The Way of the Paw

. Many things have happened here since we created the first Putties for Pagans several weeks ago. As you must know, everything is a putty toy to putties. We have watched them go crazy with drinking straws. The cardboard tube that holds a roll of paper towels also affords a lot of amusement when the paper towels are gone. But their favorite thing is a ball. We have this green round thing that holds a lot of the smaller balls, that they roll around in. It is so much fun to watch them bat the balls around the circle. We laugh and laugh and laugh. Stephen found a blue rubber ball in the street, and brought it home for the putties. It’s too large to fit in the round thing, but it does sit very nicely on top of the track. The putties bat it around in circles.

The putty mantra is: bite bite bite, chew chew chew, buzz buzz buzz, lick lick lick, fart fart fart, scratch scratch scratch. Trashing is a major putty activity. They trashed Stephen’s divination board, his bed, and then when we were doing a ritual Tarot reading to mark the Full Moon, they trashed the card arrangement. Bailee lay right on top of it, which is her wont. She imitates a beached whale at such times. I don’t care, I will lift her up, either to place a card in the proper position, or to pick a card up from under her. I put catnip on the toys, and the putties went crazy. There is putty klutz fu, falling off the table, or attempting to jump onto the table and missing it. “I meant to do that, I’ve been planning to do that all week.” George Carlin, our favorite stand up comedian-philosopher. He was supposedly a comedian, but I consider him to be a [ho;osopher because he spoke the truth.

Then there’s Pye pye pye-wacket. Pye pye pye-wacket chocolate covered Pyewacket, yum yum yum! She licks and bites noses while buzzing, which is my word for purring. We call her the Pyewacketeer, the Funny Looking Splotched Thing, and the accordion putty.. Bailee and Frakki are inseparable Stephen calls them the lezbo-putties. Inky is First Putty, who lived in pits, and learned to use his claws in self-defense. [a take off from a Firesign Theatre routine] . Inky has many other names, two of them are Inka dinka doodle do and Putty duog man. Bailee is Bailee Beasley Beastly, the Triple B Threat, or as I like to call her, 3B! Of course, when you call her that it’s always with an exclamation point after it, and in a high pitched voice. She’s also Ma Bailee, and Machine Gun Bailee. Little Boy is also a Putty Duog Man, First Daddy (because he’s sired so many kittens, and is a paws-on daddy. He stays engaged with his kids, even though he’s been neutered. Dr. Livingston I. Presume aka Princess Henrietta the Navigator. We thought she was a boy for over 9 months until one day this last spring when I looked under hir tail and discovered that s/he was a girl cat. It was at that time that I declared that the middle initial I stood for Isadora, which means “gift of Isis.” She is also called “Monkey Putty,” because of her penchant for climbing to great heights and jumping down upon a human’s shoulder or chest.

Frakki lives here. Frikki lives elsewhere. We call them the twins because they both look Siamese, even though their parents don’t look Siamese. Both Oreo and Little Boy must have had some Siamese in them. My theory is that about 5 years ago or so there was a very active Siamese seal point tom in the area. Then there is Putty Bear the Gray Bandit. He came in saying “This is MY house. I LIVE here. These are MY humans Where’s MY dinner?” Megan, Stephen’s daughter, calls him Smoky. He was severely beaten by a dead beech leaf. He and the beech leaf got into a fight, and the beech leaf won! He came away from the putty combat whining and whimpering. All 7 are fierce and great hunters. They bring in grasshoppers, crickets, and praying mantises. I don’t mind them destroying the grasshoppers and the crickets, but I wish they’d leave the praying mantises be, because praying mantises destroy bugs.

Each one has a distinctive personality. They all love putty combat. Currently it’s Pyewacket, Princess Henrietta the Navigator, and Frakki as a tag team picking on poor Putty Bear. Eventually Putty Bear will be twice the size of any of them, and proceed to take out his revenge up[on them, one at a time. Stephen will sell tickets. He said I could have the snack concessions. That’s where the real money is. It would be even better if we could merchandise the whole thing. Think of it, little stuffed Pyewackets, Putty Bears, Dr. Livingstons, Frakkis, key chains with resin miniatures of each putty, pins.

The Necroputtycon is the “Way of the Paw,” the manifesto of the Putty Conspiracy. To be puttied means that you have at least one putty lying or sitting on you, and the rule is that you cannot move until the putty gets off. There is majorly puttied, completely puttied, and severely puttied. They love to be sung to. One of the songs we like to sing to them is “How much is that putty in the window? The one with the scraggly tail. How much is that putty in the window. I do hope that putty’s for sale.” Bailee and Pyewacket are both love sponges. All the putties are putty yogis, masters of putty yoga. There are special putty asanas, as when they lick their own hind ends. Pyewacket goes insane for salami slices. The putties make all their balls disappear.

When feeding the putties, say “Putties!” in a high pitched voice. They respond best to high-pitched voices. The white female, whom I named Guinevere lets Stephen pet her whilst she’s eating. I say funny nonsense things to the putties like “Wubba wubba wubba the girl.” As I said before, the putties love to be sung to, They don’t seem to care whether you can carry a tune in a pail, or if you’re off-tune. They aren’t critics at all. I think they just like the attention. They also like it when you recite or read poetry to them. It can be the classics, like “Tiger tiger burning bright in the forests of the night.”, modern poetry or your own. They won’t know the difference. I have three songs I sing to Ma Bailee: “Hry there Bailee Girl” to the tune of “Georgy Girl,” “Bailee Go ‘Round the Roses,” and the Temptations’ hit “My Girl”.

They always know when we aren’t feeling well, and gather around to offer their comfort. When I’d first gotten my gall bladder removed, both Bailee and Pyewacket liked to lie on my main incision. I was really sore there, though, so I’d move them to a more comfortable spot. Pyewacket would knead me and bite my nose, buzzing the whole time. They both like to chew on our glasses. Bailee also likes to chew on my jewelry or buttons, so I have taken to wearing my necklaces under my tee shirt or tank top. The Deadly Watch Chain, the Dreadful Headset, and the Baneful Beads are still among the putties’ favorite toys. The Dreadful Headset is a headset that has already been ruined. Putty Duog Man Little Boy is a Drool Master or Master Drooler.. We have all these little songs we sing to the putties. We either make them up or set the words to a song we already know. The putties have made cuteness into a magickal power. I call them “Qute Ness Monsters.”

Dogs have owners, cats have staff. We’re their servants. But we make them “bark” before we give them food. And if there are two putties, and one slice of salami, there are sure to be lots of growling. The putties will follow us if we have food. They have this whole spy network going, and report back to Ma Bailee. Putties are fantastic creatures, and they are inscrutable. George Carlin liked putties because they just didn’t give a sh*t, and neither did he. The 100 putty phenomenon is when a putty sticks in her paw, gets a single piece of food, then puts it in her mouth. It’s a takeoff of the Hundredth Monkey Phenomenon, where the monkeys were washing their sweet potatoes in salt water, because they taste better that way, and when 100 of them were washing their sweet potatoes, the colony across the way all washed their sweet potatoes. Lately Pyewacket has started a new wrinkle of it. She sticks her paw in the water dish, then licks her paw draw. Bailee started it with the food, and taught it to the other putties. Next we’ll hear about putties across town doing it, then it will truly be the 100th putty phenomenon.

When we still had Oreo’s 2nd litter here, and she had weaned them from her, the puttiettes started to suckle on Dr. Livingston. This was funny because not only had she never had a lirrwe, but she had been spayed several months before. We didn’t think she would be lactating, but the kittens sucked on. Misty lost part of her tail, and we haven’t been able to solve that mystery. Pyewacket is a very tough putty; she can lick anyone in the house, and often does. She will also knead you if she likes you. It’s nice to be kneaded. The putties like to lie down on Stephen’s computer keyboard, and his divination board. Our finances are so bad that we are considering hiring out the putties to our friends as comic relief. We then came up with a song about it “Pimping out the putties, pimping out the putties, we shall come rejoicing, pimping out the putties.” The putties keep Stephen from playing his video games by unplugging his computer. I just looked at Inky, our black male, He was lying in his back with his paws in the air. So funny. When they do something bad, they get the tooty dance as a punishment.

Saturday night a bunch of us witches gathered to plan a ritual to get rid of some entities that have been attacking a friend of mine. She was trying to get everyone to get out on the patio so that I could give a class on a couple of techniques of mine that will be necessary in the upcoming battle. And she used the line about “Trying to organize Witches is like herding cats.” I thought that was pertinent. Herding putties is a difficult task indeed.

I was scratching Pyewacket’s belly, and she was making these funny .noises, halfway between a meow and a purr. Then she was doing the 100th putty thing with the food in the bin. I put some more food in the bin and she redoubled her efforts until I lifted her up and carried her over to the food dish. Later we were forced to open up the food bin so that Bailee could do 100th Putty. I came into Stephen’s room and did an impromptu vaudeville occultism thing. Trouble is, neither of us can remember which song we did. I say we because he joined in the song. We’ve decided to join the 21st century and do not only the tooty dance but the tweety dance whilst tweeting on twitter.

I’ve just been kneaded by the buzzing Pyewacketeer. Another funny thing to say to a putty is yabba yabba yabba. Bailee is the keeper of the phone, and has crossed her paws. The putties are the only ones I can drink under the table, and that’s only because they’re already under the table. I was having a conversation in putty language with one of the putties and apparently I must have invited her to lie on my bed because there Pyewacket was, lying on my bed. I scritched her a little, promising to scritch her more in a couple minutes. But when I came back, she was eating. Stay tuned for more adventures of Putty Bear, or as Stephen likes to put is, The Beech Leaf Chronicles.

I was cooking some Italian sausage to put in the spaghetti sauce. I give the sausage skins to the putties. I tried to give Putty Bear one, but Pyewacket grabbed 4 out of the 5. Frakki got the only one she didn’t get, so poor little Putty Bear got none. Some major putty combat, and growling broke out among Pyewacket, Frakki, and Dr. Livingston. Tell us your funny putty stories. Are your putties as funny as ours? .

My blog at both Blessed Be UK and Avalon was removed because I was asking for sorely needed money. Apparently, unless you are rich enough to afford one of their exorbitantly priced pro-memberships you can’t ask for money. If I were rich enough to afford a pro-membership, I wouldn’t need to ask for money would I? The owners and administration of both these sites discriminate against poor people. If you have a presence one either or both of these networks, please write a blog protesting this grossly unfair and prejudiced policy.

Vandals removed the bench from the bus shelter by the Extra Storage lot on Lawrence and Stockton Blvd. This happened at least 4 months ago. . Why are the Regional Transit people taking benches away from bus stops when they should be putting more in? It’s yet another way in which ordinary people are being shat upon just because they either aren’t rich enough to afford a car, or choose to take mass transit because they’re environmentally aware, or too old or blind to drive. Where are people supposed to sit whilst they wait for a bus that only comes when it feels like it? I’m lucky because when I start walking and taking the bus again I have my sporty red and black walker, which has a seat on it. So I have a chair wherever I go. I take my walker with me as a protest because I noticed early on that this town is notoriously short on places for people to sit either whilst walking to the shops or waiting for a bus that might or might not come. And now they’ve taken another one away.

Almost three months ago, I broke my right ankle. It was in a gallstone attack. I went to the bathroom, and was going to go to my room again when I was hit by a wave of pain so severe that I passed out. I must’ve sat on my ankle hard because when I tried to get up, my ankle went crunch! I sank down on my rear again against the door. Stephen and I had a dialogue: ”Are you all right?” he asked.

“No, I’m in a lot of pain.”

“I’m calling 911.”

“Ok.”

He asked me the questions the dispatcher asked him. I answered them. At length they arrived. I took my book and my purse with me. We went to Kaiser Morse hospital. I gave them the address. They knew how to get there. We arrived after a few minutes. They admitted me, and the next morning, my ankle was operated on. Then I spent from then until Wednesday the 7th in the hospital. I came home, and am now in full recovery. Six weeks ago I got into my room, and finally got access to my computer. Will give you updates as we proceed. Update: a month ago I got out of the house. My physical therapist taught me how to hop down the steps using my aluminum walker. I used it to go to the liturgy meeting, and then Sunday I went to our Grove’s Lughnasadh ritual, where I donated a dollar, and offered some whiskey to Miach for my own healing, the healing of my friend Snoodlady, who was in the hospital with a serious sinus infection that gave her double vision and vertigo, and my friend Cherye who has a nasty staph infection in her legs and feet. On two fronts there were immediate results. Snoodlady felt well enough to come home on Monday, and I learned to carry my walker whilst in my wheelchair. My physical therapist taught me some exercises to do in my wheelchair, and I worked myself up to 32 of each. The last one I learned was the wheelchair pushup. I did 32 of them today, for which I am very proud of myself. Stephen thought that you should know. ..

Yes, August 20th was my surgery day. And it happened as I hoped it would. I don’t remember what I dreamed whilst being under anesthesia. I did admitting, answered verifying questions, got something to relax me, and then woke up in Recovery. I was still pretty out of it, and a little sore. I put my clothes on, and Carl caught up with me. I came home, and relaxed. Healing has already started. I didn’t feel like having much of a supper. I found out, because the nurse weighed me, that I had lost 9 lbs. That was before the surgery, so I don’t know how much my gall bladder weighed, as full of gall stones as it was. Also I’m wearing a fiber glass cast, so I don’t know how much I’ll lose when I lose the cast, and can finally start TAKING SHOWERS!

Two weeks agoI lost the eboot. I’m walking. I’m no longer using the wheelchair. Soon the Durable Medical Equipment people will come and take it away. I still have a bit of healing to do as far as my bones are concerned, but Dr. Van Voris says that walking will stimulate the bones to regenerate. I am thrilled. Stephen is thrilled too. He no longer has to fetch my dinner or drinks, so he is relieved. Also I can help him with cleaning chores, like vacuuming. I can also get to my medical appointments on the bus, so that is a big load off our friend Carl’s mind. I pushed the wheelchair into the house, up the steps, and over the threshold. Also I have clearance to eat most foods in small amounts to see how I tolerate them, but I’m still restricting my sugar intake severely. I want to lose even more weight.

Stephen got his Vampire deck from Llewellyn today. It’s another late birthday gift to himself. You should see it, it’s gorgeous. I want one, but my money is earmarked for more vitamins.

We need paid readings and donations. Send donations to my Paypal account tezra.reitan@gmail.com and to Stephen’s email account at any of his email addies. If I get $5 donations, I shall send the donor a copy of one of my ebooks. For $20, you can have all five ebooks. This past month, the month of August, was the worst on Keen in the 10 years since Stephen (Frog) has been on the service. He made -$25 on KEEN in August. He owes $2000 in rent, and I owe $1000. What does it take to get you to open your pocketbooks?

Remember, if someone from a Ning network asks you to pay, say “No way!” The only way this’ll work is if we all stick together and call the a**holes on their BS. We have to be willing to walk away from our networks, because they are counting on people being scared to walk away from their networks. This guy Jason Rosenthal is a bully, and there’s only one way to deal with a bully, and that is, to stand up to him.

Stephen managed to scrape the $87 together. But it meant cutting into the rent money. He is already $2000 in the hole for the rent, and I am $1000 behind, because I can’t afford to pay $500 per month in rent.. You guys have not been doing your part. It’s not as though he’s begging for hand outs. He is willing to return value for value given. And $32 flat for a reading or a class is really a bargain. Ordinarily he charges $32 an hour, so $32 flat is a very good deal. Remember it’s 916-455-2267. Raise me on Windows Live Msgr or AIM and I’ll give you my phone number, and the hours you can call me.

Back before my accident, Stephen was able to scrape $50 together to pay our friend to put our website together, and she’s working on it now. I’m looking forward to seeing it. It should be very impressive. Fear not, we’ll keep you abreast of all developments on this front. Abbott’s Inn International School of Magick will then be on the internet map, so to speak, in a big way. Stephen has a website through Yellow Book. www.abbottsinninternational.com is the link. The phone number is 1-888-611-7982. Call him sometbrb
ime, and ask for a reading.

Inquiring minds want to know: How do we add music to our sites? Please let us know. The person who helps us do that earns a reading on webcam on the popular IM clients. The person who helps us establish ourselves on the Paganspace.net chat client earns a reading. We’re using readings as currency here because we have no other medium to use for an incentive. All the money we make goes for paying the bills of bare-bones living.
We’re in survival mode here, subsistence living.

Stephen is hopping mad right now (appropriate for a frog, no?) because his ex-wife Debbie is taking one of the twins and giving her to a strange woman who lives at their complex. He has grown quite attached emotionally to both of them, and doesn’t like to see the pair split up. I was prepared emotionally a long time ago for this eventuality. I just don’t know why it took Debbie so long to do it. I suspect that she calculated it so as to cause the most hurt to Stephen. Yes, she is that cruel. She claims to be a Wiccan, but doesn’t abide by the Rede at all, and never has a good word to say about anyone. I try not to think about what she says about me, but I shudder at the emotional abuse she piles on their daughter. Stephen was so emotionally distraught that he broke a pair of his glasses accidentally right after she called. Debbie never lifted a hand to care for these animals from the day they were born. Until my accident, we took turns feeding them, then Stephen took it over. It was he who shelled out moneys for food and kitty litter. Debbie has never compensated him in any way for the expenses. She just demands money from him. It was I who arranged for the twins to get spayed. We thought we were getting Frikki back, but the woman is holding onto her.

The new version of the Mind-n-Magick toolbar is available, so get it.


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Sex and the Single Familiar

Welcome to Magickal Familiars & their Powers 5! We’re glad you could make it. Do check out the other Magickal Familiars & their Powers groups on other networks. We just finished an interesting week. Some weeks ago I became concerned about the increasing population of kittens around our place. My therapist got a printout for me of the home page of the local SPCA. They have a program, supported by donations, of free neutering and spaying of the pets of low income people. So I made some phone calls, received some vouchers in the mail, and set things up. I talked to an extremely nice lady named Rosemary and we set the whole thing up. Our friend Walt (the artist) made the supreme sacrifice of getting up at O-god-o’clock in the morning to take me and the cats to the SPCA clinic. The night before I took their food and water away, the next morning we put the twins in the carriers in the truck, and took them. Then today we did the same thing with Pyewacket and Dr. Livingston I. Presume. At 4:30 both Wednesday and today we picked them up, brought them home, and laughed a little at their wobbly attempts to walk around the room. Wednesday I comforted Frikki, and this evening I comforted Pyewacket. Comforting consists of letting the cat lie in my lap, stroking her, and saying nonsense things in a soothing tone such as “Wubba wubba wubba the girl,” and “Zooba zum zum zooba zooba birds.” I don’t know what it means, but it seems to make the putties feel better. If you have an animal, get it spayed or neutered. When I read the figure of puppies and kittens that have to be destroyed each year, it was over 7 million per year, and that was several years ago. I’m sure that the number has gone up by now to 8 or 9 million. The SPCA has a great low cost program, and around here, even free if you are low income like Stephen and I are. Also the animal lives longer if it gets spayed or neutered. Having a litter of kittens every few months takes a lot out of a female, and they’re also closer to their humans if they’re spayed. Same for boys. He doesn’t spray, roam, or get into fights where he could get abscesses that will kill him. He is also like the females a more affectionate cat. The only exceptions are if you have a pedigreed animal that you are prepared and set up to breed under strict control. Also use the SPCA’s adoption service, both to obtain an animal, and if you have excess puppies and kittens have them get them adopted for you.

We just used a bit of putty psychology. I had gone and gotten a little kitty kibble on a plastic lid, and fed it to Pyewacket. Then when she’d had all she wanted, we gave it to Frikki. When she was reluctant, we put some putty treats on the lid, and she ate that. We’re feeding Pyewacket special because she’s a bit on the scrawny side.

Familiars don’t have to be cats, of course. They can be dogs, horses, frogs, toads, and even plants and stones. A very fine rather blurry line separates the familiar from the totem animal. Raven Grimassi wrote an excellent book on the magickal familiar. You can probably find it either at Llewellyn.com, or at Amazon.com.

Familiars are basically extensions of the magician’s or Witch’s own personal power. The magician or Witch puts some of hir own power into the familiar, and works with it. S/he also projects a portion of hir own consciousness into the familiar. The familiar thus becomes an extension of the magick user’s own will, much like the wand, athame, or sword.

You can’t use it on very young kittens, but tea tree oil scares away fleas. It smells funny, so the cats hate it. This is a public service message. This is to encourage you to use herbs and other natural remedies whenever possible. It’s better for us, better for the animals, better for the earth. What other areas of working with familiars do you members want to explore?

For many years, Stephen had iguanas as familiars. The nice thing about reptiles is that they don’t have the dander that will set off an asthmatic’s allergies. The thing about lizards is that they have been used as familiars for many years Dragon familiars is what they’re called. How many of you have a love of dragons and dragon lore? The idea of dragons as familiars can be found in many fantasy based sources. From 19 89 until 1995, Tegwedd had a snake, a red-tailed Columbian boa named Tonantzin. She only gave her up when Tonantzin got to be too big to handle. But Stephen is sure there are non-fantasy sources as well for wizards and their dragon familiars. Do you know of any non-fiction sources for these? One fiction source is “The Harper Hall of Pern” by Anne McCaffrey. It’s about a harpist in training who attracts a bevy of fire lizards, who are attracted to her music. It’s really good. I recommend it.

The Golden Compass by Phillip Pullman is another book or series of books that has familiars in the plot, only these are called daemons, and are dangerously close to being totem animals. There are other fantasies where familiars play a role. If you have your favorite fantasy that has familiars, we’d like to hear about it. A TV show that died long ago, but you might be able to catch it if you have cable or satellite, is “Beastmaster”. What I remember was that the guy had a great ass, and looked great in a loincloth. He could see from the pov of a tiger and an eagle. He also had two trained ferrets. Then there were the 2 Dr, Doolittle films. Then there was “Bardic Choices” by Mercedes Lackey, where the main character had a relationship with an intelligent bird creature who sang along with her. It just serves to point out the love relationship between a magick user and hir familiar.

According to Ann Moura, the term familiar comes from the familiar servants retained by churchmen, and so they would call the Witches’ companion animals by a term they were themselves, ahem! familiar with. The term has come down to us from the confessions of these supposed Witches, obtained as they were through the use of such tortures that would make today’s water boarding resemble being tickled with a feather by comparison. The movie “Bell, Book & Candle” also featured a familiar who was a male Siamese named Pyewacket. The name Pyewacket means lively spirit, and comes down to us from the broadsides of Matthew Hopkins, the Witchfinder General, who had published an account of a Witch he had apprehended. The name Pyewacket is neither masculine nor feminine. I have had two cats named Pyewacket, and now have a third. .

There are 3 animal decks which Stephen strongly recommends: Druid Animal Oracle by Druid and Stephanie Carr-Gomm. The second is Beasts of Albion by Miranda Gray. Miranda Gray is a heavy hitter and a class act. If you are a member of some of our other groups, elsewhere on the internet, you’ve seen her name before in connection with books on Celtic history, legends, and magick. Then there’s the Celtic Oracle by Gerry Maguire Thompson, which includes animals. I too have a couple of animal decks. I have the Magical Menagerie. Sorry, don’t know the author, so can’t tell you who it’s by. But I think it’s a Llewellyn deck. The other animal deck I have is the Medicine Cards by Jamie Sams & David Carson, published by Bear & Co., Santa Fe, NM. Then there’s the Animal Tarot by Ted Andrews. I own a copy of the White Cat from Lo Scarabeo, an imprint of Llewellyn. The artwork is by Severino Baraldi. Stephen feels that the deck has a jesoid vibe and I feel that Christians have no business dealing with the Tarot. It is a Pagan mystery.

Then there is the Cat People Tarot by Karen Kuykendall.. I met her at a SciFi convention back before my daughter Janvier was born, at least I thought that’s when it came out. But Janvier was born in 1982, and the copyright isn’t until 1985.. She was a very nice middle aged lady dressed in one of the costumes the humans on the cards were wearing. They reminded me of noble and Imperial Byzantine dress. It was the deck in my collection that Janvier selected to use to do readings with when I taught her how to read tarot at age 7. It was with this deck that she gave Stephen a reading at a party after the New Age fair, and knocked his socks off.

.We mentioned dragons above. There are several dragon Tarot decks. One such is by D.J. Conway and Lisa Hunt, the Celtic Dragon Tarot. I like it because the humans are all dressed in medieval garb. Another dragon deck is the Dragon Tarot by Terry Donaldson and Peter Pracowith. If there are other dragon decks, please let us know. Then there’s the Dragons’ Tarot from Lo Scarabeo by Manfredi Toraldo and Severino Baraldi.

The 7 puttiettes are now up to exploring the house. I named the first to venture out of Stephen’s room Magellan after the great explorer. So I’ll put the question to you: Why have familiars anyway? Why bother with the muss and fuss? I’ll answer for myself, then Stephen will answer, and then you can answer. And remember, we want to hear from all of you, not just a few. For one thing, familiars, if they are animals that go both inside and out, they can be our eyes and ears on the ground, so to speak. Also certain toads, of the bufano genus secrete a mucus that is hallucinogenic. From all reports, it doesn’t taste very good, but it does produce a powerful trip. I don’t recommend it though. If they are indoor creatures, they serve as temple guardians. Cats are especially good for this. When I was hanging around Thelema Lodge and the Supreme Swamp a lot there was a woman named Caitlin who was breeding pocket sized cats as temple guardians. Astral nasties have a natural aversion to cats, because cats can sense them and take them out before we humans with our limited senses can detect their presence. “It’s fun to have an extension of yourself that isn’t human,” says Stephen. “I personally enjoy critters, in some cases more than I enjoy people. So I see it as a logical following to have a familiar to love.” I can see where he’s coming from. I would rather have the company of a cat than 95% of the human race. “Our putties are the 5 elements, and this house is Puttyhaven. Putty Central. This is the headquarters for the putty conspiracy.”

Familiars can see the spirit-world. I’ve already mentioned this in passing in the previous paragraph, but Stephen wants to make a point of saying it. A lot of people have familiars because they want to have contact with the spirits. According to the old traditions, the magick user would put hir consciousness in the critter, ad be able to sense what the critter does. Another example would be the falconer and hir hawk. If the falconer is also a magick user, s/he can fly with it. Another connection is that with dolphins or whales. Another connection is what which cats have with the dream world, because they love to sleep, and they do dream.

I’ve already said that there is a very fine blurred line between familiars and totems (animal allies). The concept of totems comes from shamanism, which is very close to Witchcraft. In fact, while the term shamanism refers to the magick of people in tribal cultures, Witchcraft is the shamanism of north-western Europe. The familiar is the animal ally of a western or European shaman. Popular totems or familiars of Northern European shamans before the devastating advent of Christianity were the wolf, the bear, and the raven. Odin, the Norse All-Father himself had 2 ravens named Munin (memory) and Hugin (thought). If those aren’t familiars, Id like to know what is! Traditional familiars were not really animals but imps or nature spirits, that is, if you want to believe the Witch hunters and confessions of “witches”. As we now know, the “witches” were willing to confess to anything the sick twisted perverted minds of the interrogators could come up with. These “imps” had a trickster nature, rather like the Native American Coyote, and were parasitic upon the “witch”, using body marks like moles to suckle blood from her. Thus the Witch hunter would go about with a special retractable pick that would recess into its handle so that the pick would not penetrate the skin of his victim or draw blood.

Here’s the situation: Jason Rosenthal, probably a Christian Republican, the new CEO of Ning, intends to put the Ning networks on a paying basis. That means no more free networks, no more joining other people’s networks for free, either because you know that the owners of the paying networks are going to pass their exorbitant costs onto us. What do you say to that? Make a noise, make a big noise. Make a noise so big and loud that Rosenthal can hear it. The next noise he’ll hear is the thundering of many footsteps as we all leave. We have to fight for our rights. We can’t let assholes like Rosenthal dictate to us. This kind of fascist BS should not be allowed to happen. We should do a letter writing campaign to fight this a-h. We have to fight this biotch. This fascist crap cannot stand. We have to get going right away. If everyone protests, it’ll make him go broke and he’ll be fired. We got support for our position from an unexpected quarter. A friend of mine, whom Stephen can’t stand, both because of his politics and his lovestyle (he’s a Reagan Republican and a Gorean) said that what Rosenthal was doing in phasing out the free services was a bad business decision. “People would be coming to him from the free services to get the premium paid services, but he’s cut that part of his Market out. He should keep both.” Let’s boycott Ning, and any of the networks that cave-in to his Gestapo tactics. If any network says you must pay to play, just say no, and get all your friends to say no too. Spread it around, tell everyone you know. Don’t keep it a secret. I have been sending my blog to all the Ning networks I’m on. “We have to stop this neo-Ning fascism,” says Stephen.

We need at least $3000 to move. 916-455-2267 is Stephen’s number for multimedia readings. Just 93.75 readings would do the trick. Don’t stand by and figure that your neighbor or your friend will do it, so you don’t need to. We need your donation too. Every little bit helps. Don’t forget that you can donate to Stephen’s Paypal account. abbottsinn@gmail.com. Also call 1-800-ASK-KEEN and ask for Stephen6580. Or call 1-800-280-8496.Stephen 1580 Stephen now has.$250 in his account which is not enough to pay rent.

One of the psychic reading services that Stephen works for has changed hands. Zodiac (Celebrity Psychics.com) has changed hands and names. It is now Psychic Power. They are recruiting new readers. Stephen gets $50 for anyone who signs up and $100 for someone who signs up and racks up 500 minutes.

Stephen’s done it. He’s gone over to Chase with me. It came to a head because an agent at Bunko de America told him that he had enough money to write $900 in checks to our landlady to pay off his back rent when he didn’t have the money. Now you should understand that Stephen is even more math challenged than I am. He was sick for 5 days with asthma symptoms and wasn’t able to call them to ascertain his balance, or he would have caught the error sooner. They charged him $900 in overdraft charges, and paid everything except for the Rhapsody charge, and his porn. Now I can understand why they wouldn’t have paid the porn one, but the Rhapsody? Why didn’t they pay that one? He just called Bunko de America, and they still won’t own up to any of their responsibility in this. SSI plays a role in this whole thing too because they toyed with him for two hours, letting him think that they were going to cut him an emergency check, then reneged on him. Now folks, this is two hours when he could have been doing readings, and getting his overdraft down. And they turned around and called the sheriff on him. So maybe now you understand why Stephen is so depressed and angry. I realize that you’re probably all out of compassion. I know I am. But the need is real, and the need is dire. He is no longer suicidal, but another setback could send him over the edge again. Of course I have a plan of action now if he turns suicidal again. I’ll call 911, and have him go in on a 5150. In this state, that’s the code for in danger of harming himself or others. This way he’ll get the help he needs.

Now I’m in need of readings too. I need to put in my share of our moving money. My PayPal account is tezra.reitan@gmail.com. For a donation of $5, I’ll send you a copy of one of my books, and for $32, I’ll give you a reading by phone. For $20, I’ll send you a copy of all five of my books. 916-457-7476 is my number. I can’t give you a multi-media reading, because I don’t have my webcam and headset hooked up yet. For that, you’ll have to call Stephen at 916-455-2267.

Our friend Julie Maahs has a book out called the Serpent and the Stag. It can be found at http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/10619. I urge you strongly to buy a download, and tell your friends. She is publicizing it through viral marketing; or what used to be called word-of-mouth advertising. She’s directing the book towards a Pagan audience. It’s a murder mystery with nice contorted twists and turns. When I read it, I saw it as though it were a movie and I was the lighting director/art director. If you review books, contact her at julie@your-taxes.com and she will send you the free coupon code so you can get a free download. She wants a copy of the review, so send her a copy. I sent her a copy and also posted it on Blogger.

There are four putties we need to give up. Ordinarily I would’ve said “free to good homes,” but a very wise friend told me this past weekend that we should charge something for them so that the prospective owner demonstrates that s/he has enough disposable income to care for a pet. So we’ll charge the nominal $10. We’re looking for people who love cats as much as we do. Soon there will be five more puttiettes that need homes. Oreo had seven kittens about a month ago, but 2 are spoken for already.

We greatly fear that Isaac Bonewits, founder of the ADF, and foremost Neo-Pagan, may be dying. We are trying to keep a positive spin on this in line with the Secret, and the Law of Attraction, but his doctors are not hopeful. They came out and said , “This man needs a miracle,” so we have been doing rituals towards that end. We talked to Brigit on the Goddess phone and everything. I realize full well that losing many people that you love is the price of longevity, but I’ve lost too many recently. To lose Isaac on top of losing Robin Goodfellow is just too much for me.

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