot column in that publication. Stephen used the name McCaully because of SSI. Stephen wrote “Tarot Questions and Answers” When he came it was called “Gnostica News”. When he left it was called just plain “Gnostica.” He also wrote articles about the Tarot for the publication. Stephen still has many original issues of the “Gnostica News”/”Gnostica” in his collection of documents tracing back the history of Neo-Paganism (a term Isaac Bonewits coined, by the way.) to the early ‘70s. Another old publication Stephen collected was “The Pentalpha Journal,” in which several of Stephen’s articles appeared. “In search of the Lady Rhiannon’s Mystery,“ “Celtic Lunar Goddesses from A to C” “The Druidic Cross Layout” are the articles’ titles. They are most likely on the Internet, if you want to Google them.
Tonight we had a poignant memorial ritual for Isaac. It was so poignant that I actually started weeping, and shed a few tears. Actually I was thinking about how Isaac and Doc actually finally got to meet. Isaac got to sing at his own memorial. Sean had several MP3s of Isaac singing on his laptop. He sang “Hymn to Brigit,” and “Hymn to the Morrigan.” I invoked fire and told a couple of Isaac stories. Stephen told a couple Isaac stories and sang a Bonewits hit “Be Pagan Once Again.’ The last song was not by Isaac, but one he requested: “Into the West” written by Howard Shore and sung by Annie Lennox. I never realized until now what a pure clean voice she has. Sean led the ritual. Everybody who wanted one had a part. We raised a lot of energy tonight. I must confess to absorbing quite a bit of it to sustain me against tomorrow, when I go under the knife. I thought I could see Isaac standing there betwixt Jill and Mike, smiling. He was a much younger man than we got used to seeing in Isaac’s elder years.
This is Stephen’s take on the ritual: There were about 15 people there. It was short (that means it was shorter than 4 hours). Stephen was intrigued by all the airplanes. He could see Isaac making a statement about all the inordinate number of airplanes. He was also amused by the fact that the speakers that were supposed to augment the laptop’s lousy sound system didn’t do it. All 15 people said something. It was a testimonial to Isaac’s influence. Stephen and Sean made arrangements to get together to create an oral history about Isaac. Stephen has reams and reams of Isaac stories. If you ever get to talk to Stephen in person, just ask him about his 40 year friendship with Isaac and he’ll talk your ears off for several hours. “Jen was supposed to lead everyone in ‘Into the Mists’, but she ended up doing a solo. I think that showed spontaneity that those rituals very seldom have.” Then Stephen also liked that every one had something to say about Isaac, and that he’s working for us on the other side. “It’s a curious thing to me that there’s so many more dead male Pagans than female.”
“We cry, and confess weakness, something that in this culture males simply won’t allow themselves to do,” I said.
Stephen finally got in touch with Aigean and they talked about Isaac, druidry, and Abbott’s Inn International School of Magick. Stephen thinks it’s significant that it was Medford, OR that Isaac and Phaedra were going to move to if Isaac had lived. He would’ve been a member of Aigean’s grove, Clan of the Triple Horses. It’s really going great guns up there. I’m going to have to call Aigean tomorrow, and talk with her. She is some kind of able, bright lady. The last few days, with TV being a vast wasteland, we’ve been listening almost exclusively to the Pagan Radio Network at www.paganradionetwork.net. Hie yourselves there and download their free toolbar. It’s killer. You can be doing anything you want on your computer and listening to PRN. I was listening to “A Darker Shade of Pagan”, which I love. Have I mentioned that I love the group “Faith & the Muse”? When I write, I write to music, and that group often sets just the right mood for me. It’s very evocative. It puts pictures in my mind. Stephen mentioned that even with all that was going on, what with my ankle in a cast, my gall bladder woes, all the housework he’s having to do by himself, and his money woes, we’re still posting discussions on the internet.
I heard voices, which were louder than the CDs I play at night whilst I sleep, and I was too sore to sleep anyway, and all charged up from the successful carrying out of the operation, so I got up You see, the day for which I had waited so long had at last arrived. I got to Admitting at the hospital early. We completed the paperwork. I have to get Janvier’s cellphone number, and give it to Kaiser for the next time I have to have surgery. I don’t even remember going under the anesthesia, but when I awoke, I was in the recovery room. Anyway, I heard Walt’s voice, turned on my light, and got into my wheelchair. We talked, then Walt left. Stephen found his missing watch, and we decided to work. His pocket watch says “Grandpa” on it because while his daughter is way too young to make him a grandpa, he is grandpa to some of the putties, namely the former kittens of Little Boy: Dr. Livingston I. Presume, Frakki, and Pyewacket. He had an opportunity to get a “Dad” watch, but likes the joke of being grandpa to putties.
We would like to hear from you about Isaac, please tell us what you thought of him. Where were you and what were you doing when Isaac died August 12th at 8 am EDT, 5 am PDT? Stephen was working on his computer and I was asleep. Did you read his books or Google him? I have 3 of Isaac’s books. How many of Isaac’s books do you have? I have my old copy of “Real Magic [sic]”” Essentials of Druidism” and “Neo Pagan Rites.” Stephen has “Real Magic [sic]” “Authentic Thaumaturgy” and Essentials of Druidism.” Isaac, Stephen, and Doc, were all devotees of Brigit. My Renaissance persona is also a devotee of the Blessed St. Brigit. Isaac was not just a Druid and a Wiccan, but a Thelemite as well, and had interest in two of the religions of the African Diaspora (Umbanda, and Vodun).He also was interested in the Norse religion, but he hated Nazis with a passion equaled only by Stephen’s. If you have read one of Isaac’s books, What did you think of it, and if it’s not one of the books mentioned above, tell us what it is, and how may we obtain it inexpensively? We might not have had Isaac if he had gone to the seminary instead, and not hooked up with Anton Szandbox Lafeces. From there, he discovered Neo-Paganism, and the rest is history.
Another thing that Stephen and Isaac shared was their love for critters, putties, dogs, and lizards. Stephen was the influence on the lizards, because he was known as the “wizard and his lizard”. Like Stephen loved all aspects of magick. Also like Stephen he had a strong interest in divination. Isaac liked to say that Stephen was the best Tarot reader he had ever met. As far as I’m concerned, Stephen should have a PhD in divination. Humor was important to Isaac, and he was a master punster. Like Stephen, Isaac was an avid gamer, especially Fantasy Role Playing Game. Authentic Thaumaturgy was published by Greg Stafford. Like Stephen Isaac had a strong interest in shamanism. Isaac also loved being involved in bardic revels. Isaac also was very much involved with Magick and Tantra. Isaac had a very strong stage presence, and he and Stephen often gave lectures and presentations which were very popular and well attended. The two men shared a strong interest in the Qabalah. When all is said and done, neither man wanted to be known just as Druids. Both men had grandmothers connected to their magicks. Both had a strong interest in fantasy and science fiction writing and reading. What similarities did you have with Philip Emmons Isaac Bonewits? Inquiring minds want to know. Like Isaac, I have a strong interest in science fiction and fantasy, divination, punning, and the Qabalah, especially the Tree of Life. Of course I am interested in all aspects of magick.
What do we glean from all of this? What is Isaac’s legacy? So many of us are dead, and what is wrong with our medical profession that they couldn’t save these people? Many of them died too soon. Gwydion Penderwen certainly did, as did Doc. But we can take comfort in their being ambassadors for us on the other side, interceding for us with the Shining Ones [as if we need anyone to intercede for us, as if being priests and priestesses we cannot approach the Shining Ones ourselves]. Stephen is going through the 5 stages of grief now. Currently he is on anger. He’s cried out. Personally, I’m curious about what will happen when he gets to the bargaining point. Both Stephen and Isaac have given their entire adult lives to druidry. What does it mean that Isaac founded the ADF? We’ll tell you what it means, the ADF is a thriving organization and movement around the world. But this is not all. He founded the Schismatic Druids of North America, which in our opinion is the beginning of the ADF. Both Isaac and Stephen founded the Aquarian Anti-Defamation League. It was founded because of the screwed up hiring practices of Pagans, and the hatred of Pagans back then. We should bring back AADL because conditions are almost as bad as they were then. Isaac, Stephen, Selene Cumin Vega, and Anodea Judith all worked on the Pentalpha journal. Isaac, Stephen, and I were instrumental in getting the NRDNA off the ground, with a side order of Wiccans thrown in for extra flavor. Isaac, Clayton O’Clearach, Stephen and I were the founders of the Great Wild Beast Furtherment Society. It was we who created Crowleymas, a splendid alternative to that moronic Columbus Day. The very idea! Everyone knows that Columbus was a Johnny-come lately to the New World. The Irish and the Norse had both been here before Columbus. Both Isaac and Stephen founded Celtic Night. These show that Isaac’s legacy isn’t just about druidry.
How does Stephen fill the void of Isaac’s loss? Please send him ideas. Stephen feels a profound sensation of loss, emptiness, and numbness. He’s lost his direction and focus. He hasn’t thought of anything else but Isaac’s death since he passed 9 dasys ago. It’s borderline obsessive on Stephen’s part. He needs direction. What are your ideas?
They took the bus bench away from the sidewalk in front of the Kmart parking lot. Why are the Regional Transit people taking benches away from bus stops when they should be putting more in? It’s yet another way in which ordinary people are being shat upon just because they either aren’t rich enough to afford a car, or choose to take mass transit because they’re environmentally aware, or too old or blind to drive. Where are people supposed to sit whilst they wait for a bus that only comes when it feels like it? I’m lucky because when I start walking and taking the bus again I have my sporty red and black walker, which has a seat on it. So I have a chair wherever I go. I take my walker with me as a protest because I noticed early on that this town is notoriously short on places for people to sit either whilst walking to the shops or waiting for a bus that might or might not come. And now they’ve taken another one away.
Seven weeks ago, I broke my right ankle. It was in a gallstone attack. I went to the bathroom, and was going to go to my room again when I was hit by a wave of pain so severe that I passed out. I must’ve sat on my ankle hard because when I tried to get up, my ankle went crunch! I sank down on my rear again against the door. Stephen and I had a dialogue: ”Are you all right?” he asked.
“No, I’m in a lot of pain.”
“I’m calling 911.”
“Ok.”
He asked me the questions the dispatcher asked him. I answered them. At length they arrived. I took my book and my purse with me. We went to Kaiser Morse hospital. I gave them the address. They knew how to get there. We arrived after a few minutes. They admitted me, and the next morning, my ankle was operated on. Then I spent from then until Wednesday the 7th in the hospital. I came home, and am now in full recovery. Six weeks ago I got into my room, and finally got access to my computer. Will give you updates as we proceed. Update: a month ago I got out of the house. My physical therapist taught me how to hop down the steps using my aluminum walker. I used it to go to the liturgy meeting, and then Sunday I went to our Grove’s Lughnasadh ritual, where I donated a dollar, and offered some whiskey to Miach for my own healing, the healing of my friend Snoodlady, who was in the hospital with a serious sinus infection that gave her double vision and vertigo, and my friend Cherye who has a nasty staph infection in her legs and feet. On two fronts there were immediate results. Snoodlady felt well enough to come home on Monday, and I learned to carry my walker whilst in my wheelchair. My physical therapist taught me some exercises to do in my wheelchair, and I worked myself up to 32 of each. The last one I learned was the wheelchair pushup. I did 32 of them today, for which I am very proud of myself. Stephen thought that you should know. ..
Yes, August 20th was my surgery day. And it happened as I hoped it would. I don’t remember what I dreamed whilst being under anesthesia. I did admitting, answered verifying questions, got something to relax me, and then woke up in Recovery. I was still pretty out of it, and a little sore. I put my clothes on, and Carl caught up with me. I came home, and relaxed. Healing has already starting. I didn’t feel like having much of a supper. I found out, because the nurse weighed me, that I had lost 9 lbs. That was before the surgery, so I don’t know how much my gall bladder weighed, as full of gall stones as it was. Also I’m wearing a fiber glass cast, so I don’t know how much I’ll lose when I lose the cast, and can finally start TAKING SHOWERS!
We need paid readings and donations. Send donations to my Paypal account tezra.reitan@gmail.com and to Stephen’s email account at any of his email addies. If I get $5 donations, I shall send the donor a copy of one of my ebooks. For $20, you can have all five ebooks.
Remember, if someone from a Ning network asks you to pay, say “No way!” The only way this’ll work is if we all stick together and call the a**holes on their BS. We have to be willing to walk away from our networks, because they are counting on people being scared to walk away from their networks. This guy Jason Rosenthal is a bully, and there’s only one way to deal with a bully, and that is, to stand up to him.
He managed to scrape the $87 together. But it meant cutting into the rent money. He is already $1800 in the hole for the rent, and I am $800 behind, because I can’t afford to pay $500 per month in rent.. You guys have not been doing your part. It’s not as though he’s begging for hand outs. He is willing to return value for value given. And $32 flat for a reading or a class is really a bargain. Ordinarily he charges $32 an hour, so $32 flat is a very good deal. Remember it’s 916-455-2267. Raise me on Windows Live Msgr or AIM and I’ll give you my phone number, and the hours you can call me.
Back before my accident, Stephen was able to scrape $50 together to pay our friend to put our website together, and she’s working on it now. I’m looking forward to seeing it. It should be very impressive. Fear not, we’ll keep you abreast of all developments on this front. Abbott’s Inn International School of Magick will then be on the internet map, so to speak, in a big way.
Inquiring minds want to know: How do we add music to our sites? Please let us know. The person who helps us do that earns a reading on webcam on the popular IM clients. The person who helps us establish ourselves on the Paganspace.net chat client earns a reading. We’re using readings as currency here because we have no other medium to use for an incentive. All the money we make goes for paying the bills of bare-bones living.
Stephen is hopping mad right now (appropriate for a frog, no?) because his ex-wife Debbie is taking one of the twins and giving her to a strange woman who lives at their complex. He has grown quite attached emotionally to both of them, and doesn’t like to see the pair split up. I was prepared emotionally a long time ago for this eventuality. I just don’t know why it took Debbie so long to do it. I suspect that she calculated it so as to cause the most hurt to Stephen. Yes, she is that cruel. She claims to be a Wiccan, but doesn’t abide by the Rede at all, and never has a good word to say about anyone. I try not to think about what she says about me, but I shudder at the emotional abuse she piles on their daughter. Stephen was so emotionally distraught that he broke a pair of his glasses accidentally right after she called. Debbie never lifted a hand to care for these animals from the day they were born. Until my accident, we took turns feeding them, then Stephen took it over. It was he who shelled out moneys for food and kitty litter. Debbie has never compensated him in any way for the expenses. It was I who arranged for the twins to get spayed.
The new version of the Mind-n-Magick toolbar is available, so get it.
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Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Nice to see you here in the Astral Realms, Isaac
The astral realms are huge. They’re as large as you can imagine, and maybe even bigger,because they’re made up of everyone’s dreamscapes, plus their imaginations, all the places they’ve ever been, or seen in art or film. Given that there are over 6 billion people on this little fertile mud ball we call earth, that’s pretty big, wouldn’t you say? Where do you go when you sleep? Where do you go when you daydream? Do you have an astral temple where you do magick in your mind? That last was pretty obvious where you go. Chances are you go to the astral realms.
Over 40 years ago, Stephen invented his own plane, the half-astral plane. So if you’re really stoned, that’s where you end up. There are many denizens of the half-astral plane, that you should try to avoid: the spirits of dead Nazis, dead Republicans, the spirits of dead popes and other potentates of slave religions, the spirits of dead Mafiosi, dead Ku Klux Klanners, dead John Birch Society members, and other right-wing neo-fascists There are also positive spirits you can encounter on the half-astral plane; spirit of dead Timothy Leary and other old dead stoners and hippies, the spirit of Dr.Eric Hoffman, who discovered LSD, the spirit of Carlos Castaneda, Terrence McKenna, and all the other unsung heroes of psychedelica, The astral plane is a pretty laid-back place for the most part, so the next time you’re meditating, and smoking a doobie, you may wind up on the half-astral plane.
You may find the spirits of magicians, wizards and gothic magick users in general who either mispronounced the names of power, or made other mistakes in their rituals, and were exiled to the half-astral by the demons they were trying to summon and control. The more traditional astral realms are some of the following: the astral plane where all those projectors wind up; if their precious silver cord gets damaged or cut they may wind up as permanent residents of the astral plane, there’s a lot of controversy about this cord. A lot of people don’t believe it exists. We’re of the opposite camp, being long time astral travelers, we both believe in the astral cord. After all where does that jerk come from when you’re flying on the astral, and you wake up, if not from the astral cord? Where we differ with this camp of opinion, that believes in the silver astral cord, is that it’s a lot stronger and tougher than they say it is. It has to be, or the astral would be crowded with astral travelers who got stuck there. I think some people just enjoy spreading fear and disinformation wherever they go, upsetting a lot of people in the process. I think the astral silver cord is a lot like the umbilical cord that connected us to the placenta when we were babies, or the umbilical cable that connects an astronaut’s space suit to the ship when he or she does a space walk. There are many other astral planes or realms. In a way, it’s like an Escher painting, you know, the one where the walls and the sets of stairs are at funny angles to each other.
The ethereal plane is where the etheric double hangs out. There is more than one sublime body, you know. The ancient Egyptians knew of 7 separate and distinct souls. Then there is the causative plane. As you might guess, this is where the Shining Ones or Mighty Ones, the Goddesses and Gods hang out and cause the changes on the Earth plane that are Their Will. It is similar to the Briah plane in the Qabalah. If we as magicians and Witches Will to make changes in our lives on the Earth plane (Assiah), it is here we must journey. Then there are Yetzirah and Atziluth. Atziluth is at the very top, and contains only Kether. It is beyond mere causation. Yetzirah is just above Assiah. It is commonly referred to as the astral plane. Then there is Shangrilah and the Akashic plane where the akashic records are kept.
Then there are the 9 planes on Yggdrasil. The ten Sephiroth on the Tree of Life are planes. Stephen listed all these planes, and I said, “What do you think we are, Boeing?” A little humor there. The Dreamlands of H.P. Lovecraft. We’ve given you our ideas of what planes or realms there are. We’d like you to list more planes that you know of.
As of this writing, Isaac has not as yet gone to the Summerland. Knowing him, when he goes, he’ll go to the Isle of women. He has a great fondness for women, not just beautiful young women like most men his age like, but all women, old, young, fat, skinny, curvaceous women. He feels that he can learn from all of us. Isaac’s a tough old bird, he’s hanging onto life with his fingernails.
But it’s probably not too early to start sharing Isaac stories. I asked Stephen when he had first met old Boney Wits. “I first met him in 1970 shortly after arriving in Berkeley, CA. He was at Sproul Plaza harassing the Jesoids by providing countering all their arguments with better arguments. I joined him, and Isaac was impressed by the arguments I provided.” This was before “Real Magic [sic]” came out in 1971 I got my copy in 1974, and he autographed it “All my lust Isaac Bonewits” “When it came out, he had a bunch of author’s copies in the apartment that he shared with Robert Larson [Terlach]. I bought one and he autographed it for me. He also made me a Third Order Druid in ’71. We talked about druidism, magick, and thaumaturgy. He loved talking about thaumaturgy. There was a knock on the door, and Terlach told me to answer the door. There were two men in dark suits standing on the front stoop. They both had pink ties. I opened the door, and Terlach came out of his room dressed as a Viking, helmet, furs, everything. The two men were jesoids. Terlach said in his deep baritone voice ‘We’re from Odin’s Witnesses. Have you read your Eddas today?’ They left so fast they left tire tracks.”
“Then there was the time that he was walking on Telegraph Ave. carrying a sword. An unwise policeman took his sword away. He went and got a lawyer and got his sword back.”
I remember in ’76 that I saw a bunch of people at an SCA event staging a Witch burning. I was rather upset about this. I called Isaac and he got strident. I decided to write a letter to “The Page” and I was rather sarcastic about it, asking, “If we’re going to bring back Witch burning, let’s also bring back other fun things about the Middle Ages like the Plague.” I told the editor he could edit it for space considerations. The editor called me and said he liked my letter so much he was printing the entire thing..I met the guy who was head of the group who had staged the Witch burning, and he turned out to be a Witch himself. But his reasoning for staging that ”Witch burning” was never explained to me to my satisfaction.
“Isaac and I were protesting at the Japanese consulate the Japanese killing of dolphins. We had signs saying ‘Honk if you love dolphins’ and got a lot of good response. Then a limo came up, honked and parked. It was the Charlie Daniels band, who invited us to their show, and we got backstage passes and everything.”
“Isaac was really paranoid about my political affiliation, so I called the FB I, and we went in there Weinberg, Bonewits and me. I had my magickal diaries with me, so we stayed there for 8 hours correcting my file. We ordered pizza, and at last we were done. As we left I saw the guy surreptitiously push my file into the trash can. I never had any trouble with the FBI after that.”
If you knew Isaac, you can chime in with your Isaac Bonewits stories. People all over the Internet are sharing theirs. Why not here?
Back to the astral and the half astral. All the stories that ever have been written, and ever will be written are on the astral. They travel between the astral and the Akashic Library. You can also travel to the Akashic Library on the astral. All the magickal and Witchy spells that have ever been written or will ever be written are also in the Akashic Library, which is on the Akashic Plane. Akasha is Sanskrit for spirit, the fifth element.
The 5 suits of the Tattvas represent the five elemental realms. They are Prithivi, (Earth), Apas (Water), Tejas (Fire) [this may be where the name Texas came from, since much of that large state is very hot and dry], Vayu (Air), and Akasha, which you already know is Spirit. They also represent the 5 states of matter: solid, liquid, gas, plasma, and the 5th state which has no mass at all. .
Last night we did a reading for Isaac, who has, as of 8 a.m. EDT, 5 a.m. PDT August 12th, shed his mortal coil, and gone to the Summerland, where he was met by several people he knew, and one he didn’t know (Doc). We used Caitlin Matthews’ “Celtic Book of the Dead”. Well acquainted with both “The Egyptian Book of the Dead” and the “Tibetan Book of the Dead”, she thought that the Celts should have one too. She based it upon some legendary voyages, called “immramms.” We also used Stephen’s Tattwa deck. Because Isaac is dead, we used the spiral journey lay out with one of the rounds removed, that of the totemic or earth round since he had already gone. We did the “Vision” round, and then for the rest of it matched them up with the Tattwa cards, since we thought he’d be going to the elemental planes. The complete reading took 5 hours. Of course there were interruptions. One interruption was welcome. It’s from the lady who may move in here with her son. I think Doc is still looking out for me. It wasn’t just the two of us. We also had Walt and Julie, two Pagan friends of ours. I took on the Goddess of Death role and Stephen took on the God of Death role. Isaac deserved the time. The time was our sacrifice to his memory. Sacrifice is a cornerstone of most high magick , you have to show yourself worthy. You sacrifice your blood, life energy or time to prove your worthiness. It was a standard group-grope. I presented the card, added something to the book’s description if I were inspired, and passed it on to the next person. I presented the feminine perspective, whilst Stephen presented the masculine view. Walt and Julie had never met Isaac, but could contribute things about the Otherworld.
It was I, you know, who gave the name “group grope” to the group readings Stephen likes to do with a plethora of people, decks and toys. I suppose I’m a minimalist, but I don’t like anything that might distract me or my querent (querent=client) from the reading I’m doing. My table has nothing on it except the reading cloth and the deck or other tool (“She said tool, Beavis.” “Heh heh heh heh heh heh heh”) I’m using. If I have the facility, I might dress it up a bit with incense (if my querent isn’t allergic) and maybe some music playing. Stephen.likes to dress things up with several cloths on the table, doodads (including putties), everything he can think of to fancy it up, which is just too confusing for me. I also like to secure for my querent a feeling of privacy and security, which I realize is not too possible at a big festival or faire, but I want to foster a feeling of at least discretion, which is not possible if 6 people are giving their views on the card. If you know of other well known Pagans who have gone over to the astral realms besides Isaac, Gwydion, or Robin Goodfellow? If you do, please let us know.
There are many books about the astral realms in our library, but you can get some into yours by going to Mind-n-Magick and shopping in their book store. Be sure and get their toolbar. It’s free, and it’s killer.
They took the bus bench away from the sidewalk in front of the Kmart parking lot. Why are the Regional Transit people taking benches away from bus stops when they should be putting more in? It’s yet another way in which ordinary people are being shat upon just because they either aren’t rich enough to afford a car, or choose to take mass transit because they’re environmentally aware, or too old or blind to drive. Where are people supposed to sit whilst they wait for a bus that only comes when it feels like it? I’m lucky because when I start walking and taking the bus again I have my sporty red and black walker, which has a seat on it. So I have a chair wherever I go. I take my walker with me as a protest because I noticed early on that this town is notoriously short on places for people to sit either whilst walking to the shops or waiting for a bus that might or might not come. And now they’ve taken another one away.
Seven weeks ago, I broke my right ankle. It was in a gallstone attack. I went to the bathroom, and was going to go to my room again when I was hit by a wave of pain so severe that I passed out. I must’ve sat on my ankle hard because when I tried to get up, my ankle went crunch! I sank down on my rear again against the door. Stephen and I had a dialogue: ”Are you all right?” he asked.
“No, I’m in a lot of pain.”
“I’m calling 911.”
“Ok.”
He asked me the questions the dispatcher asked him. I answered them. At length they arrived. I took my book and my purse with me. We went to Kaiser Morse hospital. I gave them the address. They knew how to get there. We arrived after a few minutes. They admitted me, and the next morning, my ankle was operated on. Then I spent from then until Wednesday the 7th in the hospital. I came home, and am now in full recovery. Six weeks ago I got into my room, and finally got access to my computer. Will give you updates as we proceed. Update: a month ago I got out of the house. My physical therapist taught me how to hop down the steps using my aluminum walker. I used it to go to the liturgy meeting, and then Sunday I went to our Grove’s Lughnasadh ritual, where I donated a dollar, and offered some whiskey to Miach for my own healing, the healing of my friend Snoodlady, who was in the hospital with a serious sinus infection that gave her double vision and vertigo, and my friend Cherye who has a nasty staph infection in her legs and feet. On two fronts there were immediate results. Snoodlady felt well enough to come home on Monday, and I learned to carry my walker whilst in my wheelchair. My physical therapist taught me some exercises to do in my wheelchair, and I worked myself up to 32 of each. The last one I learned was the wheelchair pushup. I did 32 of them today, for which I am very proud of myself. Stephen thought that you should know. ..
I was right about August being my month. August 20th is my surgery date, with July 13th being my pre-op appointment with the anesthesiologist. My pre-op appointments last Friday went very well. So I am praying for quick and safe healing.
We need paid readings and donations. Send donations to my Paypal account tezra.reitan@gmail.com and to Stephen’s email account at any of his email addies. If I get $5 donations, I shall send the donor a copy of one of my ebooks. For $20, you can have all five ebooks.
Remember, if someone from a Ning network asks you to pay, say “No way!” The only way this’ll work is if we all stick together and call the a**holes on their BS. We have to be willing to walk away from our networks, because they are counting on people being scared to walk away from their networks. This guy Jason Rosenthal is a bully, and there’s only one way to deal with a bully, and that is, to stand up to him.
He managed to scrape the $87 together. But it meant cutting into the rent money. He is already $1800 in the hole for the rent, and I am $800 behind, because I can’t afford to pay $500 per month in rent.. You guys have not been doing your part. It’s not as though he’s begging for hand outs. He is willing to return value for value given. And $32 flat for a reading or a class is really a bargain. Ordinarily he charges $32 an hour, so $32 flat is a very good deal. Remember it’s 916-455-2267. Raise me on Windows Live Msgr or AIM and I’ll give you my phone number, and the hours you can call me.
Back before my accident, Stephen was able to scrape $50 together to pay our friend to put our website together, and she’s working on it now. I’m looking forward to seeing it. It should be very impressive. Fear not, we’ll keep you abreast of all developments on this front. Abbott’s Inn International School of Magick will then be on the internet map, so to speak, in a big way.
Inquiring minds want to know: How do we add music to our sites? Please let us know. The person who helps us do that earns a reading on webcam on the popular IM clients. The person who helps us establish ourselves on the Paganspace.net chat client earns a reading. We’re using readings as currency here because we have no other medium to use for an incentive. All the money we make goes for paying the bills of bare-bones living.
Stephen is hopping mad right now (appropriate for a frog, no?) because his ex-wife Debbie is taking one of the twins and giving her to a strange woman who lives at their complex. He has grown quite attached emotionally to both of them, and doesn’t like to see the pair split up. I was prepared emotionally a long time ago for this eventuality. I just don’t know why it took Debbie so long to do it. I suspect that she calculated it so as to cause the most hurt to Stephen. Yes, she is that cruel. She claims to be a Wiccan, but doesn’t abide by the Rede at all, and never has a good word to say about anyone. I try not to think about what she says about me, but I shudder at the emotional abuse she piles on their daughter. Stephen was so emotionally distraught that he broke a pair of his glasses accidentally right after she called. Debbie never lifted a hand to care for these animals from the day they were born. Until my accident, we took turns feeding them, then Stephen took it over. It was he who shelled out moneys for food and kitty litter. Debbie has never compensated him in any way for the expenses. It was I who arranged for the twins to get spayed.
Over 40 years ago, Stephen invented his own plane, the half-astral plane. So if you’re really stoned, that’s where you end up. There are many denizens of the half-astral plane, that you should try to avoid: the spirits of dead Nazis, dead Republicans, the spirits of dead popes and other potentates of slave religions, the spirits of dead Mafiosi, dead Ku Klux Klanners, dead John Birch Society members, and other right-wing neo-fascists There are also positive spirits you can encounter on the half-astral plane; spirit of dead Timothy Leary and other old dead stoners and hippies, the spirit of Dr.Eric Hoffman, who discovered LSD, the spirit of Carlos Castaneda, Terrence McKenna, and all the other unsung heroes of psychedelica, The astral plane is a pretty laid-back place for the most part, so the next time you’re meditating, and smoking a doobie, you may wind up on the half-astral plane.
You may find the spirits of magicians, wizards and gothic magick users in general who either mispronounced the names of power, or made other mistakes in their rituals, and were exiled to the half-astral by the demons they were trying to summon and control. The more traditional astral realms are some of the following: the astral plane where all those projectors wind up; if their precious silver cord gets damaged or cut they may wind up as permanent residents of the astral plane, there’s a lot of controversy about this cord. A lot of people don’t believe it exists. We’re of the opposite camp, being long time astral travelers, we both believe in the astral cord. After all where does that jerk come from when you’re flying on the astral, and you wake up, if not from the astral cord? Where we differ with this camp of opinion, that believes in the silver astral cord, is that it’s a lot stronger and tougher than they say it is. It has to be, or the astral would be crowded with astral travelers who got stuck there. I think some people just enjoy spreading fear and disinformation wherever they go, upsetting a lot of people in the process. I think the astral silver cord is a lot like the umbilical cord that connected us to the placenta when we were babies, or the umbilical cable that connects an astronaut’s space suit to the ship when he or she does a space walk. There are many other astral planes or realms. In a way, it’s like an Escher painting, you know, the one where the walls and the sets of stairs are at funny angles to each other.
The ethereal plane is where the etheric double hangs out. There is more than one sublime body, you know. The ancient Egyptians knew of 7 separate and distinct souls. Then there is the causative plane. As you might guess, this is where the Shining Ones or Mighty Ones, the Goddesses and Gods hang out and cause the changes on the Earth plane that are Their Will. It is similar to the Briah plane in the Qabalah. If we as magicians and Witches Will to make changes in our lives on the Earth plane (Assiah), it is here we must journey. Then there are Yetzirah and Atziluth. Atziluth is at the very top, and contains only Kether. It is beyond mere causation. Yetzirah is just above Assiah. It is commonly referred to as the astral plane. Then there is Shangrilah and the Akashic plane where the akashic records are kept.
Then there are the 9 planes on Yggdrasil. The ten Sephiroth on the Tree of Life are planes. Stephen listed all these planes, and I said, “What do you think we are, Boeing?” A little humor there. The Dreamlands of H.P. Lovecraft. We’ve given you our ideas of what planes or realms there are. We’d like you to list more planes that you know of.
As of this writing, Isaac has not as yet gone to the Summerland. Knowing him, when he goes, he’ll go to the Isle of women. He has a great fondness for women, not just beautiful young women like most men his age like, but all women, old, young, fat, skinny, curvaceous women. He feels that he can learn from all of us. Isaac’s a tough old bird, he’s hanging onto life with his fingernails.
But it’s probably not too early to start sharing Isaac stories. I asked Stephen when he had first met old Boney Wits. “I first met him in 1970 shortly after arriving in Berkeley, CA. He was at Sproul Plaza harassing the Jesoids by providing countering all their arguments with better arguments. I joined him, and Isaac was impressed by the arguments I provided.” This was before “Real Magic [sic]” came out in 1971 I got my copy in 1974, and he autographed it “All my lust Isaac Bonewits” “When it came out, he had a bunch of author’s copies in the apartment that he shared with Robert Larson [Terlach]. I bought one and he autographed it for me. He also made me a Third Order Druid in ’71. We talked about druidism, magick, and thaumaturgy. He loved talking about thaumaturgy. There was a knock on the door, and Terlach told me to answer the door. There were two men in dark suits standing on the front stoop. They both had pink ties. I opened the door, and Terlach came out of his room dressed as a Viking, helmet, furs, everything. The two men were jesoids. Terlach said in his deep baritone voice ‘We’re from Odin’s Witnesses. Have you read your Eddas today?’ They left so fast they left tire tracks.”
“Then there was the time that he was walking on Telegraph Ave. carrying a sword. An unwise policeman took his sword away. He went and got a lawyer and got his sword back.”
I remember in ’76 that I saw a bunch of people at an SCA event staging a Witch burning. I was rather upset about this. I called Isaac and he got strident. I decided to write a letter to “The Page” and I was rather sarcastic about it, asking, “If we’re going to bring back Witch burning, let’s also bring back other fun things about the Middle Ages like the Plague.” I told the editor he could edit it for space considerations. The editor called me and said he liked my letter so much he was printing the entire thing..I met the guy who was head of the group who had staged the Witch burning, and he turned out to be a Witch himself. But his reasoning for staging that ”Witch burning” was never explained to me to my satisfaction.
“Isaac and I were protesting at the Japanese consulate the Japanese killing of dolphins. We had signs saying ‘Honk if you love dolphins’ and got a lot of good response. Then a limo came up, honked and parked. It was the Charlie Daniels band, who invited us to their show, and we got backstage passes and everything.”
“Isaac was really paranoid about my political affiliation, so I called the FB I, and we went in there Weinberg, Bonewits and me. I had my magickal diaries with me, so we stayed there for 8 hours correcting my file. We ordered pizza, and at last we were done. As we left I saw the guy surreptitiously push my file into the trash can. I never had any trouble with the FBI after that.”
If you knew Isaac, you can chime in with your Isaac Bonewits stories. People all over the Internet are sharing theirs. Why not here?
Back to the astral and the half astral. All the stories that ever have been written, and ever will be written are on the astral. They travel between the astral and the Akashic Library. You can also travel to the Akashic Library on the astral. All the magickal and Witchy spells that have ever been written or will ever be written are also in the Akashic Library, which is on the Akashic Plane. Akasha is Sanskrit for spirit, the fifth element.
The 5 suits of the Tattvas represent the five elemental realms. They are Prithivi, (Earth), Apas (Water), Tejas (Fire) [this may be where the name Texas came from, since much of that large state is very hot and dry], Vayu (Air), and Akasha, which you already know is Spirit. They also represent the 5 states of matter: solid, liquid, gas, plasma, and the 5th state which has no mass at all. .
Last night we did a reading for Isaac, who has, as of 8 a.m. EDT, 5 a.m. PDT August 12th, shed his mortal coil, and gone to the Summerland, where he was met by several people he knew, and one he didn’t know (Doc). We used Caitlin Matthews’ “Celtic Book of the Dead”. Well acquainted with both “The Egyptian Book of the Dead” and the “Tibetan Book of the Dead”, she thought that the Celts should have one too. She based it upon some legendary voyages, called “immramms.” We also used Stephen’s Tattwa deck. Because Isaac is dead, we used the spiral journey lay out with one of the rounds removed, that of the totemic or earth round since he had already gone. We did the “Vision” round, and then for the rest of it matched them up with the Tattwa cards, since we thought he’d be going to the elemental planes. The complete reading took 5 hours. Of course there were interruptions. One interruption was welcome. It’s from the lady who may move in here with her son. I think Doc is still looking out for me. It wasn’t just the two of us. We also had Walt and Julie, two Pagan friends of ours. I took on the Goddess of Death role and Stephen took on the God of Death role. Isaac deserved the time. The time was our sacrifice to his memory. Sacrifice is a cornerstone of most high magick , you have to show yourself worthy. You sacrifice your blood, life energy or time to prove your worthiness. It was a standard group-grope. I presented the card, added something to the book’s description if I were inspired, and passed it on to the next person. I presented the feminine perspective, whilst Stephen presented the masculine view. Walt and Julie had never met Isaac, but could contribute things about the Otherworld.
It was I, you know, who gave the name “group grope” to the group readings Stephen likes to do with a plethora of people, decks and toys. I suppose I’m a minimalist, but I don’t like anything that might distract me or my querent (querent=client) from the reading I’m doing. My table has nothing on it except the reading cloth and the deck or other tool (“She said tool, Beavis.” “Heh heh heh heh heh heh heh”) I’m using. If I have the facility, I might dress it up a bit with incense (if my querent isn’t allergic) and maybe some music playing. Stephen.likes to dress things up with several cloths on the table, doodads (including putties), everything he can think of to fancy it up, which is just too confusing for me. I also like to secure for my querent a feeling of privacy and security, which I realize is not too possible at a big festival or faire, but I want to foster a feeling of at least discretion, which is not possible if 6 people are giving their views on the card. If you know of other well known Pagans who have gone over to the astral realms besides Isaac, Gwydion, or Robin Goodfellow? If you do, please let us know.
There are many books about the astral realms in our library, but you can get some into yours by going to Mind-n-Magick and shopping in their book store. Be sure and get their toolbar. It’s free, and it’s killer.
They took the bus bench away from the sidewalk in front of the Kmart parking lot. Why are the Regional Transit people taking benches away from bus stops when they should be putting more in? It’s yet another way in which ordinary people are being shat upon just because they either aren’t rich enough to afford a car, or choose to take mass transit because they’re environmentally aware, or too old or blind to drive. Where are people supposed to sit whilst they wait for a bus that only comes when it feels like it? I’m lucky because when I start walking and taking the bus again I have my sporty red and black walker, which has a seat on it. So I have a chair wherever I go. I take my walker with me as a protest because I noticed early on that this town is notoriously short on places for people to sit either whilst walking to the shops or waiting for a bus that might or might not come. And now they’ve taken another one away.
Seven weeks ago, I broke my right ankle. It was in a gallstone attack. I went to the bathroom, and was going to go to my room again when I was hit by a wave of pain so severe that I passed out. I must’ve sat on my ankle hard because when I tried to get up, my ankle went crunch! I sank down on my rear again against the door. Stephen and I had a dialogue: ”Are you all right?” he asked.
“No, I’m in a lot of pain.”
“I’m calling 911.”
“Ok.”
He asked me the questions the dispatcher asked him. I answered them. At length they arrived. I took my book and my purse with me. We went to Kaiser Morse hospital. I gave them the address. They knew how to get there. We arrived after a few minutes. They admitted me, and the next morning, my ankle was operated on. Then I spent from then until Wednesday the 7th in the hospital. I came home, and am now in full recovery. Six weeks ago I got into my room, and finally got access to my computer. Will give you updates as we proceed. Update: a month ago I got out of the house. My physical therapist taught me how to hop down the steps using my aluminum walker. I used it to go to the liturgy meeting, and then Sunday I went to our Grove’s Lughnasadh ritual, where I donated a dollar, and offered some whiskey to Miach for my own healing, the healing of my friend Snoodlady, who was in the hospital with a serious sinus infection that gave her double vision and vertigo, and my friend Cherye who has a nasty staph infection in her legs and feet. On two fronts there were immediate results. Snoodlady felt well enough to come home on Monday, and I learned to carry my walker whilst in my wheelchair. My physical therapist taught me some exercises to do in my wheelchair, and I worked myself up to 32 of each. The last one I learned was the wheelchair pushup. I did 32 of them today, for which I am very proud of myself. Stephen thought that you should know. ..
I was right about August being my month. August 20th is my surgery date, with July 13th being my pre-op appointment with the anesthesiologist. My pre-op appointments last Friday went very well. So I am praying for quick and safe healing.
We need paid readings and donations. Send donations to my Paypal account tezra.reitan@gmail.com and to Stephen’s email account at any of his email addies. If I get $5 donations, I shall send the donor a copy of one of my ebooks. For $20, you can have all five ebooks.
Remember, if someone from a Ning network asks you to pay, say “No way!” The only way this’ll work is if we all stick together and call the a**holes on their BS. We have to be willing to walk away from our networks, because they are counting on people being scared to walk away from their networks. This guy Jason Rosenthal is a bully, and there’s only one way to deal with a bully, and that is, to stand up to him.
He managed to scrape the $87 together. But it meant cutting into the rent money. He is already $1800 in the hole for the rent, and I am $800 behind, because I can’t afford to pay $500 per month in rent.. You guys have not been doing your part. It’s not as though he’s begging for hand outs. He is willing to return value for value given. And $32 flat for a reading or a class is really a bargain. Ordinarily he charges $32 an hour, so $32 flat is a very good deal. Remember it’s 916-455-2267. Raise me on Windows Live Msgr or AIM and I’ll give you my phone number, and the hours you can call me.
Back before my accident, Stephen was able to scrape $50 together to pay our friend to put our website together, and she’s working on it now. I’m looking forward to seeing it. It should be very impressive. Fear not, we’ll keep you abreast of all developments on this front. Abbott’s Inn International School of Magick will then be on the internet map, so to speak, in a big way.
Inquiring minds want to know: How do we add music to our sites? Please let us know. The person who helps us do that earns a reading on webcam on the popular IM clients. The person who helps us establish ourselves on the Paganspace.net chat client earns a reading. We’re using readings as currency here because we have no other medium to use for an incentive. All the money we make goes for paying the bills of bare-bones living.
Stephen is hopping mad right now (appropriate for a frog, no?) because his ex-wife Debbie is taking one of the twins and giving her to a strange woman who lives at their complex. He has grown quite attached emotionally to both of them, and doesn’t like to see the pair split up. I was prepared emotionally a long time ago for this eventuality. I just don’t know why it took Debbie so long to do it. I suspect that she calculated it so as to cause the most hurt to Stephen. Yes, she is that cruel. She claims to be a Wiccan, but doesn’t abide by the Rede at all, and never has a good word to say about anyone. I try not to think about what she says about me, but I shudder at the emotional abuse she piles on their daughter. Stephen was so emotionally distraught that he broke a pair of his glasses accidentally right after she called. Debbie never lifted a hand to care for these animals from the day they were born. Until my accident, we took turns feeding them, then Stephen took it over. It was he who shelled out moneys for food and kitty litter. Debbie has never compensated him in any way for the expenses. It was I who arranged for the twins to get spayed.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Ogham & Related Systems
Welcome to Grove of Ogham 8! We’re certainly glad you could make it! Do check out the other Grove of Ogham groups on other networks. We’re certainly glad to be here after such a long absence. How many of you read my Ogham Leg Healing spell that I posted last night? I wrote it about 13 years ago after a fall in which I injured my leg. Not as seriously as this broken ankle I have now. I think it was some soft tissue damage. Doc and I did the spell, and behold, it did heal. Now with this injury, I’m thinking it might be a fine thing to trot it out again, and do it.
Ogham is not especially ancient, as alphabets go, dating only from the 2nd or 3rd century CE. And it was not used for divination until modern times. Be that as it may, it still retains power, because it has been used for divination the past 60 years. Every few years usually every 5 or 10 years, there is a Pagan revival, and Ogham came up as a favored method of divination during the 70s to early 80s. If we can believe modern Pagan occult researchers/historians, there was another revival going back 40 years before to the 30s and 40s. We recommend that you check out Edred Thorsson, who, not only is an expert on the Runes, but also the Ogham. The book is “The Book of Ogham”. Another top researcher who published a book on Ogham is Paul Rhys Mountfort who wrote “Ogam: the Celtic Oracle of the Trees.” In the book are some images which would have made a fine divination deck. What we are asking all you young budding researchers out there is to do some research and find out whether Mountfort’s deck was ever published. If so, where is it available, so we can get copies for ourselves.
There are two Gods credited with the devising of Ogham/Ogam. One is Ogmios, a Gaulish God, variously portrayed as a man of great eloquence, and as a Gaulish Hercules. The other is Ogma, an Irish God. Brigit is also a good choice for working with Ogham, being the Goddess of the hearth and wisdom, the Ogham being emblematic of wisdom. She is also the sister of Ogma. This may explain why She is the Goddess of bardship. Brigit is Stephen’s matron Goddess, the Lady of the 22 names, so many roles and aspects has she, being both a Sun and a Moon Goddess. She was so powerful that the Christians couldn’t get rid of her, so they made her a saint. The legend goes that She was St. Anne’s midwife, and delivered her of Mary. I read that somewhere, but can’t remember where. If you’ve read the same legend, please let us know here where it’s from.
Even though it wasn’t used for divination until the 19th or 20th centuries, Stephen still feels that the power of the Shining Ones resides in it. Please do some research, and tell us whether it started to be used for divination during the 19th or 20th centuries.
While Stephen reads, I’ll tell you about my earliest experience with Ogham I had heard glimmerings and snatches about a Druidic alphabet. I got both the Celtic Tree Oracle and the Celtic Oracle in either the late 80s or the early 90s. Of course I reviewed them for the Greymalkin Gazette. That was the deal. I could buy any books or decks I wanted, so long as I reviewed them for the Gazette. Then I got Edred Thorsson’s “The Book of Ogham” from Llewellyn in exchange for a review, and I was hooked. I made two sets of fews (that’s the technical name for Ogham staves), following the directions in the book. I also have fabric for making two throwing cloths. I’ll never leave the Tarot behind, but I’m definitely sold on Ogham. Then Caitlin Matthews came out with her “Wisdom Sticks”, and I couldn’t rest until I got a set for myself. I tried them out on my usual guinea pigs, Rufus and Cherye, and they were delighted.
Stephen has 4 sets, dark oak and blue glass, both of which I covet, the set I created for him, and the ones by Caitlin Matthews. Stephen discovered the Ogham when he was about 12, but didn’t fully embrace it until he was 18. He studied both the Runes and Ogham, and formulated a layout which used the Tarot, the Runes, and Ogham all together. He continued to improve on his original design, which he called “The Celtic Divination Visionary Quest” divination system. Grandma pointed the way, but he had to take the path and do the work. We consider the Grove of Ogham to be one of our very best groups, and when our lives improve, and we aren’t continually in crisis/survival mode, we’ll return, and contribute more to the group. In the meantime, feel free to post discussions, spells, etc., anything having to do with the Ogham. We gave our members sweeping powers on purpose, in the hope that you would make this group your own, and post at will. We only ask one thing: that they be pertinent to the topic of Ogham.
Skip Ellison, the former ArchDruid of the ADF, wrote a book on Ogham. I don’t own a copy, but plan to as soon as I can afford one. If you know of any more Ogham sets or books, please write about them here. We both highly recommend the Celtic Oracle by Nigel Jackson and Nigel Pennick, both fine Celtic scholars and authors. If you belong to others of our groups, their names should be familiar to you. Stephen considers the Celtic Oracle to be one of the best divinatory systems around bar none. The Leaf Ogham, which is rarely used elsewhere, is the Ogham used for this card oracle. There is much mythology and magick in this deck. There are many correspondences used for this system.
Another excellent system is Caitlin Matthews’ Celtic Wisdom Sticks. It’s what we call a class act. It comes with 19 sticks, 18 that are the fews themselves, the 19th stick being the “steering column.” of the set. It has the 4 ancillary symbols of the Ogham, or as she calls it, the “Ogam.” I’m sure it’s still available. Look it up on Amazon. There is a little burlap bag to keep the fews in. All in all it is a very well made kit. It’s a class production. Stephen likes it when they throw in mythology, which the book does. This what’s known as an oracle.
.
Ms. Matthews also has a “Tarot” deck which makes extensive use of Ogham, namely the “Celtic Wisdom Tarot.” Again I find myself smitten with Tarot envy. It is a colorful deck, the artwork done in a breezy primitive style. Stephen doesn’t consider it a full Tarot deck, but I do. He says he’s more of a traditionalist than I am, which is all right. I’ll have to look it up on Amazon, and find out if it is indeed still available. If you know anything about this deck, and have information which could settle the controversy of is it a Tarot deck or just an oracle pack? Stephen concedes that it is a non-traditional Tarot deck.
If you know of any fantasy authors who use Ogham in their stories, please let us know. Please post about your own experiences using Ogham as a divinatory system, which system is best. But in the meantime let’s talk about The Liz and Colin Murray “Celtic Tree Oracle.” It’s a well-made production except for the box. Everyone we know who has a set has had to do some major repair work on the box. My box has duct tape in the corners. One would think that with new editions, they’d have improved the way they did the boxes. The Layout sheet is very well done. The deck itself has a hierarchy with chieftain trees, peasant trees, and shrubberies. No one else has used this kind of delineation. We want to know whether there is anything very recent in the way of Ogham sets. The last thing that came out was Caitlin Matthews’ “Celtic Wisdom Sticks”
Then of course there are the sets created by a craftsman known to Stephen and Sean. I lust after the set in the worst way. They got them at PantheaCon. I want to go to PantheaCon, if for no other reason than to meet this guy, and buy a set of his Ogham fews.
Stephen discovered the Ogham when he was 10 or 12, but did not get serious about it until he was 18 or 19 in 1968. From then on it was a love affair inspired by his Goddess. A book that particularly ensnared him was the book that accompanied the Celtic Tree Oracle in 1988 by the Murrays. I think that’s when I got mine, too. After that, came the Celtic Oracle by Nigel Pennick and Nigel Jackson. He was really hooked on the Ogham by this time. It has remained a favorite topic of study and mode of divination for him up through the present day, and promises to continue to be in the future. Year of Moons, Season of Trees was yet another influence on him, coming out as it did in 1991. The Celtic Wisdom Tarot, which came out in ’99, also was a source of inspiration for Stephen. In ’92 Edred Thorsson’s Book of Ogham came out. I consider that tome to be my “Ogham bible.” In 2001 the Celtic Wisdom Sticks and Ogam: the Celtic Oracle of the Trees came out, then in 2003 the Green Man Tree Oracle came out. Skip Ellison AD Emeritus for the ADF’s book on the Ogham came out in 2002. If you know when it came out, please tell me. There is a number of other oracles, including a set of wheels for Celtic Astrology, and a Druidic Animal Oracle. I swear, Stephen must have every book or set based upon the Ogham that has been published. Has there been anything since 2003? Seven years seems to be a long time without anything new on the Ogham coming out. If you know of anything, please let us know. .
Stephen is in the process of re-reading the Celtic Vision Quest Tarot with a view to doing an additional post for this post. As you may or may not know, this deck was based upon the Ogham/Ogam. One of the things Caitlin Matthews does is a page in the book where she lines up the Trumps of the Tarot with the fews of the Ogham/Ogam showing how they are equivalent. Donald Tyson did something similar in his “Secrets of the Necronomicon.” “People who make esoteric Tarot decks create these pages in order to justify their creating a new Tarot deck,” says Stephen, waxing eloquent in his purple robe. There is another diagram in the book that comes with the deck. It’s the Wheel of the Year, so esteemed by Neo-Pagans all over the world. In this diagram, she features both the Ogham/Ogam and the Trumps festooned around the circle. In a very similar fashion, The Greenwood Tarot does this too. Stephen says that he uses the Wheel of the Year in his readings, when he reads card online. All his readings go for a year and a day, and because of two books that come with the Ancestral Path Tarot and The Arthurian Tarot. In these books, he can find the date value for any cards he comes across in the reading. He uses both systems at the same time. In The Ancestral Path Tarot, the four Aces rule the four seasons, whilst in The Arthurian Tarot, the four Kings rule the seasons. .
What music do you do Ogham to? We agreed on one group, which is possibly no longer together, and that is Clannadh. Stephen get’s an extremely strong Celtic vibe, and he gets the distinct feeling that they’re Pagan even though they’ve never acknowledged it. I’d like to go further and suggest Enya. Stephen said that he knew I’d suggest that. I said “Well, you’d already said Clannadh so I couldn’t suggest that.” Why do I say Enya? Well, it puts me in a mind-space conducive to divination and other spiritual work. So we turn the question over to you eager beaver readers out there: What kind of music do you like to do Ogham/Ogam to? Why?
Which is your favorite Ogham? My favorite Ogham is Beith Birch because it falls during the period of time when my birthday falls. Birch bark can be used as paper, and its red sap can be refined into birch beer, my favorite non-alcoholic beverage besides lemonade.
The Ogham few of the day is Muin or Vine. Stephen got the idea from the Google widget “Rune for the Day.” While not one of the traditional Oghams, that doesn’t come up very often, it is a very valuable tree. From Vine we get the grapes that yield our wine. From bramble we get raspberries or blackberries for eating, baking, or wine making. I don’t know about you, but I’m very fond of blackberry wine. A loop of blackberry bramble is sacred in much the same way as a holey stone. Blackberries were considered to be of the faeries, so it was considered dangerous to eat them. It doesn’t say so anywhere, but I think the lesson here is that something may seem to be prickly, but it still has much value. Note, the meanings are not consistent because there are about a hundred different Ogham/Ogam systems, each one differing from the last.
Three weeks ago I broke my right ankle. It was in a gallstone attack. I went to the bathroom, and was going to go to my room again when I was hit by a wave of pain so severe that I passed out. I must’ve sat on my ankle hard because when I tried to get up, my ankle went crunch! I sank down on my rear again against the door. Stephen and I had a dialogue:.”Are you all right?” he asked.
“No, I’m in a lot of pain.”
“I’m calling 911.”
“Ok.”
He asked me the questions the dispatcher asked him. I answered them. At length they arrived. I took my book and my purse with me. We went to Kaiser Morse hospital. I gave them the address. They knew how to get there. We arrived after a few minutes. They admitted me, and the next morning, my ankle was operated on. Then I spent from then until Wednesday the 7th in the hospital. I came home, and am now in full recovery. Two weeks ago I got into my room, and finally got access to my computer. Will give you updates as we proceed. Update: today I got out of the house. My physical therapist taught me how to hop down the steps using my aluminum walker. I’m going to use it tomorrow night to go to the liturgy meeting, and then Saturday I go to the board meeting for the Grove..
Now I’m waiting for someone from surgery scheduling to call me and set up my pre-op appointment so I can get this damned gall bladder out. Trouble is, the woman who is the scheduler has a full mail box, and her supervisor hasn’t gotten back to me either. I’m going to see if I can get her in trouble. I finally heard from surgery scheduling, and it looks like August is my month. I’m pestering her every other day, although I may switch to every day if she doesn’t get back to me soon with a firm surgery date.
We need paid readings and donations. Send donations to my Paypal account tezra.reitan@gmail.com and to Stephen’s email account at any of his email addies. If I get $5 donations, I shall send the donor a copy of one of my ebooks. For $20, you can have all five ebooks.
Remember, if someone from a Ning network asks you to pay, say “No way!” The only way this’ll work is if we all stick together and call the a**holes on their BS, but especially Jason Rosenthal.. We have to be willing to walk away from our networks, because they are counting on people being scared to walk away from their networks. This guy Jason Rosenthal is a bully, and there’s only one way to deal with a bully, and that is, to stand up to him.
Stephen is pretty upset right now that he would need only $87 to get back his long distance and preserve his DSL. He can’t even access his voicemail anymore. You guys have not been doing your part. It’s not as though he’s begging for hand outs. He is willing to return value for value given. Just three readings would get him out of this predicament. Three readings or classes would do it. And $32 flat for a reading or a class is really a bargain. Ordinarily he charges $32 an hour, so $32 flat is a very good deal.
Back before my accident, Stephen was able to scrape $50 together to pay our friend to put our website together, and she’s working on it now. I’m looking forward to seeing it. It should be very impressive. Fear not, we’ll keep you abreast of all developments on this front. Abbott’s Inn International School of Magick will then be on the internet map, so to speak, in a big way.
Inquiring minds want to know: How do we add music to our sites? Please let us know. The person who helps us do that earns a reading on webcam on the popular IM clients. The person who helps us establish ourselves on the Paganspace.net chat client also earns a reading or a class..
Ogham is not especially ancient, as alphabets go, dating only from the 2nd or 3rd century CE. And it was not used for divination until modern times. Be that as it may, it still retains power, because it has been used for divination the past 60 years. Every few years usually every 5 or 10 years, there is a Pagan revival, and Ogham came up as a favored method of divination during the 70s to early 80s. If we can believe modern Pagan occult researchers/historians, there was another revival going back 40 years before to the 30s and 40s. We recommend that you check out Edred Thorsson, who, not only is an expert on the Runes, but also the Ogham. The book is “The Book of Ogham”. Another top researcher who published a book on Ogham is Paul Rhys Mountfort who wrote “Ogam: the Celtic Oracle of the Trees.” In the book are some images which would have made a fine divination deck. What we are asking all you young budding researchers out there is to do some research and find out whether Mountfort’s deck was ever published. If so, where is it available, so we can get copies for ourselves.
There are two Gods credited with the devising of Ogham/Ogam. One is Ogmios, a Gaulish God, variously portrayed as a man of great eloquence, and as a Gaulish Hercules. The other is Ogma, an Irish God. Brigit is also a good choice for working with Ogham, being the Goddess of the hearth and wisdom, the Ogham being emblematic of wisdom. She is also the sister of Ogma. This may explain why She is the Goddess of bardship. Brigit is Stephen’s matron Goddess, the Lady of the 22 names, so many roles and aspects has she, being both a Sun and a Moon Goddess. She was so powerful that the Christians couldn’t get rid of her, so they made her a saint. The legend goes that She was St. Anne’s midwife, and delivered her of Mary. I read that somewhere, but can’t remember where. If you’ve read the same legend, please let us know here where it’s from.
Even though it wasn’t used for divination until the 19th or 20th centuries, Stephen still feels that the power of the Shining Ones resides in it. Please do some research, and tell us whether it started to be used for divination during the 19th or 20th centuries.
While Stephen reads, I’ll tell you about my earliest experience with Ogham I had heard glimmerings and snatches about a Druidic alphabet. I got both the Celtic Tree Oracle and the Celtic Oracle in either the late 80s or the early 90s. Of course I reviewed them for the Greymalkin Gazette. That was the deal. I could buy any books or decks I wanted, so long as I reviewed them for the Gazette. Then I got Edred Thorsson’s “The Book of Ogham” from Llewellyn in exchange for a review, and I was hooked. I made two sets of fews (that’s the technical name for Ogham staves), following the directions in the book. I also have fabric for making two throwing cloths. I’ll never leave the Tarot behind, but I’m definitely sold on Ogham. Then Caitlin Matthews came out with her “Wisdom Sticks”, and I couldn’t rest until I got a set for myself. I tried them out on my usual guinea pigs, Rufus and Cherye, and they were delighted.
Stephen has 4 sets, dark oak and blue glass, both of which I covet, the set I created for him, and the ones by Caitlin Matthews. Stephen discovered the Ogham when he was about 12, but didn’t fully embrace it until he was 18. He studied both the Runes and Ogham, and formulated a layout which used the Tarot, the Runes, and Ogham all together. He continued to improve on his original design, which he called “The Celtic Divination Visionary Quest” divination system. Grandma pointed the way, but he had to take the path and do the work. We consider the Grove of Ogham to be one of our very best groups, and when our lives improve, and we aren’t continually in crisis/survival mode, we’ll return, and contribute more to the group. In the meantime, feel free to post discussions, spells, etc., anything having to do with the Ogham. We gave our members sweeping powers on purpose, in the hope that you would make this group your own, and post at will. We only ask one thing: that they be pertinent to the topic of Ogham.
Skip Ellison, the former ArchDruid of the ADF, wrote a book on Ogham. I don’t own a copy, but plan to as soon as I can afford one. If you know of any more Ogham sets or books, please write about them here. We both highly recommend the Celtic Oracle by Nigel Jackson and Nigel Pennick, both fine Celtic scholars and authors. If you belong to others of our groups, their names should be familiar to you. Stephen considers the Celtic Oracle to be one of the best divinatory systems around bar none. The Leaf Ogham, which is rarely used elsewhere, is the Ogham used for this card oracle. There is much mythology and magick in this deck. There are many correspondences used for this system.
Another excellent system is Caitlin Matthews’ Celtic Wisdom Sticks. It’s what we call a class act. It comes with 19 sticks, 18 that are the fews themselves, the 19th stick being the “steering column.” of the set. It has the 4 ancillary symbols of the Ogham, or as she calls it, the “Ogam.” I’m sure it’s still available. Look it up on Amazon. There is a little burlap bag to keep the fews in. All in all it is a very well made kit. It’s a class production. Stephen likes it when they throw in mythology, which the book does. This what’s known as an oracle.
.
Ms. Matthews also has a “Tarot” deck which makes extensive use of Ogham, namely the “Celtic Wisdom Tarot.” Again I find myself smitten with Tarot envy. It is a colorful deck, the artwork done in a breezy primitive style. Stephen doesn’t consider it a full Tarot deck, but I do. He says he’s more of a traditionalist than I am, which is all right. I’ll have to look it up on Amazon, and find out if it is indeed still available. If you know anything about this deck, and have information which could settle the controversy of is it a Tarot deck or just an oracle pack? Stephen concedes that it is a non-traditional Tarot deck.
If you know of any fantasy authors who use Ogham in their stories, please let us know. Please post about your own experiences using Ogham as a divinatory system, which system is best. But in the meantime let’s talk about The Liz and Colin Murray “Celtic Tree Oracle.” It’s a well-made production except for the box. Everyone we know who has a set has had to do some major repair work on the box. My box has duct tape in the corners. One would think that with new editions, they’d have improved the way they did the boxes. The Layout sheet is very well done. The deck itself has a hierarchy with chieftain trees, peasant trees, and shrubberies. No one else has used this kind of delineation. We want to know whether there is anything very recent in the way of Ogham sets. The last thing that came out was Caitlin Matthews’ “Celtic Wisdom Sticks”
Then of course there are the sets created by a craftsman known to Stephen and Sean. I lust after the set in the worst way. They got them at PantheaCon. I want to go to PantheaCon, if for no other reason than to meet this guy, and buy a set of his Ogham fews.
Stephen discovered the Ogham when he was 10 or 12, but did not get serious about it until he was 18 or 19 in 1968. From then on it was a love affair inspired by his Goddess. A book that particularly ensnared him was the book that accompanied the Celtic Tree Oracle in 1988 by the Murrays. I think that’s when I got mine, too. After that, came the Celtic Oracle by Nigel Pennick and Nigel Jackson. He was really hooked on the Ogham by this time. It has remained a favorite topic of study and mode of divination for him up through the present day, and promises to continue to be in the future. Year of Moons, Season of Trees was yet another influence on him, coming out as it did in 1991. The Celtic Wisdom Tarot, which came out in ’99, also was a source of inspiration for Stephen. In ’92 Edred Thorsson’s Book of Ogham came out. I consider that tome to be my “Ogham bible.” In 2001 the Celtic Wisdom Sticks and Ogam: the Celtic Oracle of the Trees came out, then in 2003 the Green Man Tree Oracle came out. Skip Ellison AD Emeritus for the ADF’s book on the Ogham came out in 2002. If you know when it came out, please tell me. There is a number of other oracles, including a set of wheels for Celtic Astrology, and a Druidic Animal Oracle. I swear, Stephen must have every book or set based upon the Ogham that has been published. Has there been anything since 2003? Seven years seems to be a long time without anything new on the Ogham coming out. If you know of anything, please let us know. .
Stephen is in the process of re-reading the Celtic Vision Quest Tarot with a view to doing an additional post for this post. As you may or may not know, this deck was based upon the Ogham/Ogam. One of the things Caitlin Matthews does is a page in the book where she lines up the Trumps of the Tarot with the fews of the Ogham/Ogam showing how they are equivalent. Donald Tyson did something similar in his “Secrets of the Necronomicon.” “People who make esoteric Tarot decks create these pages in order to justify their creating a new Tarot deck,” says Stephen, waxing eloquent in his purple robe. There is another diagram in the book that comes with the deck. It’s the Wheel of the Year, so esteemed by Neo-Pagans all over the world. In this diagram, she features both the Ogham/Ogam and the Trumps festooned around the circle. In a very similar fashion, The Greenwood Tarot does this too. Stephen says that he uses the Wheel of the Year in his readings, when he reads card online. All his readings go for a year and a day, and because of two books that come with the Ancestral Path Tarot and The Arthurian Tarot. In these books, he can find the date value for any cards he comes across in the reading. He uses both systems at the same time. In The Ancestral Path Tarot, the four Aces rule the four seasons, whilst in The Arthurian Tarot, the four Kings rule the seasons. .
What music do you do Ogham to? We agreed on one group, which is possibly no longer together, and that is Clannadh. Stephen get’s an extremely strong Celtic vibe, and he gets the distinct feeling that they’re Pagan even though they’ve never acknowledged it. I’d like to go further and suggest Enya. Stephen said that he knew I’d suggest that. I said “Well, you’d already said Clannadh so I couldn’t suggest that.” Why do I say Enya? Well, it puts me in a mind-space conducive to divination and other spiritual work. So we turn the question over to you eager beaver readers out there: What kind of music do you like to do Ogham/Ogam to? Why?
Which is your favorite Ogham? My favorite Ogham is Beith Birch because it falls during the period of time when my birthday falls. Birch bark can be used as paper, and its red sap can be refined into birch beer, my favorite non-alcoholic beverage besides lemonade.
The Ogham few of the day is Muin or Vine. Stephen got the idea from the Google widget “Rune for the Day.” While not one of the traditional Oghams, that doesn’t come up very often, it is a very valuable tree. From Vine we get the grapes that yield our wine. From bramble we get raspberries or blackberries for eating, baking, or wine making. I don’t know about you, but I’m very fond of blackberry wine. A loop of blackberry bramble is sacred in much the same way as a holey stone. Blackberries were considered to be of the faeries, so it was considered dangerous to eat them. It doesn’t say so anywhere, but I think the lesson here is that something may seem to be prickly, but it still has much value. Note, the meanings are not consistent because there are about a hundred different Ogham/Ogam systems, each one differing from the last.
Three weeks ago I broke my right ankle. It was in a gallstone attack. I went to the bathroom, and was going to go to my room again when I was hit by a wave of pain so severe that I passed out. I must’ve sat on my ankle hard because when I tried to get up, my ankle went crunch! I sank down on my rear again against the door. Stephen and I had a dialogue:.”Are you all right?” he asked.
“No, I’m in a lot of pain.”
“I’m calling 911.”
“Ok.”
He asked me the questions the dispatcher asked him. I answered them. At length they arrived. I took my book and my purse with me. We went to Kaiser Morse hospital. I gave them the address. They knew how to get there. We arrived after a few minutes. They admitted me, and the next morning, my ankle was operated on. Then I spent from then until Wednesday the 7th in the hospital. I came home, and am now in full recovery. Two weeks ago I got into my room, and finally got access to my computer. Will give you updates as we proceed. Update: today I got out of the house. My physical therapist taught me how to hop down the steps using my aluminum walker. I’m going to use it tomorrow night to go to the liturgy meeting, and then Saturday I go to the board meeting for the Grove..
Now I’m waiting for someone from surgery scheduling to call me and set up my pre-op appointment so I can get this damned gall bladder out. Trouble is, the woman who is the scheduler has a full mail box, and her supervisor hasn’t gotten back to me either. I’m going to see if I can get her in trouble. I finally heard from surgery scheduling, and it looks like August is my month. I’m pestering her every other day, although I may switch to every day if she doesn’t get back to me soon with a firm surgery date.
We need paid readings and donations. Send donations to my Paypal account tezra.reitan@gmail.com and to Stephen’s email account at any of his email addies. If I get $5 donations, I shall send the donor a copy of one of my ebooks. For $20, you can have all five ebooks.
Remember, if someone from a Ning network asks you to pay, say “No way!” The only way this’ll work is if we all stick together and call the a**holes on their BS, but especially Jason Rosenthal.. We have to be willing to walk away from our networks, because they are counting on people being scared to walk away from their networks. This guy Jason Rosenthal is a bully, and there’s only one way to deal with a bully, and that is, to stand up to him.
Stephen is pretty upset right now that he would need only $87 to get back his long distance and preserve his DSL. He can’t even access his voicemail anymore. You guys have not been doing your part. It’s not as though he’s begging for hand outs. He is willing to return value for value given. Just three readings would get him out of this predicament. Three readings or classes would do it. And $32 flat for a reading or a class is really a bargain. Ordinarily he charges $32 an hour, so $32 flat is a very good deal.
Back before my accident, Stephen was able to scrape $50 together to pay our friend to put our website together, and she’s working on it now. I’m looking forward to seeing it. It should be very impressive. Fear not, we’ll keep you abreast of all developments on this front. Abbott’s Inn International School of Magick will then be on the internet map, so to speak, in a big way.
Inquiring minds want to know: How do we add music to our sites? Please let us know. The person who helps us do that earns a reading on webcam on the popular IM clients. The person who helps us establish ourselves on the Paganspace.net chat client also earns a reading or a class..
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Sex and the Single Familiar
Welcome to Magickal Familiars & their Powers 5! We’re glad you could make it. Do check out the other Magickal Familiars & their Powers groups on other networks. We just finished an interesting week. Some weeks ago I became concerned about the increasing population of kittens around our place. My therapist got a printout for me of the home page of the local SPCA. They have a program, supported by donations, of free neutering and spaying of the pets of low income people. So I made some phone calls, received some vouchers in the mail, and set things up. I talked to an extremely nice lady named Rosemary and we set the whole thing up. Our friend Walt (the artist) made the supreme sacrifice of getting up at O-god-o’clock in the morning to take me and the cats to the SPCA clinic. The night before I took their food and water away, the next morning we put the twins in the carriers in the truck, and took them. Then today we did the same thing with Pyewacket and Dr. Livingston I. Presume. At 4:30 both Wednesday and today we picked them up, brought them home, and laughed a little at their wobbly attempts to walk around the room. Wednesday I comforted Frikki, and this evening I comforted Pyewacket. Comforting consists of letting the cat lie in my lap, stroking her, and saying nonsense things in a soothing tone such as “Wubba wubba wubba the girl,” and “Zooba zum zum zooba zooba birds.” I don’t know what it means, but it seems to make the putties feel better. If you have an animal, get it spayed or neutered. When I read the figure of puppies and kittens that have to be destroyed each year, it was over 7 million per year, and that was several years ago. I’m sure that the number has gone up by now to 8 or 9 million. The SPCA has a great low cost program, and around here, even free if you are low income like Stephen and I are. Also the animal lives longer if it gets spayed or neutered. Having a litter of kittens every few months takes a lot out of a female, and they’re also closer to their humans if they’re spayed. Same for boys. He doesn’t spray, roam, or get into fights where he could get abscesses that will kill him. He is also like the females a more affectionate cat. The only exceptions are if you have a pedigreed animal that you are prepared and set up to breed under strict control. Also use the SPCA’s adoption service, both to obtain an animal, and if you have excess puppies and kittens have them get them adopted for you.
We just used a bit of putty psychology. I had gone and gotten a little kitty kibble on a plastic lid, and fed it to Pyewacket. Then when she’d had all she wanted, we gave it to Frikki. When she was reluctant, we put some putty treats on the lid, and she ate that. We’re feeding Pyewacket special because she’s a bit on the scrawny side.
Familiars don’t have to be cats, of course. They can be dogs, horses, frogs, toads, and even plants and stones. A very fine rather blurry line separates the familiar from the totem animal. Raven Grimassi wrote an excellent book on the magickal familiar. You can probably find it either at Llewellyn.com, or at Amazon.com.
Familiars are basically extensions of the magician’s or Witch’s own personal power. The magician or Witch puts some of hir own power into the familiar, and works with it. S/he also projects a portion of hir own consciousness into the familiar. The familiar thus becomes an extension of the magick user’s own will, much like the wand, athame, or sword.
You can’t use it on very young kittens, but tea tree oil scares away fleas. It smells funny, so the cats hate it. This is a public service message. This is to encourage you to use herbs and other natural remedies whenever possible. It’s better for us, better for the animals, better for the earth. What other areas of working with familiars do you members want to explore?
For many years, Stephen had iguanas as familiars. The nice thing about reptiles is that they don’t have the dander that will set off an asthmatic’s allergies. The thing about lizards is that they have been used as familiars for many years Dragon familiars is what they’re called. How many of you have a love of dragons and dragon lore? The idea of dragons as familiars can be found in many fantasy based sources. From 19 89 until 1995, Tegwedd had a snake, a red-tailed Columbian boa named Tonantzin. She only gave her up when Tonantzin got to be too big to handle. But Stephen is sure there are non-fantasy sources as well for wizards and their dragon familiars. Do you know of any non-fiction sources for these? One fiction source is “The Harper Hall of Pern” by Anne McCaffrey. It’s about a harpist in training who attracts a bevy of fire lizards, who are attracted to her music. It’s really good. I recommend it.
The Golden Compass by Phillip Pullman is another book or series of books that has familiars in the plot, only these are called daemons, and are dangerously close to being totem animals. There are other fantasies where familiars play a role. If you have your favorite fantasy that has familiars, we’d like to hear about it. A TV show that died long ago, but you might be able to catch it if you have cable or satellite, is “Beastmaster”. What I remember was that the guy had a great ass, and looked great in a loincloth. He could see from the pov of a tiger and an eagle. He also had two trained ferrets. Then there were the 2 Dr, Doolittle films. Then there was “Bardic Choices” by Mercedes Lackey, where the main character had a relationship with an intelligent bird creature who sang along with her. It just serves to point out the love relationship between a magick user and hir familiar.
According to Ann Moura, the term familiar comes from the familiar servants retained by churchmen, and so they would call the Witches’ companion animals by a term they were themselves, ahem! familiar with. The term has come down to us from the confessions of these supposed Witches, obtained as they were through the use of such tortures that would make today’s water boarding resemble being tickled with a feather by comparison. The movie “Bell, Book & Candle” also featured a familiar who was a male Siamese named Pyewacket. The name Pyewacket means lively spirit, and comes down to us from the broadsides of Matthew Hopkins, the Witchfinder General, who had published an account of a Witch he had apprehended. The name Pyewacket is neither masculine nor feminine. I have had two cats named Pyewacket, and now have a third. .
There are 3 animal decks which Stephen strongly recommends: Druid Animal Oracle by Druid and Stephanie Carr-Gomm. The second is Beasts of Albion by Miranda Gray. Miranda Gray is a heavy hitter and a class act. If you are a member of some of our other groups, elsewhere on the internet, you’ve seen her name before in connection with books on Celtic history, legends, and magick. Then there’s the Celtic Oracle by Gerry Maguire Thompson, which includes animals. I too have a couple of animal decks. I have the Magical Menagerie. Sorry, don’t know the author, so can’t tell you who it’s by. But I think it’s a Llewellyn deck. The other animal deck I have is the Medicine Cards by Jamie Sams & David Carson, published by Bear & Co., Santa Fe, NM. Then there’s the Animal Tarot by Ted Andrews. I own a copy of the White Cat from Lo Scarabeo, an imprint of Llewellyn. The artwork is by Severino Baraldi. Stephen feels that the deck has a jesoid vibe and I feel that Christians have no business dealing with the Tarot. It is a Pagan mystery.
Then there is the Cat People Tarot by Karen Kuykendall.. I met her at a SciFi convention back before my daughter Janvier was born, at least I thought that’s when it came out. But Janvier was born in 1982, and the copyright isn’t until 1985.. She was a very nice middle aged lady dressed in one of the costumes the humans on the cards were wearing. They reminded me of noble and Imperial Byzantine dress. It was the deck in my collection that Janvier selected to use to do readings with when I taught her how to read tarot at age 7. It was with this deck that she gave Stephen a reading at a party after the New Age fair, and knocked his socks off.
.We mentioned dragons above. There are several dragon Tarot decks. One such is by D.J. Conway and Lisa Hunt, the Celtic Dragon Tarot. I like it because the humans are all dressed in medieval garb. Another dragon deck is the Dragon Tarot by Terry Donaldson and Peter Pracowith. If there are other dragon decks, please let us know. Then there’s the Dragons’ Tarot from Lo Scarabeo by Manfredi Toraldo and Severino Baraldi.
The 7 puttiettes are now up to exploring the house. I named the first to venture out of Stephen’s room Magellan after the great explorer. So I’ll put the question to you: Why have familiars anyway? Why bother with the muss and fuss? I’ll answer for myself, then Stephen will answer, and then you can answer. And remember, we want to hear from all of you, not just a few. For one thing, familiars, if they are animals that go both inside and out, they can be our eyes and ears on the ground, so to speak. Also certain toads, of the bufano genus secrete a mucus that is hallucinogenic. From all reports, it doesn’t taste very good, but it does produce a powerful trip. I don’t recommend it though. If they are indoor creatures, they serve as temple guardians. Cats are especially good for this. When I was hanging around Thelema Lodge and the Supreme Swamp a lot there was a woman named Caitlin who was breeding pocket sized cats as temple guardians. Astral nasties have a natural aversion to cats, because cats can sense them and take them out before we humans with our limited senses can detect their presence. “It’s fun to have an extension of yourself that isn’t human,” says Stephen. “I personally enjoy critters, in some cases more than I enjoy people. So I see it as a logical following to have a familiar to love.” I can see where he’s coming from. I would rather have the company of a cat than 95% of the human race. “Our putties are the 5 elements, and this house is Puttyhaven. Putty Central. This is the headquarters for the putty conspiracy.”
Familiars can see the spirit-world. I’ve already mentioned this in passing in the previous paragraph, but Stephen wants to make a point of saying it. A lot of people have familiars because they want to have contact with the spirits. According to the old traditions, the magick user would put hir consciousness in the critter, ad be able to sense what the critter does. Another example would be the falconer and hir hawk. If the falconer is also a magick user, s/he can fly with it. Another connection is that with dolphins or whales. Another connection is what which cats have with the dream world, because they love to sleep, and they do dream.
I’ve already said that there is a very fine blurred line between familiars and totems (animal allies). The concept of totems comes from shamanism, which is very close to Witchcraft. In fact, while the term shamanism refers to the magick of people in tribal cultures, Witchcraft is the shamanism of north-western Europe. The familiar is the animal ally of a western or European shaman. Popular totems or familiars of Northern European shamans before the devastating advent of Christianity were the wolf, the bear, and the raven. Odin, the Norse All-Father himself had 2 ravens named Munin (memory) and Hugin (thought). If those aren’t familiars, Id like to know what is! Traditional familiars were not really animals but imps or nature spirits, that is, if you want to believe the Witch hunters and confessions of “witches”. As we now know, the “witches” were willing to confess to anything the sick twisted perverted minds of the interrogators could come up with. These “imps” had a trickster nature, rather like the Native American Coyote, and were parasitic upon the “witch”, using body marks like moles to suckle blood from her. Thus the Witch hunter would go about with a special retractable pick that would recess into its handle so that the pick would not penetrate the skin of his victim or draw blood.
Here’s the situation: Jason Rosenthal, probably a Christian Republican, the new CEO of Ning, intends to put the Ning networks on a paying basis. That means no more free networks, no more joining other people’s networks for free, either because you know that the owners of the paying networks are going to pass their exorbitant costs onto us. What do you say to that? Make a noise, make a big noise. Make a noise so big and loud that Rosenthal can hear it. The next noise he’ll hear is the thundering of many footsteps as we all leave. We have to fight for our rights. We can’t let assholes like Rosenthal dictate to us. This kind of fascist BS should not be allowed to happen. We should do a letter writing campaign to fight this a-h. We have to fight this biotch. This fascist crap cannot stand. We have to get going right away. If everyone protests, it’ll make him go broke and he’ll be fired. We got support for our position from an unexpected quarter. A friend of mine, whom Stephen can’t stand, both because of his politics and his lovestyle (he’s a Reagan Republican and a Gorean) said that what Rosenthal was doing in phasing out the free services was a bad business decision. “People would be coming to him from the free services to get the premium paid services, but he’s cut that part of his Market out. He should keep both.” Let’s boycott Ning, and any of the networks that cave-in to his Gestapo tactics. If any network says you must pay to play, just say no, and get all your friends to say no too. Spread it around, tell everyone you know. Don’t keep it a secret. I have been sending my blog to all the Ning networks I’m on. “We have to stop this neo-Ning fascism,” says Stephen.
We need at least $3000 to move. 916-455-2267 is Stephen’s number for multimedia readings. Just 93.75 readings would do the trick. Don’t stand by and figure that your neighbor or your friend will do it, so you don’t need to. We need your donation too. Every little bit helps. Don’t forget that you can donate to Stephen’s Paypal account. abbottsinn@gmail.com. Also call 1-800-ASK-KEEN and ask for Stephen6580. Or call 1-800-280-8496.Stephen 1580 Stephen now has.$250 in his account which is not enough to pay rent.
One of the psychic reading services that Stephen works for has changed hands. Zodiac (Celebrity Psychics.com) has changed hands and names. It is now Psychic Power. They are recruiting new readers. Stephen gets $50 for anyone who signs up and $100 for someone who signs up and racks up 500 minutes.
Stephen’s done it. He’s gone over to Chase with me. It came to a head because an agent at Bunko de America told him that he had enough money to write $900 in checks to our landlady to pay off his back rent when he didn’t have the money. Now you should understand that Stephen is even more math challenged than I am. He was sick for 5 days with asthma symptoms and wasn’t able to call them to ascertain his balance, or he would have caught the error sooner. They charged him $900 in overdraft charges, and paid everything except for the Rhapsody charge, and his porn. Now I can understand why they wouldn’t have paid the porn one, but the Rhapsody? Why didn’t they pay that one? He just called Bunko de America, and they still won’t own up to any of their responsibility in this. SSI plays a role in this whole thing too because they toyed with him for two hours, letting him think that they were going to cut him an emergency check, then reneged on him. Now folks, this is two hours when he could have been doing readings, and getting his overdraft down. And they turned around and called the sheriff on him. So maybe now you understand why Stephen is so depressed and angry. I realize that you’re probably all out of compassion. I know I am. But the need is real, and the need is dire. He is no longer suicidal, but another setback could send him over the edge again. Of course I have a plan of action now if he turns suicidal again. I’ll call 911, and have him go in on a 5150. In this state, that’s the code for in danger of harming himself or others. This way he’ll get the help he needs.
Now I’m in need of readings too. I need to put in my share of our moving money. My PayPal account is tezra.reitan@gmail.com. For a donation of $5, I’ll send you a copy of one of my books, and for $32, I’ll give you a reading by phone. For $20, I’ll send you a copy of all five of my books. 916-457-7476 is my number. I can’t give you a multi-media reading, because I don’t have my webcam and headset hooked up yet. For that, you’ll have to call Stephen at 916-455-2267.
Our friend Julie Maahs has a book out called the Serpent and the Stag. It can be found at http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/10619. I urge you strongly to buy a download, and tell your friends. She is publicizing it through viral marketing; or what used to be called word-of-mouth advertising. She’s directing the book towards a Pagan audience. It’s a murder mystery with nice contorted twists and turns. When I read it, I saw it as though it were a movie and I was the lighting director/art director. If you review books, contact her at julie@your-taxes.com and she will send you the free coupon code so you can get a free download. She wants a copy of the review, so send her a copy. I sent her a copy and also posted it on Blogger.
There are four putties we need to give up. Ordinarily I would’ve said “free to good homes,” but a very wise friend told me this past weekend that we should charge something for them so that the prospective owner demonstrates that s/he has enough disposable income to care for a pet. So we’ll charge the nominal $10. We’re looking for people who love cats as much as we do. Soon there will be five more puttiettes that need homes. Oreo had seven kittens about a month ago, but 2 are spoken for already.
We greatly fear that Isaac Bonewits, founder of the ADF, and foremost Neo-Pagan, may be dying. We are trying to keep a positive spin on this in line with the Secret, and the Law of Attraction, but his doctors are not hopeful. They came out and said , “This man needs a miracle,” so we have been doing rituals towards that end. We talked to Brigit on the Goddess phone and everything. I realize full well that losing many people that you love is the price of longevity, but I’ve lost too many recently. To lose Isaac on top of losing Robin Goodfellow is just too much for me.
. .
We just used a bit of putty psychology. I had gone and gotten a little kitty kibble on a plastic lid, and fed it to Pyewacket. Then when she’d had all she wanted, we gave it to Frikki. When she was reluctant, we put some putty treats on the lid, and she ate that. We’re feeding Pyewacket special because she’s a bit on the scrawny side.
Familiars don’t have to be cats, of course. They can be dogs, horses, frogs, toads, and even plants and stones. A very fine rather blurry line separates the familiar from the totem animal. Raven Grimassi wrote an excellent book on the magickal familiar. You can probably find it either at Llewellyn.com, or at Amazon.com.
Familiars are basically extensions of the magician’s or Witch’s own personal power. The magician or Witch puts some of hir own power into the familiar, and works with it. S/he also projects a portion of hir own consciousness into the familiar. The familiar thus becomes an extension of the magick user’s own will, much like the wand, athame, or sword.
You can’t use it on very young kittens, but tea tree oil scares away fleas. It smells funny, so the cats hate it. This is a public service message. This is to encourage you to use herbs and other natural remedies whenever possible. It’s better for us, better for the animals, better for the earth. What other areas of working with familiars do you members want to explore?
For many years, Stephen had iguanas as familiars. The nice thing about reptiles is that they don’t have the dander that will set off an asthmatic’s allergies. The thing about lizards is that they have been used as familiars for many years Dragon familiars is what they’re called. How many of you have a love of dragons and dragon lore? The idea of dragons as familiars can be found in many fantasy based sources. From 19 89 until 1995, Tegwedd had a snake, a red-tailed Columbian boa named Tonantzin. She only gave her up when Tonantzin got to be too big to handle. But Stephen is sure there are non-fantasy sources as well for wizards and their dragon familiars. Do you know of any non-fiction sources for these? One fiction source is “The Harper Hall of Pern” by Anne McCaffrey. It’s about a harpist in training who attracts a bevy of fire lizards, who are attracted to her music. It’s really good. I recommend it.
The Golden Compass by Phillip Pullman is another book or series of books that has familiars in the plot, only these are called daemons, and are dangerously close to being totem animals. There are other fantasies where familiars play a role. If you have your favorite fantasy that has familiars, we’d like to hear about it. A TV show that died long ago, but you might be able to catch it if you have cable or satellite, is “Beastmaster”. What I remember was that the guy had a great ass, and looked great in a loincloth. He could see from the pov of a tiger and an eagle. He also had two trained ferrets. Then there were the 2 Dr, Doolittle films. Then there was “Bardic Choices” by Mercedes Lackey, where the main character had a relationship with an intelligent bird creature who sang along with her. It just serves to point out the love relationship between a magick user and hir familiar.
According to Ann Moura, the term familiar comes from the familiar servants retained by churchmen, and so they would call the Witches’ companion animals by a term they were themselves, ahem! familiar with. The term has come down to us from the confessions of these supposed Witches, obtained as they were through the use of such tortures that would make today’s water boarding resemble being tickled with a feather by comparison. The movie “Bell, Book & Candle” also featured a familiar who was a male Siamese named Pyewacket. The name Pyewacket means lively spirit, and comes down to us from the broadsides of Matthew Hopkins, the Witchfinder General, who had published an account of a Witch he had apprehended. The name Pyewacket is neither masculine nor feminine. I have had two cats named Pyewacket, and now have a third. .
There are 3 animal decks which Stephen strongly recommends: Druid Animal Oracle by Druid and Stephanie Carr-Gomm. The second is Beasts of Albion by Miranda Gray. Miranda Gray is a heavy hitter and a class act. If you are a member of some of our other groups, elsewhere on the internet, you’ve seen her name before in connection with books on Celtic history, legends, and magick. Then there’s the Celtic Oracle by Gerry Maguire Thompson, which includes animals. I too have a couple of animal decks. I have the Magical Menagerie. Sorry, don’t know the author, so can’t tell you who it’s by. But I think it’s a Llewellyn deck. The other animal deck I have is the Medicine Cards by Jamie Sams & David Carson, published by Bear & Co., Santa Fe, NM. Then there’s the Animal Tarot by Ted Andrews. I own a copy of the White Cat from Lo Scarabeo, an imprint of Llewellyn. The artwork is by Severino Baraldi. Stephen feels that the deck has a jesoid vibe and I feel that Christians have no business dealing with the Tarot. It is a Pagan mystery.
Then there is the Cat People Tarot by Karen Kuykendall.. I met her at a SciFi convention back before my daughter Janvier was born, at least I thought that’s when it came out. But Janvier was born in 1982, and the copyright isn’t until 1985.. She was a very nice middle aged lady dressed in one of the costumes the humans on the cards were wearing. They reminded me of noble and Imperial Byzantine dress. It was the deck in my collection that Janvier selected to use to do readings with when I taught her how to read tarot at age 7. It was with this deck that she gave Stephen a reading at a party after the New Age fair, and knocked his socks off.
.We mentioned dragons above. There are several dragon Tarot decks. One such is by D.J. Conway and Lisa Hunt, the Celtic Dragon Tarot. I like it because the humans are all dressed in medieval garb. Another dragon deck is the Dragon Tarot by Terry Donaldson and Peter Pracowith. If there are other dragon decks, please let us know. Then there’s the Dragons’ Tarot from Lo Scarabeo by Manfredi Toraldo and Severino Baraldi.
The 7 puttiettes are now up to exploring the house. I named the first to venture out of Stephen’s room Magellan after the great explorer. So I’ll put the question to you: Why have familiars anyway? Why bother with the muss and fuss? I’ll answer for myself, then Stephen will answer, and then you can answer. And remember, we want to hear from all of you, not just a few. For one thing, familiars, if they are animals that go both inside and out, they can be our eyes and ears on the ground, so to speak. Also certain toads, of the bufano genus secrete a mucus that is hallucinogenic. From all reports, it doesn’t taste very good, but it does produce a powerful trip. I don’t recommend it though. If they are indoor creatures, they serve as temple guardians. Cats are especially good for this. When I was hanging around Thelema Lodge and the Supreme Swamp a lot there was a woman named Caitlin who was breeding pocket sized cats as temple guardians. Astral nasties have a natural aversion to cats, because cats can sense them and take them out before we humans with our limited senses can detect their presence. “It’s fun to have an extension of yourself that isn’t human,” says Stephen. “I personally enjoy critters, in some cases more than I enjoy people. So I see it as a logical following to have a familiar to love.” I can see where he’s coming from. I would rather have the company of a cat than 95% of the human race. “Our putties are the 5 elements, and this house is Puttyhaven. Putty Central. This is the headquarters for the putty conspiracy.”
Familiars can see the spirit-world. I’ve already mentioned this in passing in the previous paragraph, but Stephen wants to make a point of saying it. A lot of people have familiars because they want to have contact with the spirits. According to the old traditions, the magick user would put hir consciousness in the critter, ad be able to sense what the critter does. Another example would be the falconer and hir hawk. If the falconer is also a magick user, s/he can fly with it. Another connection is that with dolphins or whales. Another connection is what which cats have with the dream world, because they love to sleep, and they do dream.
I’ve already said that there is a very fine blurred line between familiars and totems (animal allies). The concept of totems comes from shamanism, which is very close to Witchcraft. In fact, while the term shamanism refers to the magick of people in tribal cultures, Witchcraft is the shamanism of north-western Europe. The familiar is the animal ally of a western or European shaman. Popular totems or familiars of Northern European shamans before the devastating advent of Christianity were the wolf, the bear, and the raven. Odin, the Norse All-Father himself had 2 ravens named Munin (memory) and Hugin (thought). If those aren’t familiars, Id like to know what is! Traditional familiars were not really animals but imps or nature spirits, that is, if you want to believe the Witch hunters and confessions of “witches”. As we now know, the “witches” were willing to confess to anything the sick twisted perverted minds of the interrogators could come up with. These “imps” had a trickster nature, rather like the Native American Coyote, and were parasitic upon the “witch”, using body marks like moles to suckle blood from her. Thus the Witch hunter would go about with a special retractable pick that would recess into its handle so that the pick would not penetrate the skin of his victim or draw blood.
Here’s the situation: Jason Rosenthal, probably a Christian Republican, the new CEO of Ning, intends to put the Ning networks on a paying basis. That means no more free networks, no more joining other people’s networks for free, either because you know that the owners of the paying networks are going to pass their exorbitant costs onto us. What do you say to that? Make a noise, make a big noise. Make a noise so big and loud that Rosenthal can hear it. The next noise he’ll hear is the thundering of many footsteps as we all leave. We have to fight for our rights. We can’t let assholes like Rosenthal dictate to us. This kind of fascist BS should not be allowed to happen. We should do a letter writing campaign to fight this a-h. We have to fight this biotch. This fascist crap cannot stand. We have to get going right away. If everyone protests, it’ll make him go broke and he’ll be fired. We got support for our position from an unexpected quarter. A friend of mine, whom Stephen can’t stand, both because of his politics and his lovestyle (he’s a Reagan Republican and a Gorean) said that what Rosenthal was doing in phasing out the free services was a bad business decision. “People would be coming to him from the free services to get the premium paid services, but he’s cut that part of his Market out. He should keep both.” Let’s boycott Ning, and any of the networks that cave-in to his Gestapo tactics. If any network says you must pay to play, just say no, and get all your friends to say no too. Spread it around, tell everyone you know. Don’t keep it a secret. I have been sending my blog to all the Ning networks I’m on. “We have to stop this neo-Ning fascism,” says Stephen.
We need at least $3000 to move. 916-455-2267 is Stephen’s number for multimedia readings. Just 93.75 readings would do the trick. Don’t stand by and figure that your neighbor or your friend will do it, so you don’t need to. We need your donation too. Every little bit helps. Don’t forget that you can donate to Stephen’s Paypal account. abbottsinn@gmail.com. Also call 1-800-ASK-KEEN and ask for Stephen6580. Or call 1-800-280-8496.Stephen 1580 Stephen now has.$250 in his account which is not enough to pay rent.
One of the psychic reading services that Stephen works for has changed hands. Zodiac (Celebrity Psychics.com) has changed hands and names. It is now Psychic Power. They are recruiting new readers. Stephen gets $50 for anyone who signs up and $100 for someone who signs up and racks up 500 minutes.
Stephen’s done it. He’s gone over to Chase with me. It came to a head because an agent at Bunko de America told him that he had enough money to write $900 in checks to our landlady to pay off his back rent when he didn’t have the money. Now you should understand that Stephen is even more math challenged than I am. He was sick for 5 days with asthma symptoms and wasn’t able to call them to ascertain his balance, or he would have caught the error sooner. They charged him $900 in overdraft charges, and paid everything except for the Rhapsody charge, and his porn. Now I can understand why they wouldn’t have paid the porn one, but the Rhapsody? Why didn’t they pay that one? He just called Bunko de America, and they still won’t own up to any of their responsibility in this. SSI plays a role in this whole thing too because they toyed with him for two hours, letting him think that they were going to cut him an emergency check, then reneged on him. Now folks, this is two hours when he could have been doing readings, and getting his overdraft down. And they turned around and called the sheriff on him. So maybe now you understand why Stephen is so depressed and angry. I realize that you’re probably all out of compassion. I know I am. But the need is real, and the need is dire. He is no longer suicidal, but another setback could send him over the edge again. Of course I have a plan of action now if he turns suicidal again. I’ll call 911, and have him go in on a 5150. In this state, that’s the code for in danger of harming himself or others. This way he’ll get the help he needs.
Now I’m in need of readings too. I need to put in my share of our moving money. My PayPal account is tezra.reitan@gmail.com. For a donation of $5, I’ll send you a copy of one of my books, and for $32, I’ll give you a reading by phone. For $20, I’ll send you a copy of all five of my books. 916-457-7476 is my number. I can’t give you a multi-media reading, because I don’t have my webcam and headset hooked up yet. For that, you’ll have to call Stephen at 916-455-2267.
Our friend Julie Maahs has a book out called the Serpent and the Stag. It can be found at http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/10619. I urge you strongly to buy a download, and tell your friends. She is publicizing it through viral marketing; or what used to be called word-of-mouth advertising. She’s directing the book towards a Pagan audience. It’s a murder mystery with nice contorted twists and turns. When I read it, I saw it as though it were a movie and I was the lighting director/art director. If you review books, contact her at julie@your-taxes.com and she will send you the free coupon code so you can get a free download. She wants a copy of the review, so send her a copy. I sent her a copy and also posted it on Blogger.
There are four putties we need to give up. Ordinarily I would’ve said “free to good homes,” but a very wise friend told me this past weekend that we should charge something for them so that the prospective owner demonstrates that s/he has enough disposable income to care for a pet. So we’ll charge the nominal $10. We’re looking for people who love cats as much as we do. Soon there will be five more puttiettes that need homes. Oreo had seven kittens about a month ago, but 2 are spoken for already.
We greatly fear that Isaac Bonewits, founder of the ADF, and foremost Neo-Pagan, may be dying. We are trying to keep a positive spin on this in line with the Secret, and the Law of Attraction, but his doctors are not hopeful. They came out and said , “This man needs a miracle,” so we have been doing rituals towards that end. We talked to Brigit on the Goddess phone and everything. I realize full well that losing many people that you love is the price of longevity, but I’ve lost too many recently. To lose Isaac on top of losing Robin Goodfellow is just too much for me.
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