Love & the Single Witch

Who am I? Got a few hours? Some day I’ll write my memoirs, and when I do, I’ll title it “What a Long Strange Trip It’s Been,” which is a line from a Grateful Dead song, “Truckin’”. Yes, I’m from THAT generation. No, I never was a hippie. I had to work for a living, and I didn’t drop out of college. I also like taking showers and baths too much to be a hippie. I’ve been a Witch almost 38 years, maybe more. I actually sought out Witchcraft when I was in college. I started with what would in the ‘80s be called “ghost busting” and divination with playing cards.

I received my first Tarot deck for Yule, 1969, from my then boyfriend. I bought De Lawrence’s book on the Tarot, which I still have. I don’t have the deck, however, I gave it away to this gay guy I used to know. I taught myself to read Tarot from that book, but had at least three actual teachers along the way. Unfortunately, one of them is deceased. I learned a lot from her. But in early 1970, I knew only what was in that book. But it was enough to tell a cop I was dating how unethical readers bilk their clients. I can’t tell you how I knew the tricks; they just came to me.

In April of 1976, I was initiated into the 1st degree of the NROOGD tradition. In 1984, Barbara Frederick and I formed the Witchaven Society, a group (not really a coven) that grew out of her correspondence with a few prison inmates. I didn’t approve of her choice of menfolk. I’ve always been fussier about who I would be with than she has been. I wouldn’t give her choices a second look, except to think to myself “She’s seeing THAT?” She was satisfied that the guy would want to be seen with her. For me, a man had to bring some benefit to Witchaven. Our apprentices didn’t always work out. We decided to set requirements candidates had to meet in order to be taught by us. She decided to have them wait 3 or 6 months. I decided to have a task oriented set so that if they qualified, they’d have a head start on their learning. I took my cue from the Witches in the faery tales. I’ve always been fond of and came up with five tasks that the candidate had to perform to get hir dedicant necklace. I’ll list and describe them for you now.

1) Read three books from the 13 book long reading list. I prepared the reading list with care, looking for books that would give the dedicant a good idea of what Wicca was all about, at least the trad I was teaching. I didn’t have to have a formal book report, just an idea that the apprentice had read the books, and understood what was in them, and why I had assigned it.

2) Start a magickal diary/journal. This will be your lab notebook, where you will put the conditions under which you performed a given spell or ritual, and any spiritual experiences you have.

3) Write an article or poem for the Greymalkin Gazette. The poem should be at least ten well chosen lines, and spiritual, preferably Pagan in subject matter. The article should be either a “Who I Am & How I Got Here” or a how to article on some spell or tool pertaining to Wicca. One young lady did an article on how to make ritual robes. The article should be at least 300 words long and no longer than 900 words. A quick and dirty way of counting the words is to count the words in a typical line, then count the number of full lines on a page, then multiplying the number of words in a line by how many lines in a page. A line that is a half a line or fewer words long can be combined with another half line to be counted as a full line.

4) &5) These tasks go together, but are two separate steps. First identify some reason why we might not work successfully together. Such reasons can be such things as substance abuse (alcohol, nicotine or other drugs) attitude, or other. I may make it easy for you by mentioning some obstacle. Then you go directly to task #5 which is to remove that obstacle. This may be the most difficult task of all, but #4 may be tricky. If you believe that another person is your obstacle, be careful. The other person is not the obstacle, your attitude towards both the other person, and me, your teacher is the true obstacle here.

Since the Greymalkin Gazette is now a group, which I will eventually bring here, task #3 will be published in all the Greymalkin Gazette groups we have so far.

I was with my Significant Other Doc Richard Fulton for 16 years and 3 months. During that time I was deeply in love, perhaps for the first time in my life. I should have known it couldn’t last, that the Gods and Goddesses would take him away from me. I trusted him more than any man I have ever been with in my life.

As my profile will tell you, I’m a writer, a Witch, a Druid, a Thelemite, a diviner, a craftswoman, a reader and a mother. But that doesn’t really tell you much except that I like yarn, embroidery floss, beads, books, and whatever my daughter does. I’m a writer because I have to. It’s a good thing that I like to write, otherwise I might become a substance abuser, such as alcohol, as so many of my fellow writers have done, in order to escape from the compulsion. Yes, writing is a compulsion, an obsession, and an addiction. The difference between writing and other compulsions/obsessions/addictions is that nobody ever tries to keep me from doing it except when he (it’s always a he) wants me to do something else like housework. I like music. I especially like music that elicits an emotional response. I like to write to music, and have collected a library of music that will enable me to write stirring scenes. They come from several genres of music; New Age/world beat, classical, classic rock, and movie soundtracks.

What else is there about me that you’d like to know? My interests in the Wiccan field are performing spells and rituals, writing spells and rituals, and divination. I practice three main methods of divination: Tarot, Runes, and Ogham. But I do have smatterings of others such as scrying, favomancy (divination by beans), and reading scarabs and Witching Stones. I have Buzios (Brazilian reading shells, but haven’t tried them yet. I love the dance, and now that my my ankles are in better shape, I can resume it. It’s my favorite form of exercise, yes, even over sex.

I have one child, a daughter, aged 30, who is doing post doctoral work in computer cryptography at UCSD. She has taught me a lot about computers, and when she’d come to visit, she’d amuse herself by improving something on my computer. It was she who downloaded and configured Firefox, my favorite browser, on my old HP Pavilion Windows XP machine. On my new one, which I’m writing this on right now, I did all the downloads myself.
When I say I’m a Witch, I also include that I’m a shaman, because Witchcraft is European shamanism. I got this from Christopher Penczak in his book the Temple of Shamanic Witchcraft. I agree with him. Hedge Witches are very shamanic, since they use animal guides and “ride the hedges” which are the boundaries between this world and other worlds to make healing soul journeys, both to find out what steps will heal a patient, and to retrieve soul fragments. They also make tools, magickal objects, and potions, brews, incenses, and oils from found objects and plants. I think you can even be a hedge Witch in the city or suburbs. You simple make your tools and craft objects by recycling other people’s “junk.” I have a dear friend I call Snoodlady who made planters out of defunct computer monitors. You can find great treasures at garage and yard sales, flea markets, and farmers’ markets. We have a group which we’ll bring here eventually.

The other part of “we” is my friend, house mate, and partner (Business, not romantic) Stephen Abbott, aka abbottsinn. You may have heard of him. He and I are fairly notorious on the Internet. Together we run the Abbott’s Inn International School of Magick. It was started over 40 years ago, went on the Internet 9 years ago, and I joined it as his partner 3 ½ years ago. Some years ago before this, we started starting and maintaining groups on several networks, and we are hoping to bring branches of our groups here. We have over 60 titles for different groups, but I’m going to talk him out of having me start more than a few fairly representative groups. One of these is Hedgecraft 4 Us. Our groups cover a plethora of topics, from serious discussions on magick and paranormal phenomena to humor. Yes, humor is important. The best and simplest
way to banish demons and other malefic spirits is to laugh at them. They take themselves very seriously, and their only real weapon is the fear they inspire in people, so if you laugh at them, they will be unable to cope, and will go away. I’ve always had a rather playful attitude towards daemons (note the different spelling, it’s quite deliberate I assure you).

Let me tell you an illustrative story. Back in late 1986 to early 1987 I lived in a magickal household. I was between residences at the time, so was living in a small basement room with the man who would later become my third ex-hubby. In the same house, just on the other side of the bathroom lived another couple, Caitlin, a young woman who had fled her possibly abusive husband was living with Chris, a young magician, who supposedly was very intelligent. He was always calculating these complicated magickal formulae. He never did any magick, he just worked on the formulae. He also took crank, and drank, then was plagued by daemons stirred up by one of the other denizens of the house who was doing the Abra Melin Working for Knowledge and Conversation with his Holy Guardian Angel. I invited the daemons to our room, where I played with them while Delphinius was gone. We would laugh about how silly Chris was to be so afraid of them. He was too tainted by the Judeo-Christian to really understand about magick, which included Witchcraft, which is what I practiced then, as now. I think the daemons liked me and my playful humorous attitude towards them. They also, however, enjoyed tormenting Chris. I never did manage to train them to bring me money.

In closing, I want you to know that I will answer any question about myself except my age. You probably have some idea of the general range when I say that I’ve been a Pagan for almost 38 years, and that my daughter Janvier, is 30 years old. Those of you who haven’t been Witches as long as I have can ask me anything about the modern Wiccan movement, including the inception of CoG, the Covenant of the Goddess. I also have a lot of history in my head about the Reformed Druidry Movement. Some of it can be read in the Druid Chronicles, but there’s a lot that happened in California in the Bay Area in the mid- to late 70s that I was there for. What I don’t know, I can ask Stephen, who’s been a Druid four years longer than I have. And now I’ve got to read some of your blogs so that I can learn about some of you.

History of the Greymalkin Gazette

Please do go to the other Greymalkin Gazette Gazette groups on other networks. Sorry to have been gone so long, but for a few months, we had serious computer issues. Tegwedd has a new computer now, and Stephen has his laptop back after being in the shop for for almost 5 months. Tegwedd is on her computer every day, but Stephen gets on his only once every few days, but now that the house and yard are shaping up, with Tegwedd’s reluctant help, he’s able to get on it every day for a couple hours. We expect the inspection any day now. Tegwedd started the Greymalkin Gazette to be a journal about magick, Paganism, and the Craft of the Wise.

For those of you who are not familiar with the Gazette as an Internet group, it as the same basic mission statement as the original publication; that is, to explore these 3 linked areas of inquiry and write about them. Any member of the group can post magickal or Pagan poetry, articles about the Craft, magick, or Paganism in general or short short fiction. Articles or stories should be no more than 900 words. Tegwedd has an idea to turn Doc’s newsletter the Unhewn Megalith into an Internet group as well. It’s specialized, concentrating on Druids and Celtica. It’s going to join our cluster of Druid groups.

How did the Greymalkin Gazette get its name? Well you may ask. Back in 1988, Lynn Sereda came to stay with Fat Boy and Tegwedd, and Lynn wanted to bring back the Witchaven Society. But she had the typical hostile personality that came from having done crank, and misunderstood Tegwedd said, put the worst possible construction on it, and left. So the New Reformed Orthodox Order of the Witchaven Society died a borning, or NROOWS, as we named it, sounded like a sound that a putty would make, so Tegwedd named the newsletter the Cat’s Meow. She even got Llewellyn to send her books and other products to read and review. Unfortunately, a lot of people thought that the Cat’s Meow was about cat care, so Tegwedd named it yet again, this time, she called it the Greymalkin Gazette because she wanted to make it clear that it was about Paganism, magick, and the Craft of the Wise, not cat care. Greymalkin is one of the traditional names for a Witch’s familiar, and Tegwedd had a putty named Greymalkin for almost 17 years until she died in 2004. As was previously stated, the statement of intent or mission statement is to keep our people informed about Paganism, magick, and the Craft of the Wise. What would you like to see in this group?

We’re watching the TV show “Secret Circle.” At first, Tegwedd thought it was jejune like the “Vampire Diaries” that came before it, but now the adults, the parents of the kids in the circle are getting involved, and things are getting more interesting. Stephen is entranced. Tegwedd likes the music, which is very new agey. Stephen likes the music too. On our satellite service, it’s on on Thursdays from 9 to 10 o’clock pm on the CW. Find where it is on your TV service. If you can, watch it, and see how you like it.

Breaking news: This just in: The Greymalkin Gazetteis now the official publication organ of the Abbott’s Inn International School of Magick. We were stoned, which is when we come up with our brilliant ideas. Just like that, we decided to do it. So the Greymalkin Gazette is now the publication arm of the Abbott’s Inn International School of Magick. And when we get some extra money, we can start publishing it hard copy again, unless Lizet consents to teach Tegwedd how to do the newsletter all in email format. It came out as a publication and would if we got it going as one again, every 6 weeks around the Pagan Sabbats, so that won’t change. Stephen asked, “Since this is the organ of the school, which organ is it? The heart or brain?” Tegwedd replied, “The brain, of course.” But if we were in ancient Khem, it would be the heart, since the Khemish believed that the brain was of no account, and that the heart did all the thinking, as well as feeling.

We would be working on the book right now , except that we’ve been driving ourselves and each other crazy (a short walk, not a drive, we know) trying to get the house ship shape for the inspection at the end of this month. But once that’s done, we’ll be able to return to working on the Book. For those of you who don’t belong to our other groups, the Book is the Ultimate Guide to the Tarot. We are working on the 3 sample chapters to send to Llewellyn in the hopes that they will accept them and contract with us to write the rest of the book. If you have any questions about this, please send them either to this or the Tarot for Pagans group. We’re waiting to hear from you. Like our other groups, we intend this to be an interactive group. We respond well to positive feedback, new ideas, or new thoughts. We respect your knowledge and understanding of the issues at hand.

Saturday Tegwedd attended the re-opening of the Colonial Heights Library. The first thing she noticed were the comfy chairs. “Oh no! Not the comfy chairs!” They were upholstered in a print some might say was rather gaudy, but Tegwedd liked because it was bright and cheerful, and reminded her of Pennsylvania Dutch hex signs. It was red, purple, and blue designs, both floral and symbolic on a white background. In their own way, the chairs were very elegant. An Hispanic woman she looked part native American) who looked to be about Tegwedd’s age sat in the chair opposite her, and we both waxed enthusiastic about the chairs. Tegwedd selected a book out of the Scfi and Fantasy section, Masters of Fantasy. The plump redheaded (there must be a lot of Celts who work for the library, there is at least one other redhead who works for the library, only the other one is slender) helped her checked out the book and put it in a neon green tote bag with the legend “Mango Languages.com” on it. Tegwedd then got in line to the community room, where they had cake, cookies, juice and coffee. They didn’t have tea. Tegwedd selected a piece of cake, an M&M cookie, and a cup of juice, and found a place to sit. As she had approached the library, she could hear a marching band, which she guessed came either from a local high school or a college, which was playing “Tusk,” a song by one of her 3 favorite musical groups, Fleetwood Mac (the other 2 are Cream and Led Zeppelin). After she finished eating, she headed home. Stephen went over there too but there was no cake or cookies. Nor did he bring home a book. He should have headed over when Tegwedd had.

We have been on a month long tear cleaning up the place for the landlady’s inspection. We have redistributed our stuff and thrown a lot away. Tegwedd has thrown a lot of stuff away, more than Stephen has, since many of her discards became his possessions. There are things of Doc’s she can’t bear to throw away, but doesn’t really want to keep either. If Doc’s Brother comes up from Texas for a visit, she’ll give them all to him. The gaming stuff she promised to a young man of her acquaintance; Herne Cathcart, the son of the High Priest and High Priestess of the Sacred Cats Coven, to which she belongs as an elder.

Speaking of cats, the putties have done their parts in this endeavor too. The other night a mouse stupidly wandered into the house. One means, if you were a mouse, would you wander into a house where eight cats reside? Frakki and Putty Bear tag-teamed in the catching of the mouse. First Putty Bear would have it in his mouth, then drop it to deliver the coups de grace. Then Frakki would hold it in her mouth. It couldn’t have been easy for either of them. We were sure the mouse was struggling. We could hear it squeak and squeal. It was still alive. They dropped it to bat it around with their paws some, it escaped and got under the couch. They caught it again, and then Stephen got hold of it (he didn’t touch it. He put it in the dustpan and then in the big garbage can outside, where it scurried to the bottom. This morning the garbage truck took up the garbage bin, and now the mouse, if alive, is headed for a landfill. Even if the mouse isn’t alive, it’s in a landfill.

We’ll try to get to this group more often. Meanwhile, post your poetry, articles, and short fiction here!

Our friend Caitlin ni Manannan has people bringing her wood from when they prune their trees in their yards. And we are shortly going to be making Rune and Ogham sets. So if you’re local, bring us your branches. They should be at least the thickness of your thumb.

All you hard-workin’ Pagans should stand solidly with labor and against the Tea Party. As James Hoffa Jr. said, “Recall those sons of bitches! Go to your ballot boxes and vote them out.” The 75,000 Verizon workers are on strike, and we stand with them. Solidarnosc! as the Poles would say. Verizon management, all Republicans, have made 100 unreasonable demands, and refuse to negotiate, but are paying scabs to cross the picket lines, and work for them. All the workers want, is to keep what they have, a small cost of living increase in wages, their health care, and their pensions. Management wants them to pay $100 per month for health care, while they get it free. If you were thinking of getting a Verizon phone and account, don’t, and do tell them why you aren’t, that you are boycotting them. If you have a Verizon account, close it, and go to another carrier, and tell Verizon why. If you want to piss off Stephen, abuse or oppress the workers. Tell Verizon that you refuse to do business with an employer who oppresses its workers.

Soon we may be selling pendants of the lady and the tiger worked in silver. If you reading this are a silversmith please call our toll free number 1-888-611-7982, and we’ll do business. Coming soon--prints of the Lady and the Tiger by Lizet. Rune and Ogham sets worked by Stephen. Tegwedd has started to crochet cellphone holsters of her own design. They are of acrylic yarn, in assorted colors. She is obsessed right now with making holsters for the Pagan Pride Harvest Festival, but she will make you one to order for a reasonable price. She has some right now in assorted colors for just $9.95+S&H. She is working with yarn she has on hand, so a custom one will cost more because she has to obtain the yarn to make yours. It will cost $14.95 + S&H The smallest container for US priority mail is $4.95.

We are offering a new service. For just $19.95, you can have spell-coaching. We will take you through the construction and performance of a spell. It’s very simple. If you want to perform a spell but you don’t think you know what you’re doing, hire us to coach you through it. The fee is payable to our PayPal accounts, to either abbotts_inn@yahoo.com or tezra.reitan@gmail.com .
We will coach you using strong ethics. Tegwedd has a couplet she will teach you which you can add to your spell that will ensure that it is ethical. Abbott’s Inn International School of Magick is over 40 years old, having been founded in 1970 in Berkeley, CA. It went cybernetic almost 9 years ago. Lizet has been helping us put the school on a more commercial footing, and with her inspiration, Tegwedd has started packaging the classes into manageable packets. Ms. Freeman did a 3rd website for us almost a month ago at http://abbottsinn.wordpress.com. From there, by clicking on two of the graphics, you can go to either of the other two sites: http://abbottsinninternational.com/ and http://abbottsinn.com/ . You can also get to our network http://abbottsinn.ning.com/ . With her help, we also salvaged some things from his old website, including the mission statement: The Abbott’s Inn International School of Magick aims to provide a gentle nurturing environment that promotes education in both the atmosphere and the specific tools of magick. Our research arm is called the Magickal Research Institute or MRI, not to be confused with the medical MRI, or Magnetic Resonance Image, which Tegwedd had on her right ankle about 10 months ago. Stephen and Lizet came up with the name almost 9 years ago. The three of us have become a very effective working team. Stephen has his cell phone, and we are both enjoying learning how to use our cell phones. His cell phone number is 916-467-6393. He’ll have access to the Internet on that phone. He says “I’m not very good at texting because of my glaucoma, so please be gentle with me.” Don’t forget to call 888-611-7982 for all your divination, learning class, and research needs.

Stele of Revealing & Writing of Book of the Law

Do check out the other 11th House of Thoth groups on other networks. Sorry to have been gone so long, but we had computer issues for a few months. Now you won’t be able to get rid of us because Tegwedd now has a new computer, and Stephen has his laptop back. We also have cell phones that go on the Internet. Stephen’s is a go-phone, and Tegwedd has the regular arrangement, but we both got the same model phone. They’re even the same color, blue and black.

Basically this group is about the intersection between Uncle Al (Aleister Crowley) and the Khemetic tradition. Uncle Al an his bride Rose Kelly Crowley Spent the nights of April 8th-10th 1904 in the Great Pyramid receiving the Book of the Law, which Rose channeled through her husband’s Holy Guardian Angel Aiwass. We don’t know what drugs they may have taken, must’ve been good stuff, wonder if we could get some, because of all the channeling that Rose did. Uncle Al loved Rose deeply. She was a sincere priestess and occultist. But he didn’t love her as much as loved that damned mountain that he just had to climb. If he hadn’t deserted her and their newborn daughter in Rangoon, she wouldn’t have slipped into her cups, and would have seen to it that the bottles for the baby’s milk were boiled, or would have breastfed the baby (which is actually best) so she wouldn’t have gotten typhus and died. When you love someone, you don’t leave her and your newborn daughter in Rangoon. You stay with them. Thelemite men, ever after that, have a tendency to mistreat their women.

But back to Khem. Khem means “black” It gave its name to alchemy and its offshoot chemistry. Egypt is the Greek name for it, a corruption of the Khemish Hout-ak-Ptah, which means the temple for the ka or soul of Ptah. The Greeks under Alexander and Ptolemy had trouble pronouncing Hout-ak-Ptah. What’s so tough about it? Tegwedd just did it. They must’ve been monumentally stupid. The black land came from the black fertile silt that came over the banks of the Nile each year during the annual flood. Now with the Aswan Dam, that doesn’t happen anymore.

The Stele of Ankh-ef-en-Khonsu is a painted wooden offering stele discovered in 1854 at the mortuary temple of Hatshepsut at Dayr Bahir by Francis August Marinett, which was originally made for the Khonsu priest Ankh-ef-en-Khonsu . It was discovered near his coffin ensemble of 2 sarcophagi and anthropomorphic inner coffins. It dates to cerca 680/70 BCE either late 25th dynasty or early 26th dynasty. Originally located in the Boulaq Museum, under inventory number #666, it was moved around 1902 to the newly opened Egyptian museum of Cairo . On the front, the stele shows Ankh-en-ef-Khonsu offering his god Re Harakhty Ra of the 2 horizons or Ra-Hoor-Khuit. The text on both the front and back shows a number of quotes from the Book of Coming Forth by Day, aka the Egyptian Book of the Dead. He also begs his gods not to stand against him when he stands in the Hall of Judgment. The way that Uncle Al paraphrases this is quoted in the Book of the Law (Liber Legis). “This combination of magic[sic] and theology is technically called ‘theurgy’ from the Greek theos and ergon work.” All quotes and information are from the Wikipedia, although we derived some material from the Thelemapedia.

Who is your favorite Khemetic deity? Tegwedd is torn between Sekhmet the lion Goddess and Seshat the Goddess of and inventor of writing. Tegwedd named her computer after Seshat. Seshat is shown wearing a leopard skin dress. This may explain why Tegwedd is so fond of leopard print. She has a leopard print comforter, wants to get leopard print sheets, and has a leopard print case for her many crochet hooks. She wanted a leopard print upholstered sofa, but Doc put his foot down. She still wants one, though, and if she ever got a lot of money, she would get a couple, since the living room needs two couches.

Stephen just picked his wallpaper for his cell phone. It’s the Stele of Revealing, #666 in the Bulaq Museum. He got it from Widipedia,and is very excited about it. According to the unpublished Society of Hidden Masters, Lady Frieda Harris became Uncle Al’s disciple on May 11th, 1938. She started at the 4th degree because she already had a previous initiation into Co-Masonry. Crowley also began to teach her divination. She had he choice of systems, and opted for the Y Ching . “Y Hing was your choice which I approved because it has the kind of discipline that will inform your painting. If you are to make a new mark in art, you need a new mind, enlightened from the supernal triangle.” From a letter from Uncle Al to Lady Frieda.

By his own admission, Uncle Al had intended his Tarot deck to be traditional, but Lady Frieda encouraged him to use his occult, spiritual, magickal and scientific knowledge in the project. Harris sent him a regular stipend to help with the project. She also used her society contacts to procure financial backing for the paintings, catalogue, and publication of the Tarot deck. The pressure may have taken its toll on both Harris and Crowley. It was to languish in someone’s basement until ‘69 or ‘70 when it was acquired by Carl Llewellyn Weschke, who published it at Llewellyn Publications, for which Stephen once worked.

We’re still searching for a house mate. Now if you are willing, able, and ready to to do some hard physical labor like Stephen is doing to get the house and yard in shape, $100 will be taken off your rent until the work is completed, then the rent will go back up to $400. So you will be paying only $300 until the work is completed. .

Our friend Caitlin ni Manannan has people bringing her wood from when they prune their trees in their yards. And we are shortly going to be making rune Rune and Ogham sets. So if you’re local, bring us your branches. They should be at least the thickness of your thumb.

All you hard-workin Pagans should stand solidly with labor and against the Tea Party. As James Hoffa Jr. said, “Recall those sons of bitches! Go to your ballot boxes and vote them out.” The 75,000 Verizon workers are on strike, and we stand with them. Solidarnosc! as the Poles would say. Verizon management, all Republicans, have made 100 unreasonable demands, and refuse to negotiate, but are paying scabs to cross the picket lines, and work for them. All the workers want, is to keep what they have, a small cost of living increase in wages, their health care, and their pensions. Management wants them to pay $100 per month for health care, while they get it free. If you were thinking of getting a Verizon phone and account, don’t, and do tell them why you aren’t, that you are boycotting them. If you have a Verizon account, close it, and go to another carrier, and tell Verizon why. If you want to piss off Stephen, abuse or oppress the workers. Tell Verizon that you refuse to do business with an employer who oppresses its workers.

Soon we may be selling pendants of the lady and the tiger worked in silver. If you reading this are a silversmith please call our toll free number 1-888-611-7982, and we’ll do business. Coming soon--prints of the Lady and the Tiger by Lizet. Rune and Ogham sets worked by Stephen. Tegwedd has started to crochet cellphone holsters of her own design. They are of acrylic yarn, in assorted colors. She is obsessed right now with making holsters for the Pagan Pride Harvest Festival, but she will make you one to order for a reasonable price. She has some right now in assorted colors for just $9.95+S&H. She is working with yarn she has on hand, so a custom one will cost more because she has to obtain the yarn to make yours. It will cost $14.95 + S&H The smallest container for US priority mail is $4.95.

We are offering a new service. For just $19.95, you can have spell-coaching. We will take you through the construction and performance of a spell. It’s very simple. If you want to perform a spell but you don’t think you know what you’re doing, hire us to coach you through it. The fee is payable to our PayPal accounts, to either abbotts_inn@yahoo.com or tezra.reitan@gmail.com .
We will coach you using strong ethics. Tegwedd has a couplet she will teach you which you can add to your spell that will ensure that it is ethical. Abbott’s Inn International School of Magick is over 40 years old, having been founded in 1970 in Berkeley, CA. It went cybernetic almost 9 years ago. Lizet has been helping us put the school on a more commercial footing, and with her inspiration, Tegwedd has started packaging the classes into manageable packets. Ms. Freeman did a 3rd website for us almost a month ago at http://abbottsinn.wordpress.com. From there, by clicking on two of the graphics, you can go to either of the other two sites: http://abbottsinninternational.com/ and http://abbottsinn.com/ . You can also get to our network http://abbottsinn.ning.com/ . With her help, we also salvaged some things from his old website, including the mission statement: The Abbott’s Inn International School of Magick aims to provide a gentle nurturing environment that promotes education in both the atmosphere and the specific tools of magick. Our research arm is called the Magickal Research Institute or MRI, not to be confused with the medical MRI, or Magnetic Resonance Image, which Tegwedd had on her right ankle about 10 months ago. Stephen and Lizet came up with the name almost 9 years ago. The three of us have become a very effective working team. Stephen has his cell phone, and we are both enjoying learning how to use our cell phones. His cell phone number is 916-467-6393. He’ll have access to the Internet on that phone. He says “I’m not very good at texting because of my glaucoma, so please be gentle with me.” Don’t forget to call 888-611-7982 for all your divination, learning class, and research needs.

The Monty Python Strikes Again

Welcome to Dead Parrot Fan Club 7, also known as the Dead Parrot Society! We’re glad you could make it! Do check out the other Dead Parrot Fan Club groups on other networks. This group is for all you Monty Python enthusiasts out there. How many of you joined Netflix (or Blockbuster)so that you can get all the old Monty Python episodes and movies? Who is your favorite Monty Python member? Stephen’s favorite is John Cleese, but he also likes Eric Idle. Tegwedd finds it difficult to choose one, but if forced to choose a favorite, she would say Terry Jones because he’s Welsh, and she likes the first name Terry. John Cleese has adapted very well to Hollywood, although he and Palin play off each other very well in A Fish Called Wanda.

Which is your favorite sketch? Tegwedd is torn among three: the one where they’re asking great philosophers inane questions about sports, the Upper Class Twit games, and the Lumberjack song. Stephen’s favorite sketch is the Dead Parrot sketch. It is also Dylan Cook’s favorite sketch, and the sketch this group is names after. Another favorite vignette of Tegwedd’s is the FreeMason vignette, and another favorite sketch of hers is the “Nudge nudge wink wink” sketch. Which is your favorite Monty Python movie? Stephen’s, as you might suspect, is Monty Python & the Holy Grail, while Tagwedd’s fave is Jabberwocky. You can probably get it through Netflix if you just want to view it, and Amazon.com if you want to own a copy. Why do all of you love the Monty Python? Tegwedd loves it because she loves British humor. Stephen does because the Python changed social behavior and attitudes towards controversial things. It brought the concept of being gay out in the open, because of Graham Chapman being gay.

They are one group who helped create the concept of music in comedy. Across the pond, at about the same time, the Firesign Theatre did the same. South Park was influenced by both groups. There is a South Park musical about the Mormon church on Broadway right now, and even the Mormons like it. Cheech & Chong were also influenced with their “Born in East LA.”
So far as Stephen knows, and Tegwedd’s research on the subject bears this out, Yellowbeard was Graham Chapman’s last movie role. He portrayed King Arthur in Monty Python & the Holy Grail, and Brian in Life of Brian. What is your favorite Monty Python song? Ours is “The Lumberjack Song.” Stephen’s second favorite is “Every Sperm Is Sacred” from The Meaning of Life. Dylan, we haven’t heard from you in awhile. We’d love for you to post to this group. He started the Monty Python Fan Club on Yahoo. We’re trying to kill that group because it doesn’t have an owner. Dylan changed his nick, and the name cited as owner is his old nick.

Many Monty Python members besides Graham Chapman have done solo movie roles. There was A Fish Called Wanda for John Cleese and Michael Palin. Then for Palin there’s Three Men In a Boat, The Missionary, A Private Function, American Friends, Wind in the Willows, Willows in Winter, Fierce Creatures, and Not the Messiah (He’s a Very Naughty Boy). John Cleese’s movie roles are too numerous to mention. He did Fierce Creatures with Michael Palin, and many more by himself. Eric Idle did All You Need Is Cash (the Rutles mockumentary), Hollywood Burn, the voice of Waddlesworth the parrot in 102 Dalmations, and the voice of Merlin the magician in Shrek the Third. Dylan’s favorite Monty Python movie is Monty Python & the Holy Grail. Terry Jones is known mostly for directing movies other than the Monty Python films. Wind in the Willows and Erik the Viking. Terry Gilliam is more of a director and animator than a performer. He directed several movies, among them The Adventures of Baron Munchausen and Brazil. John Cleese was a star of Fawlty Towers. His character Fawlty, was based upon a real hotel manager whose rude approach to customer service was memorable for Cleese. Tegwedd didn’t care for the show, and only watched one or two episodes, but Stephen loved the show. It was cancelled after 2 seasons. Cleese is both the most prolific of the Python, and the eldest, having been born in 1939. Terry Gilliam, the only American of the Python was born in Medicine Lake, MN in 1940. His family moved to California a few years later after his sister had pneumonia. Graham Chapman didn’t die of AIDS as most people assume, but of throat cancer because he was always sucking on that infernal pipe of his. This information is from the Wikipedia.

Do any of you know of any other Monty Python groups we can hook up with. We’d like to connect with these other groups and share information, perhaps the other groups can post to our groups. Carol Cleveland was the only actual woman to play parts in the Monty Python sketches. The other women’s parts were played by members of the Monty Python themselves in women’s clothes and falsetto voices. She was in the Lumberjack sketch in the Jeanette McDonald role. Stephen believes that transvestism in the Monty Python sketches originates in the “Carry On” movies of the 50s and early 60s. Cross-dressing and transvestism are very common themes in British comedy. Peter Cook and Dudley Moore were comedic partners in Bedazzled and were great friends with Benny Hill and the Monty Python. Stephen believes they played the female parts themselves because they were on a shoestring budget and want to have to pay female actors. In Monty Python & the Holy Grail, they used coconut shells instead of horses, which was hilarious. Terry Gilliam in the movie was Patsy the devoted servant who carried everyone’s luggage, and gets killed by the Trojan chicken falling on him. He was the cartoonist in Jabberwocky being chased by the Jabberwock doing these crazy cartoons when his character has a heart attack. Gilliam was the hidden Python member. He was also the wise man in the hut telling Lancelot that he must get a shrubbery. How did Terry Gilliam wind up with the Monty Python? Neither of us can figure it out. It wasn’t in the Wikipedia article. We’re both very curious about this. Help satisfy our curiosity. If you find anything else about the Monty Python that you think we’d like to know, please post, and let us know. If you have any other tidbits about the sketches or the movies, please post them as well.

The Monty Python was a direct heir to the Beyond the Fringe comedy troupe of the late 50s, early 60s and the Carry On movies of the 50s going into the 90s. If anyone knows of a Carry on movie having been released in the 2000s, please let us know.

Stephen will have no computer access after today, July 22nd, until his laptop returns. When it returns, we’ll return to preparing the 3 sample chapters to Llewellyn. The Mission statement for the Abbott’s Inn International School of Magick provides a gentle nurturing environment that promotes education in both the atmosphere and specific tools of magick. As always, call 1-888-611-7982 for all your divination reading, learning class, and Pagan-magickal research needs, or go to http://abbottsinninternational.com/ , http://abbottsinn.com/ , and http://abbottsinn.wordpress.com , and our Ning network http://abbottsinn.ning.com/ .

What is Hedgecraft?

Sorry to have been away for so long, but we had computer issues, and also forming new groups. We have a whole bunch of vampire groups on H15 now. Stephen is still having computer issues, and this Friday the library will be closes for 2 ½ months for renovations. Tegwedd has a new computer, but she has noticed that Stephen has a field around him that is harmful to computers, so she won’t let him near it. He kills computers. He has killed at least 5 so far. Even the library computers have fallen prey to some kind of anti-technology field around him. The computers there worked just fine for Tegwedd, but they slow down and stop for him.

What is Hedgecraft anyway? A lot of people are slinging it around, it’s like the new buzzword in the Pagan community. Hedgecraft is an admixture, a witch’s brew, if you will, of herbalism, an understanding of trees, herbs, plants, and natural healing that encompass naturalism and natural magick, it also encompasses natural crafts, handiwork with materials drawn from nature, also kitchen witchery and cottage witchery. Witches’ brews and potions are hedgecraft, as are the formulation of oils, incenses, and brews. So is the crafting of magickal tools, amulets, and talismans out of materials found in nature. The last ten years hedgecraft has enjoyed a renaissance such as we haven’t seen since the rebirth of the Craft some sixty years ago. Hedgewitches are sprouting up all over. Tegwedd just found a new definition for hedgecraft. She googled it. Hedgecraft, or “riding the hedge” is the shamanic art of crossing the hedge or boundary between this world and the Otherworld. It is mostly European in character, and the practitioners often delve into their own heritage to practice this art. It is also the art of the cunning man or cunning wife of the villages and countryside. It is also adaptable. Doing a fertility spell over a neighbor’s tractor is not at all unusual for a hedgewitch.

Hedgewitch is a book by Silver RavenWolf that describes what hedgecraft is, and what a hedgewitch is. You could be a hedgewitch. Tegwedd got an idea from the book’s first chapter that she has been using ever since. Silver told the story of a man who had an old fashioned phone (one of those gold or brass and artificial ivory ones you see in European movies on TV) that he did not hook up to any phone line, dialed 911, and called the universe (or multiverse if you’d rather) with an urgent plea. The formula used for sending your petition to the multiverse is: Dial or punch in 911 Smile as you say your petition, what you need. Then say: “This always works, it always helps.” Then Tegwedd likes to add something she learned in another book by Silver RavenWolf: “I accept this mentally, I accept this spiritually, I accept this emotionally, I accept this physically.” Hedgecraft can be used for raising money because it’s a green craft, and in the USA, our money is green. In fact, one of our names for our money is greenbacks. Midwifery and potion making can also be considered hedgecraft and go back thousands of years, back to cave dwelling times. The two principal tools of a hedgewitch are a cauldron and a big wooden spoon, or perhaps even a spoon made from a spoon gourd.

A number of new books on hedgecraft and topics related to it have recently come out on the market. Some of these are: Natural Witchery, Garden Witchery, Cottage Witchery, and The Garden Witch’s Herbal. And these are from just one publisher. The hedgewitch is the picture from faery tale books we all expect to see when we hear the word hedgewitch. Of course she might not be dressed in a ragged robe and pointy hat, but a tee shirt and a pair of jeans. She might be a he and live in a suburban apartment instead of a country cottage, and hir garden might be a community garden down the block.. One such hedgewitch was Scott Cunningham. In one of his many books, he says that his surname, an old family name, comes from the cunning men who were in his ancestry. He was into magickal foods, oils, herbs, and potions. Ellen Dugan is definitely, having written several books on hedgecraft-related topics. The hedgecraft movement within the Craft is a happening thing, and shows no sign of slowing down. Stephen likes this topic because a large part of what his grandmother did, and what she taught him was hedgecraft. All you ecology freaks should become hedgewitches and go back to the magick of naturalism, of hedgecraft. Really get back to the root of the matter. Hedgewitches should be protectors of the environment and elemental politics. Put your resources where your mouth is. Anyone who calls hirself a hedgewitch should be actively concerned about the environment and ecology. Have concerns for our forests, rivers, lakes, rivers, plant like, and animals. If you call yourself a hedgewitch, you should do your utmost to support natural healing with herbal remedies such as tinctures, potions, compresses, poultices, and natural vitamins. Wean yourselves off of traditional Western medicine and reclaim your Goddess-given ability to heal both yourselves and others naturally, including the animals and livestock you are in charge of.

You could say that hedgecraft is somewhat along the lines of natural alchemy. You take herbs and transmute them into an herbal potion. This transformation is transmutation, an alchemical process. It’s vitally important to keep good records of the process by which each potion is created so that you can create a potion book of shadows which can be published, and more importantly, recreate the potion the next time it is needed. Doing this pays homage to the late great Scott Cunningham who was a real life potions master. Both of us recommend the books he wrote on the subject such as Incenses, Oils, & Brews. There are many books on this topic published by Llewellyn, and other publishing houses. Look how important the concept of potions was in the Harry Potter books and movies.

In color magick we think that we can easily say that green should be the dominant color of hedgecraft. Green is the traditional color of healing. It’s the color of Venus, Aphrodite Who lost Her nightie, the Goddess of love. Because of this, it’s also the color of love, and the anahata or heart chakra. It’s also the color of the plant world. What are your favorite herbs to use for hedgecraft? Stephen’s favorite hands down is marijuana, cannabis, ganja, dutchie, Indian hemp. He has glaucoma, and he can see better when he uses it, because it takes the pressure off his eyeballs. It’s a powerful muscle relaxant, and people who have AIDS or have to do chemotherapy for cancer can use it to quell nausea and increase their appetites for food. Stephen doesn’t recommends smoking it because of his asthma, but cannabis tea is good, and brownies are splendid as are blondies, and sandies, a kind of cookie (or biscuit, as the Brits like to call them. Tegwedd isn’t fond of having smoke in her lungs either, having never used tobacco because she’s allergic to it. Tegwedd used to like to use it when she was younger for prementrual symptoms. Many women use it as a tea for menstrual cramps. Stephen’s favorite form of Sacred Herb is hashish, but this is still illegal. To know more about cannabis, Stephen highly recommends that you join the publication High Times on the internet. You can google it and also join NORML, which Stephen joined around 1970, when it was founded. Another form of it is hemp, which Tegwedd would like to see legalized, and turned into an industrial crop to replace tobacco, which does nobody any good. Hemp can be used for everything from cloth to biofuel. It would provide thousands of jobs, it doesn’t deplete the soil the way that tobacco does, and it would bring in billions in taxable income. Read the Great Book of Hemp. Tegwedd likes taking a bath in basil water. Basil is a money herb. She takes a bunch of fresh basil, and separates out all the best leaves. She cooks the rest in spring water until it turns green. She puts it into a clean jar (an old pasta sauce jar works well for this purpose). She lets it cool enough so that she can handle the jar, and takes it and the best leaves into the bathroom, and runs a comfortably warm bath, pouring the basil water into the bath water. She soaks in it and visualizes getting money from all sources except those that would be harmful, and rubs her body with the leaves. She gets out of the bath, and lets her skin air dry so that the virtue of the basil bath stays on her skin.

Tegwedd first heard of NORML in the 80s. That was also when she saw her first issue of High Times magazine. She thought that a columnist for the magazine with the byline Lord Nose, was Stephen, because of his lifelong obsession with noses. She recently brought him a copy of Kush, another magazine about sacred herb, from the library, which didn’t want it. Stephen ate it up. “Their loss,” he said. There was an article, “The Women of NORML” about a group of women working in Washington DC to get the laws against cannabis changed. We’ll bet that you can join the magazine online. We also recommend that you google Hedgecraft, and see what you come up with. There might be groups that we can hook up with. After all, the Abbott’s Inn International School of Magick is a networking service.

Hedgecraft is is a very popular topic in the Craft. What is Hedgecraft? Hedgecraft is a species of natural magick which combines herbalism, natural crafts and kitchen witchery to form an integrated whole. It also includes natural or herbal alchemy and practical veneration of the plant world. Be sure and visit our 3 websites http://abbottsinninternational.com/ , http://abbottsinn.com/ , http://abbottsinn.wordpress.com , and our network, http://abbottsinn.ning.com/ . You can have your own page there. Donate to help us upgrade, so that your page can have music. We haven’t had the resources yet to upgrade the network. Abbott’s Inn International School of Magick provides a gentle nurturing environment in both the atmosphere and specific tools of magick. Our research arm, The Magickal Research Institute, provides an environment where research can be done in magick and and the Craft of the Wise, as well as other Pagan/magickal topics such as spiritual alchemy. One example is how lead is transmuted into gold. The answer is Path 17 the Lovers card, which leads from the 3rd Sephirah, Binah, ruled by Saturn whose metal is lead to Tiphareth, ruled by the Sun, whose metal is gold. Our new site, http://abbottsinn.wordpress.com is an interactive site where you can leave comments, graphics, and music. If you leave graphics with your comments, please help us understand how to do it. As always, call 1-888-611-7982 for all your divination learning class, and research needs. We’ll resume work on the book The Ultimate Guide to the Tarot once Stephen gets his laptop back.

The Way of the Paw

. 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.

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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.

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