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.