Friday, April 20, 2012
A Putative History of the Ogham
Sorry we’ve been gone so long. It’s been a combination of illness, computer issues, and Stephen either being off with Lizet, or vainly trying trying to cure his financial inconvenience. But we’re retooling and revamping all our teaching groups. Thank you for your patience. You know, we’re not the only ones who can post to this group. Anyone in the group can post. Tegwedd has been posting her “Omens in the Gloamin’” every day for the past few months on her Facebook page under the name Teresa Reitan, and one of them is an Ogham omen. Just thought you ought to know. Our friend Len has been supplying the integration of all three Omens, and very inspired have they been, too. Aigeann, and our new friend in Mexico, Ricardo Bravo have been extremely helpful too.
Len McQueed is Tegwedd’s new paduwan, and he is a very eager and apt learner. He’s only been a Pagan for a little under 4 years, but what a lot he’s picked up in a short time. We’ve mentioned before that he does the Integration of all 3 Omens, the other two of which are the Rune for the Day, and the Tarot Card for the Day, neither of which do we discuss here, except to say that he studies all three Omens, and synthesizes an Integration out of elements of all three. “I just open my mind to the Goddess, and She does the rest,” he says.
So this post will be a back to basics one. Ogham comes from either Ogma (Irish) or Ogmios (Gaulish), who was a God of great eloquence. Another name for the Ogham is the Celtic Tree Alphabet, which describes a year of thirteen months, each represented by a tree. The Wikipedia gives several theories for Ogham’s origins, ranging from the probable; origin in the 1st century CE as a cryptic way to communicate by way of hand signals kept hidden from the Romans, whom the Irish feared would invade Erin, to the ridiculous, that it originated approximately
600 BCE with the fall of the Tower of Babel, and the approach of the Goidelic people from Scythia. However it originated, it soon grew into a major way of engraving on stones to mark who was buried in which grave, or an event that happened here. We urge all of you to read the Wikipedia article, and ponder the other three theories of origin. Make up your own minds, or accept all five, we don’t care, just so you think about it.
Len advanced an excellent question “How can the Ogham be used in our lives today?” One way is by using the letters as a means of divination. This use is of relatively recent origins, having only emerged in the 1970s. Tegwedd read that somewhere, but it wasn’t AD Ellison who wrote it. Perhaps it was in Edred Thorsson’s “The Book of Ogham.” There are both Ogham cards (Stephen and Tegwedd each have two sets) and Ogham fews or sticks. Five years ago Tegwedd made a couple sets of Ogham fews or sticks using felt tip markers on craft sticks, one set of which she gave to Stephen when she moved in here three and a half years ago. They also each have Caitlin Matthews’ “Wisdom Sticks”, and a set Caitlin ni Manannan made for each of us out of wood people brought her when they were trimming their trees and hedges. Tegwedd uses her set each day. Her set is one of her most cherished possessions.
Tegwedd uses two books as authorities on the Ogham. One is the slender hard back book by Liz and Colin Murray that comes with “The Celtic Tree Oracle.” The other reference she uses is Edred Thorsson’s (Stephen Flowers) “The Book of Ogham. There is a third book, written by Skip Ellison, ArchDruid Emeritus of the ADF. Stephen wants you to know that the thirteen tree-months of the Celtic calendar also form the basis of Celtic astrology. Robert Graves, in his “The White Goddess,” wrote extensively about the tree calendar, and the “Battle of Trees.”
Stephen uses all three systems together, Ogham cards (the aforementioned “Celtic Tree Oracle”), Rune cards, and Tarot cards, and has come up with very cogent and revealing readings using them together. Besides “stem” what is the staff called that the oghams branch out from? Confused inquiring minds want to know, and we thought one or some of you might know.
We have a question for all of you out there. Do your research. Was Ogham used primarily in Britain or in Ireland? Tegwedd believes it was used primarily in Ireland, but is open to being corrected if she is wrong. AbbottsInn believes that both Britain and Ireland used Ogham, as well as Gaul. “Everywhere the Celts went, the Ogham was sure to follow.” What do you, dear readers, think? However, Hallstadt and La Tene were probably too early to have had the benefits of Ogham. As was mentioned before, Tegwedd likes the theory that Ogham dates from the 1st century CE, but is open to the discovery of archaeological evidence that indicates that it developed either earlier or later. She has read dates as late as the 2nd or even the 3rd century CE. Ogham is older than the Tarot, since the Tarot dates from only about one thousand years ago, although Ogham’s use as a divinatory system, as was said before, only dates from the 1970s. This is Skip Ellison’s opinion, based upon some very compelling evidence. Skip Ellison is ArchDruid Emeritus of the ADF and wrote a book on the Ogham titled “The Druids’ Alphabet” “What Do We Know About the Oghams?”
Sticks of iron or bronze that have Oghamic markings on them have been found in Druids’ graves. The sticks are the length of a man’s hands, from the tip of his middle finger, to his wrist, and thinner than his fingers. It is not known what they were used for, although theories and speculations abound. They were in sets from four to half a dozen in each grave mound. Some guess that they might have been used for some sort of sortilege-type of divination (casting lots).
Saturday, April 14, 2012
Everything You Wanted to Know About Bards
We have been retooling and revamping Abbott’s Inn International School of Magick the last few days. Stephen is in one of his grandiose manic phases again, churning out one article, essay, blog, or discussion after another. In the past couple days he has done fourteen of them. We are going back to old groups and saying “Hi! We’re back!”
Let’s get back to basics. What is a bard? A bard is more than a poet, more than a musician. In Druid society, bards were also the genealogists and historians of their culture, tracing bloodlines back at least a thousand years. He is a music magician, who understood the magick in music. In NRDNA, Bards wear a blue robe, and are poets, musicians, shannachie, songwriters, and storytellers. The bard as a magician played a major role in Celtic mythology, such as the Dagda, also known as the “Good God,” who was a bard with a magickal harp that had a mind, so it could think. This harp could play different types of music. Each string had its own power. One string could make its listeners weep uncontrollably. One time they did, and wept so much that several people in the mead hall drowned from the flood of tears. It was called “The Lay of Sorrow.” The Lay of Joy would make people weep for joy. Then there was the “Lay of Slumber,” which put all the listeners to sleep. There was also the “Lay of Battle,” which could put blood lust into the heart of every listener. The next one was the Lay of Discovery,” which made every listener want to go adventuring.
There are many bards whom we like to talk about. There is Thomas the Rhymer, the Bard William Shakespeare, Gwydion Penderwen, Isaac Bonewits, Aigeann, Sharon Knight, the late great Leeann Hussey, Leslie Fish, Alison Harlow, Caradoc, Victor Anderson, Katherine Kurtz, Katherine Kerr, Brighde, Jen Aitch, Dylan Cook, Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger,Jim Morrison the Lizard King, Gerry Rafferty, David Bowie, Donovan, Bonnie Raitt, Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens), Leadbelly, Bruce Stringsteen, John Lennon, Elayne Hindle, and the two of us.
Thomas the Rhymer was a late period bard, spouting poetry and playing the instruments of the day. Google him, learn all you can, and post here about him. His poetry, songs, and tales were inspirations wherever he went. William Shakespeare: There are many who claim that he couldn’t have written the plays that bear his name, but we think he did, with some help from the actors. You see, in the theatre of the late 16th and early 17th century) actors would often either extemporaneously start orating, or he would cadge a speech from another play, and plug it in. So the famous “To be or not to be” soliloquy from “Hamlet” might well be from another play, which has not come down to us the way that Shakespeare’s plays have. Shakespeare was called “The Bard.” Stephen’s favorite Shakespearean play is “The Tempest,” and his second favorite is “Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Tegwedd’s favorite play is “Macbeth,” her second favorite play is “Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Which is your favorite Shakespearean play? But she wishes people would quit messing with the eras the plays are placed in. They are intended to be placed in ancient times (“Julius Caesar”) early Italian Renaissance (“Romeo and Juliet”), dark ages Scotland (“MacBeth”) or late Italian Renaissance (“Twelfth Night”). . Shakespeare’s greatest dramatic rival was Christopher “Kit” Marlowe, and only seven of his plays have come down to us, compared to Shakespeare’s 39, because Marlowe was murdered in a tavern brawl in 1593. Then there are all the great Spanish dramatists of the same period, Cervantes (Don Quixote), Lope de Vega, Tirso de Molina, Castro (not Fidel), Mira de Amescua, Ruiz de Alarcon, Calderon, (La Vida Es Sueno “Life is a Dream”), Rojas Zorrilla, and Moreto. Okay, so Tegwedd is a Spanish literature nerd. What are ya gonna do about it? Sue her over it?
Gwydion Penderwen recorded two great albums, copies of which can still be found in Pagan and occult shops across the country, especially in Tegwedd’s and Stephen’s favorite occult shop, Ancient Ways in Oakland, CA. He had unknown stacks of unpublished music. If he hadn’t died in such an untimely manner, he probably would have had several more albums. The two albums are “Gwydion sings Songs of the Old Religion,” and “The Faery Shaman.” Stephen worked with him on two events. Gwydion was highly interested in the interlacings of Ogham, hidden notes in these lays, which conveyed hidden messages. The first event was the Witches’ Ball in the Finnish Hall which is haunted, in Oakland, CA. Because of its success, they were inspired to put on a second event. The second event they worked together on was the Midsummer Pagan Festival in the Oakland Hills, at the Meadows. Isaac Bonewits recorded one album, and Tegwedd’s favorite song on that album is “I Fell in Love with the Lady,” and she wants to write a screenplay based on that song about a Teutonic Knight who was formerly persecuting Pagans, but fell in love with the Goddess, and became a minnesinger, which is a German bard. Isaac wrote a bunch of songs, which he had planned to put in another album, if he hadn't gotten cancer and died. Aigeann integrates prose and poetry, with a great turn of phrase. Leeann Hussey used to play both others’ work such as Gwydion’s and Isaac’s songs and her own music. Leslie Fish became a staple at scifi and fantasy conventions for her hilarious and creative filk songs. A filk song is a set of original lyrics set to a familiar melody. There is “When I was a Young Man/Maid” from Peter S. Beagle’s “The Last Unicorn,” set to the Welsh folk tune “The Ash Grove”. Our own national anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner,” is a filk song, set as it was to the tune of a ribald 17th century drinking song. Tegwedd heard it once, and it was pretty lewd. But in the past twenty years or so, she has turned more and more towards spiritual subjects, towards Paganism, and penned not only lyrics, but her own original tunes as well. Victor Anderson, besides founding the Feri Tradition of Wicca, penned “Poems from the Blood Rose.”
Katherine Kurtz wrote the Deryni novels and Lammas Night, which Stephen finally finished reading,, and Katherine Kerr wrote a great series based upon a land called Deverry. Mark Twain was America’s bard. He wrote dozens of novels and stories, many of which we’re all familiar with. Leadbelly was another American bard. He recorded many Delta blues and American folk songs in the 1920s and 30s.
Thus we see that there are many different kinds of bards. For all we know, you may be some kind of bards. You must be interested in bardry, or you wouldn’t have joined this group.
.
Let’s get back to basics. What is a bard? A bard is more than a poet, more than a musician. In Druid society, bards were also the genealogists and historians of their culture, tracing bloodlines back at least a thousand years. He is a music magician, who understood the magick in music. In NRDNA, Bards wear a blue robe, and are poets, musicians, shannachie, songwriters, and storytellers. The bard as a magician played a major role in Celtic mythology, such as the Dagda, also known as the “Good God,” who was a bard with a magickal harp that had a mind, so it could think. This harp could play different types of music. Each string had its own power. One string could make its listeners weep uncontrollably. One time they did, and wept so much that several people in the mead hall drowned from the flood of tears. It was called “The Lay of Sorrow.” The Lay of Joy would make people weep for joy. Then there was the “Lay of Slumber,” which put all the listeners to sleep. There was also the “Lay of Battle,” which could put blood lust into the heart of every listener. The next one was the Lay of Discovery,” which made every listener want to go adventuring.
There are many bards whom we like to talk about. There is Thomas the Rhymer, the Bard William Shakespeare, Gwydion Penderwen, Isaac Bonewits, Aigeann, Sharon Knight, the late great Leeann Hussey, Leslie Fish, Alison Harlow, Caradoc, Victor Anderson, Katherine Kurtz, Katherine Kerr, Brighde, Jen Aitch, Dylan Cook, Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger,Jim Morrison the Lizard King, Gerry Rafferty, David Bowie, Donovan, Bonnie Raitt, Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens), Leadbelly, Bruce Stringsteen, John Lennon, Elayne Hindle, and the two of us.
Thomas the Rhymer was a late period bard, spouting poetry and playing the instruments of the day. Google him, learn all you can, and post here about him. His poetry, songs, and tales were inspirations wherever he went. William Shakespeare: There are many who claim that he couldn’t have written the plays that bear his name, but we think he did, with some help from the actors. You see, in the theatre of the late 16th and early 17th century) actors would often either extemporaneously start orating, or he would cadge a speech from another play, and plug it in. So the famous “To be or not to be” soliloquy from “Hamlet” might well be from another play, which has not come down to us the way that Shakespeare’s plays have. Shakespeare was called “The Bard.” Stephen’s favorite Shakespearean play is “The Tempest,” and his second favorite is “Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Tegwedd’s favorite play is “Macbeth,” her second favorite play is “Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Which is your favorite Shakespearean play? But she wishes people would quit messing with the eras the plays are placed in. They are intended to be placed in ancient times (“Julius Caesar”) early Italian Renaissance (“Romeo and Juliet”), dark ages Scotland (“MacBeth”) or late Italian Renaissance (“Twelfth Night”). . Shakespeare’s greatest dramatic rival was Christopher “Kit” Marlowe, and only seven of his plays have come down to us, compared to Shakespeare’s 39, because Marlowe was murdered in a tavern brawl in 1593. Then there are all the great Spanish dramatists of the same period, Cervantes (Don Quixote), Lope de Vega, Tirso de Molina, Castro (not Fidel), Mira de Amescua, Ruiz de Alarcon, Calderon, (La Vida Es Sueno “Life is a Dream”), Rojas Zorrilla, and Moreto. Okay, so Tegwedd is a Spanish literature nerd. What are ya gonna do about it? Sue her over it?
Gwydion Penderwen recorded two great albums, copies of which can still be found in Pagan and occult shops across the country, especially in Tegwedd’s and Stephen’s favorite occult shop, Ancient Ways in Oakland, CA. He had unknown stacks of unpublished music. If he hadn’t died in such an untimely manner, he probably would have had several more albums. The two albums are “Gwydion sings Songs of the Old Religion,” and “The Faery Shaman.” Stephen worked with him on two events. Gwydion was highly interested in the interlacings of Ogham, hidden notes in these lays, which conveyed hidden messages. The first event was the Witches’ Ball in the Finnish Hall which is haunted, in Oakland, CA. Because of its success, they were inspired to put on a second event. The second event they worked together on was the Midsummer Pagan Festival in the Oakland Hills, at the Meadows. Isaac Bonewits recorded one album, and Tegwedd’s favorite song on that album is “I Fell in Love with the Lady,” and she wants to write a screenplay based on that song about a Teutonic Knight who was formerly persecuting Pagans, but fell in love with the Goddess, and became a minnesinger, which is a German bard. Isaac wrote a bunch of songs, which he had planned to put in another album, if he hadn't gotten cancer and died. Aigeann integrates prose and poetry, with a great turn of phrase. Leeann Hussey used to play both others’ work such as Gwydion’s and Isaac’s songs and her own music. Leslie Fish became a staple at scifi and fantasy conventions for her hilarious and creative filk songs. A filk song is a set of original lyrics set to a familiar melody. There is “When I was a Young Man/Maid” from Peter S. Beagle’s “The Last Unicorn,” set to the Welsh folk tune “The Ash Grove”. Our own national anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner,” is a filk song, set as it was to the tune of a ribald 17th century drinking song. Tegwedd heard it once, and it was pretty lewd. But in the past twenty years or so, she has turned more and more towards spiritual subjects, towards Paganism, and penned not only lyrics, but her own original tunes as well. Victor Anderson, besides founding the Feri Tradition of Wicca, penned “Poems from the Blood Rose.”
Katherine Kurtz wrote the Deryni novels and Lammas Night, which Stephen finally finished reading,, and Katherine Kerr wrote a great series based upon a land called Deverry. Mark Twain was America’s bard. He wrote dozens of novels and stories, many of which we’re all familiar with. Leadbelly was another American bard. He recorded many Delta blues and American folk songs in the 1920s and 30s.
Thus we see that there are many different kinds of bards. For all we know, you may be some kind of bards. You must be interested in bardry, or you wouldn’t have joined this group.
.
Thursday, February 16, 2012
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.
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.
Monday, September 26, 2011
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.
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.
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
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.
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.
Saturday, July 23, 2011
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/ .
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/ .
Friday, July 22, 2011
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.
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.
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