Dear Loki,
I am not sure if the sky diving dream was of your engineering or the random burbling of my subconscious. It was, however, a very strange thing. I still am shaking my head at it. Fortunately, however, it was not a nightmare. I have this thing about heights and yet in the dream it didn't come up. I don't think that means it has gone away. Maybe, however, I have reached a point where I can stand on a ladder with out feeling like I'm going to fall off at any minute. I've been doing a bit better about replacing light bulbs in the overhead lights.
I think that I need to find something better for my coffee. This stuff is ok but it is getting a bit tiresome. I wonder if part of the problem is that it is a little bit stale. I'm not sure. I do know that the instant coffee with the cinnamon in it was a terrible purchase. I confess, I should have listened to you on that one. Strangely enough, though, Beloved actually likes it. He described it pretty well as the bastard lovechild of chai and coffee. I enjoy both things but apparently they must remain separate.
I finished that manuscript today. The last three pages were not that easy but now it is done. I'm going to send it off to my beta readers after I check through it to make sure that I don't have any glaring typos or errors. My overly optimistic idea of getting this thing done by Eastre wasn't realistic. I think I may have been doing a bit of manic thinking at that time. Which is kinda weird because I was in the middle of a depressive episode. I think I am going to just give up on understanding how my brain works. Each time I think I have a handle on it, something else comes along to confuse me.
I think you were right in picking out that mixed berry scented candle. I wasn't too sure about it but the scent has grown on me. It doesn't smell like jam, which they promised, but it is not too bad. I also am flattered that you like the doily I made. I think you're right. It did come out really well for a first attempt that happened to be my own design. It makes me think I should attempt one of those patterns that I have seen on the web. I'm not going to start anything right now because I really have to finish this shawl I've been knitting on since August last year. I have been getting concerned that the boys are going to take it off the needles. So, I am going to finish it.
The funny thing is, I am seriously thinking about making another shawl when this thing is done. I don't think that I have space for more shawls. But I want to keep this one I've been working on and I want to make myself a lace one. I'm not sure if I want to do lace crochet or lace knitting with it. I have two balls of black crochet cotton (size 10) that I picked out for the project. I want to do my first lace shawl project in something that if I have to rip out, I don't need to worry too much if the thread breaks.
Your suggestion about giving etsy another try makes me uncomfortable. I know I need to do something with all the stuff I have been making. I just worry that I am going to do really poorly with it. You are right, however, I should specialize in a few things rather then doing a little bit of everything. I'm still thinking about it. The etsy account is still set up. I haven't given everything away. Actually, I haven't given anything away right now. I just worry that I don't have the proverbial spoons for this.
2/23/15
Skydiving weddings and stuff.
Waxing Worm Moon (Age: 5 Days)
Sign: Taurus
Weather: bitterly cold,
snow is projected
Snowpack: 2.5 ft, approx.?
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
I fell asleep on the couch this morning. I had a headache and figured sleeping would make it go away because coffee and tylenol wasn't touching it. Fortunately, sleep did cure my headache but boy did I have some strange dreams. I dreamed that I officiated a polyamorous wedding that just happened to be done mid-air whilst skydiving. As someone who thinks jumping out of perfectly good airplanes is crazy talk, I was baffled by this dream.
I also dreamed that I was shoveling endless amounts of snow. I know that one is the fruit of the recent weather and the fact that I have been doing a lot of snow shoveling. As I said elsewhere, I think the only positive I can see about this bitterly cold and snowy weather is that I am getting a good workout when I shovel. The dream was strangely pleasant. I didn't feel like Sisyphus but rather like an excavator working a gold strike. There was excitement about shoveling that I, honestly, haven't felt since I was a child and shoveling snow meant there was more to use in making snowforts and snowmen. Perhaps the dream is some encouragement from my unconscious mind to take time to go out and play in the snow with the kids. If the weather isn't so blastedly bitter, perhaps we'll do something.
I haven't been doing much on my tarot reading stuff. I pretty much gave up hope of having the energy and focus to do it with this last, extended depressive episode. I was still in the midst of that despairing mindset when a friend on Facebook asked me for a tarot reading. It went really well and Loki nudged me in the shoulder kinda hard. I guess I am better at this tarot reading stuff then I feel I am. As per his encouragement, I am back on Keen attempting to do this stuff again. It is kinda hard because I'm, quite frankly, afraid of other people. Social phobia is hugely a problem when it comes to marketing and being able to take calls. Still, Loki thinks I can do it and do it well. So I'm going to jump back into this with both feet and hope the water isn't too cold.
I've been trying to reach out to Odin to get his thoughts on a few things. I have a feeling that I've been dreaming of him at night. The problem is, I don't really remember the dreams too well when I wake up in the morning. I think I'm going to sit down with one of my many divination tools and do a question and answer session. I am leaning towards using runes, though I feel a little gunshy on that one. I kinda had my self confidence shaken a little while back when I forgot the meanings of them. I suppose this is another thing that I should just jump back in with both feet and give it the old college try. (Idioms, what idioms?)
2/16/15
Letters to Loki # 12 - Vacation Days, yay.
Dear Wolf's Father,
The kids are on vacation this week from school. I'm not sure what we're going to do if the weather stays so bitterly cold. The arctic chill has been enough that the front entryway of the building is nearly as cold as my refrigerator. It's a kinda weird experience. It is currently -3o F outside with the sun shining and a few clouds in the sky. I hope that the day doesn't turn out like yesterday and the temperature dropped during the daylight hours. It wasn't too kind to my knees for this weather to be so nasty.
My mood is doing a lot better now. It seems that the medication adjustment was what I needed. I feel a bit like a fool for not saying something before but I suppose I can count that as a learning experience. I have to say, I rather like my new psychiatric care person. She's a registered nurse rather then a psychiatrist. She seems to actually believe me when I mention that I am having difficulty with something. I don't have to defend my symptoms or otherwise deal with someone who is adversarial in their approach to my care. I like that. I also like the fact that she doesn't talk down to me, like how some of my past psychiatrists did.
I'm still about 60 pages behind where I wanted to be. I honestly don't think I am going to finish this thing by the 19th, which was my deadline. This irritates me but I'm not ripping on myself for it. I feel a bit pressured but I recognize that the only one pressuring me is myself. I am going to do what I can over the course of this week. If I get lucky and finish this thing by the 19th, I am going to be really surprised. The kids are awful distracting and make it hard for me to focus on my writing. I suppose this is a foretaste of what the summer is going to be like.
On the whole, however, I'm doing better then I was last week. Who knows, maybe I'll get a good deal of writing done today and some housework. If I get even five pages done, that counts as a significant number.
The kids are on vacation this week from school. I'm not sure what we're going to do if the weather stays so bitterly cold. The arctic chill has been enough that the front entryway of the building is nearly as cold as my refrigerator. It's a kinda weird experience. It is currently -3o F outside with the sun shining and a few clouds in the sky. I hope that the day doesn't turn out like yesterday and the temperature dropped during the daylight hours. It wasn't too kind to my knees for this weather to be so nasty.
My mood is doing a lot better now. It seems that the medication adjustment was what I needed. I feel a bit like a fool for not saying something before but I suppose I can count that as a learning experience. I have to say, I rather like my new psychiatric care person. She's a registered nurse rather then a psychiatrist. She seems to actually believe me when I mention that I am having difficulty with something. I don't have to defend my symptoms or otherwise deal with someone who is adversarial in their approach to my care. I like that. I also like the fact that she doesn't talk down to me, like how some of my past psychiatrists did.
I'm still about 60 pages behind where I wanted to be. I honestly don't think I am going to finish this thing by the 19th, which was my deadline. This irritates me but I'm not ripping on myself for it. I feel a bit pressured but I recognize that the only one pressuring me is myself. I am going to do what I can over the course of this week. If I get lucky and finish this thing by the 19th, I am going to be really surprised. The kids are awful distracting and make it hard for me to focus on my writing. I suppose this is a foretaste of what the summer is going to be like.
On the whole, however, I'm doing better then I was last week. Who knows, maybe I'll get a good deal of writing done today and some housework. If I get even five pages done, that counts as a significant number.
Dreams from Last Night.
Waning Hunger Moon (Age: 27 Days)
Sign: Capricorn
Weather: Arctic cold, partly cloudy
Snow pack: Approx 3 ft
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
I have three dreams I remember clearly from last night. One was of a young woman who was from an Asian-American family. I think she was around seventeen or so. The young woman was depressed and feeling like she couldn't accomplish anything. Her aunt took her to an antique store. As they were walking around, the aunt told her to pick what she liked from the store. The young woman found an old cookbook. As she opened the cookbook and looked at it, the pages became those of a photo album with very old pictures of her family in it. As she looked at those pictures, her sense of depression lifted and she picked up another cookbook. It was another book that transformed into a photo album. She was then standing with her mother in the front room of their house holding the books. Her mother said "We'll move Uncle Jun (Pronounced like June.) out of your room and your grandmother in." The girl was much happier then.The second dream that I recall is of watching a family of Native Americans fleeing before a group of armed colonial soldiers. As they ran, they were torn between bringing their few belongings with them and just out right flight. The entire scene made me sad and I felt powerless to do anything about it. Before this dream ended, I had Enigma's Silent Warrior in my ears, specifically the chorus.
The third dream, I was sitting in a scriptorium of a monastery with a thick stack of vellum before me. To my left there was a book with an illuminated manuscript contained in it. To my right, there was a jar of ink and a steel tipped quill pen. The ink was the color of heart's blood. I looked at the book I was supposed to be copying and the letters swam on the page. The figures in the illustrations moved and fought with each other. I was cold and my hands hurt terribly. As I struggled to read the page to copy it, a wizened old man stood nearby chanting in a language that sounded roughly like Latin but wasn't.
I think the first dream is addressing something about my family but I'm not entirely sure what. The second one was most likely the result of listening to Silent Warrior several times yesterday as I was writing. The third dream, I'm confident, has to do with my frustration with the manuscript I'm writing.
2/9/15
Letters to Loki # 11 (untitled)
Hey there Sly One,
I've just been wracking my brains on how to move forward on this manuscript. It's been really frustrating. It's bad enough that I realized I'm not going to make the deadline I had set, but to keep getting blocked on what to say is awful. I'm sure that a lot of this is because of my mental health issues and the measures being taken to resolve them. It am fairly confident that I am going to be feeling somewhat more like myself in a few weeks. It just bothers me to no end that I'm not feeling better right now.
The snowfall today was pretty intense. I think I may have over did it when I was shoveling the snow earlier. Honestly, I kinda found myself wishing for a flamethrower a few times. Ok, more then a few times, but you get the picture. I did my best to stay cheerful and pleasant towards everybody I encountered today. I even made a point of returning phone calls, though I just wanted to hole up somewhere and hide from everything. I don't know if this is a sign that I am making progress on the social phobia thing or not. I'm just going to keep taking those small steps in the hopes that maybe I can regain something of my life before I got disabled.
It's been tough trying to come to grips with that fact. Saturday was a really rough day. I wound up crying myself to sleep (quietly) over it all. I am torn between anger that I got like that and this weird mixture of disgust and shame over it. Beloved tells me that it's perfectly reasonable for me to feel so hurt and angry with it all. Freyr tells me that it's ok if I get scared by all this. I just keep getting mad at myself for having those feelings. It's something I'm probably going to bring up when I see my therapist next week. As much as I just wish I could ignore it all and have it magically go away, I know that it isn't going to and attempting to take that approach is going to do me more harm than good.
I feel sad that I don't have something happier to post today. Maybe once the medication adjustment takes full effect, I won't be such a downer. I'm embarrassed to report that the social phobia thing has been making it hard for me to actually sit down and talk with Odin about all of this. I've been panicking that he will be angry and disgusted with me over my weakness. As a result, I have been running in proverbial circles. I know that he's patient but it really is better if I screw my courage to the sticking place and talk to him. I just can't seem to do it, though. Panic overrides me and I sit there staring blankly into space as I perseverate over the idea that the Old Man is going to be angry with me for being disabled.
I am doing my best to keep the 'fragile bone' analogy in mind. It's been hard work to do so, honestly. I wish that mental illness didn't have so much shame attached to it. I wish that people were as willing to extend some consideration on this front as they are for people who have more 'sexy' diseases. But, I guess wishing for something like that is like wishing for the sky to suddenly change color to neon pink or something. There is a possibility it could happen, but the stats say that it's highly unlikely. It's the end of the day, though, so I can say 'fuck it' and go hide or something now. I'm rambling now, so I think I'll end this here.
Thank you, Loki, for being there for me. And for being the voice of logic when I get stuck in a mental loop that's unhealthy. And for making me laugh when I really don't want to. You're an awesome friend and I really appreciate all that you do.
I've just been wracking my brains on how to move forward on this manuscript. It's been really frustrating. It's bad enough that I realized I'm not going to make the deadline I had set, but to keep getting blocked on what to say is awful. I'm sure that a lot of this is because of my mental health issues and the measures being taken to resolve them. It am fairly confident that I am going to be feeling somewhat more like myself in a few weeks. It just bothers me to no end that I'm not feeling better right now.
The snowfall today was pretty intense. I think I may have over did it when I was shoveling the snow earlier. Honestly, I kinda found myself wishing for a flamethrower a few times. Ok, more then a few times, but you get the picture. I did my best to stay cheerful and pleasant towards everybody I encountered today. I even made a point of returning phone calls, though I just wanted to hole up somewhere and hide from everything. I don't know if this is a sign that I am making progress on the social phobia thing or not. I'm just going to keep taking those small steps in the hopes that maybe I can regain something of my life before I got disabled.
It's been tough trying to come to grips with that fact. Saturday was a really rough day. I wound up crying myself to sleep (quietly) over it all. I am torn between anger that I got like that and this weird mixture of disgust and shame over it. Beloved tells me that it's perfectly reasonable for me to feel so hurt and angry with it all. Freyr tells me that it's ok if I get scared by all this. I just keep getting mad at myself for having those feelings. It's something I'm probably going to bring up when I see my therapist next week. As much as I just wish I could ignore it all and have it magically go away, I know that it isn't going to and attempting to take that approach is going to do me more harm than good.
I feel sad that I don't have something happier to post today. Maybe once the medication adjustment takes full effect, I won't be such a downer. I'm embarrassed to report that the social phobia thing has been making it hard for me to actually sit down and talk with Odin about all of this. I've been panicking that he will be angry and disgusted with me over my weakness. As a result, I have been running in proverbial circles. I know that he's patient but it really is better if I screw my courage to the sticking place and talk to him. I just can't seem to do it, though. Panic overrides me and I sit there staring blankly into space as I perseverate over the idea that the Old Man is going to be angry with me for being disabled.
I am doing my best to keep the 'fragile bone' analogy in mind. It's been hard work to do so, honestly. I wish that mental illness didn't have so much shame attached to it. I wish that people were as willing to extend some consideration on this front as they are for people who have more 'sexy' diseases. But, I guess wishing for something like that is like wishing for the sky to suddenly change color to neon pink or something. There is a possibility it could happen, but the stats say that it's highly unlikely. It's the end of the day, though, so I can say 'fuck it' and go hide or something now. I'm rambling now, so I think I'll end this here.
Thank you, Loki, for being there for me. And for being the voice of logic when I get stuck in a mental loop that's unhealthy. And for making me laugh when I really don't want to. You're an awesome friend and I really appreciate all that you do.
2/3/15
Letters to Loki #10 : Have you seen my marbles? 'n stuff.
Hey there Flamehair,
Sorry about this being a day late. That snowday yesterday threw everything off. I am having a difficult time keeping an even temper over the last several days. I'm not sure if that means I'm going into a mixed episode or if I'm just ticked off with the kids. Either way, it's been hard to be happy about things.
I'm still working on that writing project. I'm getting worried, though, because I only have a few weeks before deadline and I'm starting to think I'm not going to make it. I am trying to stay optimistic but it's been really hard. I managed 30 pages on the manuscript last Thursday and I thought I was going to pull that off today. I have utterly failed at that. It's somewhat shaken my confidence on that front.
I see some of your other god-bothered folk struggling and that upsets me. I know that everybody has different life experiences and different experiences of you. I get that. I also get that you're a frigging god and what I've got to say is worth about as much as spit in the ocean. I'm still going to make the attempt because somebody's gotta do it. You need to ease up on these guys. They're doing the best they can.
You keep telling me not to have such insanely high demands for myself. It's not cool that you turn around and do that with these other folk. You know we humans are fragile in some areas. Could you give a little bit more care for these people? You're not exactly helping your cause by taking the present approach with them. I know, I know you're a god and you see things differently then I do. I know that your priorities are way the fuck different from ours. I get that. But something's gotta give. These people may at some point just say 'fuck you, I'm done.' and leave.
People don't stick around to be hurt repeatedly. Yeah, I know, running from a god is not a successful thing by any stretch of the imagination. But that doesn't stop someone who is intent on getting out. You know that you win more people with sugar then vinegar. How about giving them more sugar then vinegar and being more understanding of their limitations? You do it for me, why can't you do it for them? I know I'm not that much special then other people. We all have to take our britches off to use the can.
I care about you. I know you want these people around or you wouldn't be involved with them at all. How about treating them with some of the care and consideration you give to me? It doesn't cost that much effort and it will probably get you better results then continually 'button mashing'. I may not know how gods work but I kinda have a few ideas about people.
I don't want to see you alienating people who have cared about you. I know what it's like to have people who cared about you just go away. It sucks and I don't want to see that happen for you. It was bad enough when people turned away wholesale in the past. Pushing them away when they're trying to work with you is kinda a dick move, man. Especially when you say you want them to be working with you.
Some folks are probably going to get pissed with this letter. I guess I apologize for that, because it wasn't my intent to piss people off. I'm just asking you cut these people some slack. We're all fragile, not just some of us. That's all I'm saying.
I apologize for the argument last night, by the way. I was the one being dick and I'm sorry. Thanks for not completely kicking my ass over it. Though I would have understood it. So, I guess I've let you know what's up. I've made my attempt at intercession and said what I needed to. If there's something I can do to help things out with those people who are struggling, let me know. Because I want to help you win friends and stuff.
Sorry about this being a day late. That snowday yesterday threw everything off. I am having a difficult time keeping an even temper over the last several days. I'm not sure if that means I'm going into a mixed episode or if I'm just ticked off with the kids. Either way, it's been hard to be happy about things.
I'm still working on that writing project. I'm getting worried, though, because I only have a few weeks before deadline and I'm starting to think I'm not going to make it. I am trying to stay optimistic but it's been really hard. I managed 30 pages on the manuscript last Thursday and I thought I was going to pull that off today. I have utterly failed at that. It's somewhat shaken my confidence on that front.
I see some of your other god-bothered folk struggling and that upsets me. I know that everybody has different life experiences and different experiences of you. I get that. I also get that you're a frigging god and what I've got to say is worth about as much as spit in the ocean. I'm still going to make the attempt because somebody's gotta do it. You need to ease up on these guys. They're doing the best they can.
You keep telling me not to have such insanely high demands for myself. It's not cool that you turn around and do that with these other folk. You know we humans are fragile in some areas. Could you give a little bit more care for these people? You're not exactly helping your cause by taking the present approach with them. I know, I know you're a god and you see things differently then I do. I know that your priorities are way the fuck different from ours. I get that. But something's gotta give. These people may at some point just say 'fuck you, I'm done.' and leave.
People don't stick around to be hurt repeatedly. Yeah, I know, running from a god is not a successful thing by any stretch of the imagination. But that doesn't stop someone who is intent on getting out. You know that you win more people with sugar then vinegar. How about giving them more sugar then vinegar and being more understanding of their limitations? You do it for me, why can't you do it for them? I know I'm not that much special then other people. We all have to take our britches off to use the can.
I care about you. I know you want these people around or you wouldn't be involved with them at all. How about treating them with some of the care and consideration you give to me? It doesn't cost that much effort and it will probably get you better results then continually 'button mashing'. I may not know how gods work but I kinda have a few ideas about people.
I don't want to see you alienating people who have cared about you. I know what it's like to have people who cared about you just go away. It sucks and I don't want to see that happen for you. It was bad enough when people turned away wholesale in the past. Pushing them away when they're trying to work with you is kinda a dick move, man. Especially when you say you want them to be working with you.
Some folks are probably going to get pissed with this letter. I guess I apologize for that, because it wasn't my intent to piss people off. I'm just asking you cut these people some slack. We're all fragile, not just some of us. That's all I'm saying.
I apologize for the argument last night, by the way. I was the one being dick and I'm sorry. Thanks for not completely kicking my ass over it. Though I would have understood it. So, I guess I've let you know what's up. I've made my attempt at intercession and said what I needed to. If there's something I can do to help things out with those people who are struggling, let me know. Because I want to help you win friends and stuff.
2/1/15
TPE: Humanity
How do you define “humanity”? What is your contribution to the
collective space of humanity? How does your spiritual path support this
definition and contributions?
I define humanity as homo-sapiens. I believe that there are people who are born with spirits that are not strictly tied to the homo-sapient experience. I believe that the statistical likelihood of someone being born 'other souled' is significant enough that we can not discredit people who state they are having these experiences. The mechanics of being ensouled beings are too fuzzy in our understanding for us to really say there is a hard and fast rule that a person can not have lived previous lifetimes as one of the álfar or some other spiritual being yet to be described.
I don't know what my contribution to the collective space of humanity is. I do my best to be a kind and compassionate woman. I strive to raise my children to be the same. I do my best to stand up and speak on the behalf of those who are voiceless in our society and those who are victims, because I once was voiceless and a victim. I do my best to do what I understand to be the right thing in any given situation and to adhere to my personal code of honor. I also try to remember that other people have their own view upon the matter and take the approach that as long as nobody is getting hurt, then whatever goes.
My spiritual path says in one area that personhood is something that comes with having the ability to make choices. In another area, it basically says if you're homo-sapient then you're human. I rely on the latter because I refuse to deny the humanity of people who are unable to make choices (IE: a person in a persistent vegetative state or someone who has such severe mental illness that making simple decisions are functionally not possible). My spiritual path strongly encourage me to take the positions I do. The input from Filianism exhorts me to be compassionate, kind, and charitable. The input from the traditional witchcraft that I grew up with exhorts me to be responsible for my actions and honorable in my word and deed. The same is true for the heathenry input. All three encourage me to stand up and address injustice when I see it and to keep the greater good in mind when I engage in activities that would impact them.
I define humanity as homo-sapiens. I believe that there are people who are born with spirits that are not strictly tied to the homo-sapient experience. I believe that the statistical likelihood of someone being born 'other souled' is significant enough that we can not discredit people who state they are having these experiences. The mechanics of being ensouled beings are too fuzzy in our understanding for us to really say there is a hard and fast rule that a person can not have lived previous lifetimes as one of the álfar or some other spiritual being yet to be described.
I don't know what my contribution to the collective space of humanity is. I do my best to be a kind and compassionate woman. I strive to raise my children to be the same. I do my best to stand up and speak on the behalf of those who are voiceless in our society and those who are victims, because I once was voiceless and a victim. I do my best to do what I understand to be the right thing in any given situation and to adhere to my personal code of honor. I also try to remember that other people have their own view upon the matter and take the approach that as long as nobody is getting hurt, then whatever goes.
My spiritual path says in one area that personhood is something that comes with having the ability to make choices. In another area, it basically says if you're homo-sapient then you're human. I rely on the latter because I refuse to deny the humanity of people who are unable to make choices (IE: a person in a persistent vegetative state or someone who has such severe mental illness that making simple decisions are functionally not possible). My spiritual path strongly encourage me to take the positions I do. The input from Filianism exhorts me to be compassionate, kind, and charitable. The input from the traditional witchcraft that I grew up with exhorts me to be responsible for my actions and honorable in my word and deed. The same is true for the heathenry input. All three encourage me to stand up and address injustice when I see it and to keep the greater good in mind when I engage in activities that would impact them.
1/31/15
TPE: B is for Belligerent
Belligerent is not a word most people think of in a positive aspect. Honestly, it is the case of my turning the concept on its ear right now, because belligerent almost always has a negative connotation. You know what else has a negative connotation? Not being part of the mainstream religious set. The farther you move away from that mainstream activity and the more pressure you get from society to bend back into their comfortable norms. The problem is, the norms are comfortable for THEM and not YOU.
When confronting this as a young woman, I got angry. Then I got belligerent. When people did things like called me Satan's whore, I didn't just shrug off their comment. I got right back in their faces and challenged them to prove it. I demanded that they produce evidence that their accusations held water. This lead to a few narrowly avoided physical confrontations and my locker being the target of theft several times. It was, however, something that I just couldn't 'ignore' them and hope it would go away.
People say that if you ignore bullies they'll go away. That's not exactly true. They'll keep at it until they are satisfied with the damage they caused. This means that they'll escalate the harassment until they get the reaction they want out of you. I got belligerent and dug my heels in when I hit the point that the harassment became unmanageable by non-confrontational means. I had people tell me that I was getting angry over nothing, but they weren't in the position of having people telling you all the time that your way of life was wrong and that you deserved what you got (and worse) because you simply weren't Christian. They weren't in a position where they had to struggle with the question of if you said or did the wrong thing, would the bullies go after your younger siblings. (That happened once. That bully had the misfortune of taking on all three of us at once due to that. And we didn't fight fair, we fought with what ever worked. My only regret about that instance is that we didn't draw blood from that little shit.)
Sometimes, you just can't be passive. Sometimes you have to dig your heels in and get ready to fight. The trick is recognizing what battles are worth waging and what ones are not. In the USA, there's been an uptick in the 'conservative' Christian rhetoric. It has lead to people who just want to practice their religion in peace being the subject of harassment that goes beyond someone spitting on your and having terrible things to say about you, your family, and what their opinion of your afterlife is going to be. People are being told that they can't have a church because its not some flavor of Christianity. People are being told that they can't participate in public prayer because they're not part of that accepted group. There are people who are dealing with their lives and livelihoods in danger all because they're openly practicing their religion.
I wish it was as simple as screaming Odin and beating the piss out of the biggest jerk in the room. But we're not kids in the schoolyard anymore. And anyways, the schoolyard has become a more dangerous place over the years. A shoving match and a few punches have been morphing into collective beat-downs. (Do a few google searches on the topic of violence in schools and you'll find evidence of it. It's repulsive.) Now, we have to fight smarter. We have to take the fight into the courts and press it as high and as far as it will go. We have to take the fight into the larger community and reveal the bigots for what they are, generally the western equivalent of the nutjobs who are out there as terrorists in the world. When it becomes necessary to defend ourselves with force, we must always make a point of never being the one who starts the fight and always being the one who finishes it.
We need to get angry and be belligerent. Nobody is going to ride to our rescue. We have to do it ourselves. And if we don't do it, how much worse is it going to be for the next generation? Because these kinds of problems don't just go away. They fester and get worse as time progresses.
When confronting this as a young woman, I got angry. Then I got belligerent. When people did things like called me Satan's whore, I didn't just shrug off their comment. I got right back in their faces and challenged them to prove it. I demanded that they produce evidence that their accusations held water. This lead to a few narrowly avoided physical confrontations and my locker being the target of theft several times. It was, however, something that I just couldn't 'ignore' them and hope it would go away.
People say that if you ignore bullies they'll go away. That's not exactly true. They'll keep at it until they are satisfied with the damage they caused. This means that they'll escalate the harassment until they get the reaction they want out of you. I got belligerent and dug my heels in when I hit the point that the harassment became unmanageable by non-confrontational means. I had people tell me that I was getting angry over nothing, but they weren't in the position of having people telling you all the time that your way of life was wrong and that you deserved what you got (and worse) because you simply weren't Christian. They weren't in a position where they had to struggle with the question of if you said or did the wrong thing, would the bullies go after your younger siblings. (That happened once. That bully had the misfortune of taking on all three of us at once due to that. And we didn't fight fair, we fought with what ever worked. My only regret about that instance is that we didn't draw blood from that little shit.)
Sometimes, you just can't be passive. Sometimes you have to dig your heels in and get ready to fight. The trick is recognizing what battles are worth waging and what ones are not. In the USA, there's been an uptick in the 'conservative' Christian rhetoric. It has lead to people who just want to practice their religion in peace being the subject of harassment that goes beyond someone spitting on your and having terrible things to say about you, your family, and what their opinion of your afterlife is going to be. People are being told that they can't have a church because its not some flavor of Christianity. People are being told that they can't participate in public prayer because they're not part of that accepted group. There are people who are dealing with their lives and livelihoods in danger all because they're openly practicing their religion.
I wish it was as simple as screaming Odin and beating the piss out of the biggest jerk in the room. But we're not kids in the schoolyard anymore. And anyways, the schoolyard has become a more dangerous place over the years. A shoving match and a few punches have been morphing into collective beat-downs. (Do a few google searches on the topic of violence in schools and you'll find evidence of it. It's repulsive.) Now, we have to fight smarter. We have to take the fight into the courts and press it as high and as far as it will go. We have to take the fight into the larger community and reveal the bigots for what they are, generally the western equivalent of the nutjobs who are out there as terrorists in the world. When it becomes necessary to defend ourselves with force, we must always make a point of never being the one who starts the fight and always being the one who finishes it.
We need to get angry and be belligerent. Nobody is going to ride to our rescue. We have to do it ourselves. And if we don't do it, how much worse is it going to be for the next generation? Because these kinds of problems don't just go away. They fester and get worse as time progresses.
1/30/15
I'm not a fuzzy bunny.
Waxing Gibbous Hunger Moon (Age 10 days)
Sign: Gemini
Weather: High clouds, moderate breeze from
the west, intermittent flurries
Snow pack: approx 3 in
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
I'm having difficulty writing that book of meditations right now. Today, we have wandered into the think positively area and I feel really squicked out by it. The gods are leaning on me to write it this way. I'm doing my best to get out of the way and just take what they want down, kinda like divine dictation. My discomfort, however, is making that really hard. It doesn't help matters that I'm approaching a topic that is somewhat sensitive for myself - poverty. As much as I can appreciate people wanting to pray away their problems, my repulsion to the idea that prayer can fix poverty repulses me to the point of physical nausea.
I think I'm misinterpreting something about what They are saying but I can't figure out what it is. I'm stuck on that one point. People living in squalor with out the funds to put food on the table or clothes that are fitting for the elements is not a problem that goes away with just prayer. I don't want to write down that if you pray and think happy thoughts that this problem goes away. It doesn't work like that. You have to do a fuckload of work to help manifest the solution to your poverty problem. And sometimes, not even that will be enough. I can hear someone telling me that this is a case where I'm short on faith.
It may be a little bit of that. Struggling to pay bills for the last several years and watching as the costs of everything goes up makes it hard for me to keep my head and my heart in line on that front. When you find yourself thankful that you've got enough money left over after paying bills that you can pay for groceries, laundry, and still have enough left in case there's some kind of emergency over the next two weeks, you have a hard time not thinking about it. When you struggle financially, you struggle in other areas to. I guess it's only natural that you would struggle faith wise.
The Christians have this expression "God help me. My spirit is willing but my flesh is weak." Maybe I'm dealing with some version of that right now. I'm pretty sure that my clawing my way out of a depressive episode is not helping my outlook much either. Throw in the fact that I haven't slept well in months with out the assistance of medication (and even then it's usually not a restful sleep) and you have a witch who has a hard time seeing what good her prayers and magic make in the immediate sense. The worst thing is, I feel this pressure to present a serene face to the world over on Veiled Witch when I'm pretty sure mentioning something about this struggle might be a good thing there.
I don't know what to do right now. I feel the need to write this down but my aversion is so strong that I feel queasy from it. A surly part of my brain says I should just take some pepto and push through it. But I know, on some level, that if I just force myself to push forward, this will come out wrong. I can't move forward on this in anger. Because the anger will distort the message. At which point I will be made to repeat it again, until it comes out right. Because the gods do shit like that. Maybe I'm just having a bad day for writing. I suppose that could be the case too, right?
1/26/15
TPE: A is for Anger
I'm a little behind on my TPE posts. I apologize for that. Scumbag brain has been making it hard for me to keep track of things.
Anger is the dark secret of emotions. No one wants to admit to having it on a regular basis. No one wants to talk about it. If you express it publicly, it had better be in a controlled, family friendly fashion or it scares the neighborhood. It's basically the red headed step-child of emotions.
The thing is, anger is really powerful. Anger can literally move nations to action. Don't believe me? Look at all the wars going on around the world. At the root of them, someone is angry with someone else and they decided to march on a road of bones. The magical community gets really squicked by anger, except for the people who are on the left-hand path or practice grey magic. I suppose I fall into the grey magic category.
You see, I use my anger (when I am able) to blast my way through the proverbial road blocks that pop up in front of me. Where some people would sit and sigh and sob about a problem, I get angry. Then I take that anger and channel it into bending the world to my will. Some people would tell you that this is a very dangerous thing to do. They'd be right, because if you're not ethical about it you can do a lot of damage. Heck, even when you're being ethical about it, you can still do a lot of damage.
The thing is, there has to be a point where you stop being overrun by the emotion and see it for what it is. It is energy. Anger is a very powerful form of energy. Shape it correctly and you can force a problem to be resolved or create a monstrosity. The question is, how are you going to use it. And that's always the question when you set out to do magic. Don't fear your anger. Don't let it rule you either. Make it work for you and you'll be bending things to you will as well.
Anger is the dark secret of emotions. No one wants to admit to having it on a regular basis. No one wants to talk about it. If you express it publicly, it had better be in a controlled, family friendly fashion or it scares the neighborhood. It's basically the red headed step-child of emotions.
The thing is, anger is really powerful. Anger can literally move nations to action. Don't believe me? Look at all the wars going on around the world. At the root of them, someone is angry with someone else and they decided to march on a road of bones. The magical community gets really squicked by anger, except for the people who are on the left-hand path or practice grey magic. I suppose I fall into the grey magic category.
You see, I use my anger (when I am able) to blast my way through the proverbial road blocks that pop up in front of me. Where some people would sit and sigh and sob about a problem, I get angry. Then I take that anger and channel it into bending the world to my will. Some people would tell you that this is a very dangerous thing to do. They'd be right, because if you're not ethical about it you can do a lot of damage. Heck, even when you're being ethical about it, you can still do a lot of damage.
The thing is, there has to be a point where you stop being overrun by the emotion and see it for what it is. It is energy. Anger is a very powerful form of energy. Shape it correctly and you can force a problem to be resolved or create a monstrosity. The question is, how are you going to use it. And that's always the question when you set out to do magic. Don't fear your anger. Don't let it rule you either. Make it work for you and you'll be bending things to you will as well.
Letters to Loki # 9 - Long day is long.
Hello there Sly One,
It's been a rough while since I last wrote. I've been dealing with a depressive episode and only today have I felt like I had my wits together enough to actually write you via the blog. It's somewhat amusing that even having slept approximately half of the day away, I still feel like I have had a very long day. I suppose being depressed will do that to you.
I've been looking at my writing project and feeling like what I am producing is garbage. I will not delete it or do anything rash like that. I am just feeling very unsure about it. I have been doing what I can to stay too busy to be sucked into the trap of unhealthy thinking. I honestly don't know how well that has worked out today. I've gotten a little bit more knit on this scarf I'm making and I got at least two pages written on the manuscript. It was, however, difficult work to get either done.
You're right, by the way, and I'll publicly admit it, I have been too hard on myself. I am not doing very good with the whole self-compassion thing. It's exhausting and I feel like I'm doing it all wrong. Yeah, I know, it's counter-productive to put things in those terms but it was the best I could think of right now. I apologize for not having enough faith in myself and getting snippy when you encourage me. It's really a thoughtless thing to argue with someone when they're just trying to get you to see the positive side of things. I apologize for that.
You've said it several times over the last week that you're furious with the people who hamstrung my confidence in my writing. I was thinking about this after you said it again earlier this evening. I suppose I never really thought to take the perspective that my difficulties were learned. I'm not talking about glaring typos and grammatical nightmares. Those are all me when I get sloppy about things, I own that. But the idea that what I write simply isn't good enough for anyone to see and that I don't have the stuff (skills/knowledge/authority/whatever) to write about given topics... I never considered that this was something I learned.
Now, however, as I look back, I can point at some people in formative years who made a point of telling me how badly I was doing things (even when I did them right, they found something to criticize) and insisting that I had no legitimate talent. I thought about it this evening and I am of mixed feelings about this. On one hand, I suppose the first step to resolving the problem is recognizing there is one and what the signs of its presence are. On the other hand, this shift in my personal narrative makes me very uncomfortable.
And I'm pretty angry about the fact that I'm uncomfortable with shifting my personal narrative to more positive terrain. I don't know what I'm going to do with that anger. I may just go ahead and do some artwork. Knitting isn't exactly good for anger unless I'm so angry I need something to hyper-focus on to avoid tearing someone's head bodily off their shoulders. I'm going to do my best to get through the squicky feels about doing artwork from a place of anger. You're right, after all, what ever I put down on the canvas or paper can't harm me. In some respects, it's literally binding that thoughtform to the physical object and reducing its sway over me.
I also really should have that conversation with Odin. My avoiding him really isn't doing any good and I suspect if I keep it up any longer he's going to come to me and start the conversation. And he probably won't be in a good mood when that happens. Irritating Odin is pretty big on my DO NOT DO list.
I guess I had more to say then I thought I did. Thank you for being so patient with me. And thank you for getting so angry and outraged on my behalf when the bad stuff from the past pops up. It validates me and I don't have word to express how much that means to me. I'll try to do better tomorrow. Who knows, maybe it will be a good brain day. I kinda needed because I've got to go out of the house and do stuff tomorrow. Ah well, I won't whine about it because that doesn't change anything. Thank you again.
Love and Gratitude,
Me
It's been a rough while since I last wrote. I've been dealing with a depressive episode and only today have I felt like I had my wits together enough to actually write you via the blog. It's somewhat amusing that even having slept approximately half of the day away, I still feel like I have had a very long day. I suppose being depressed will do that to you.
I've been looking at my writing project and feeling like what I am producing is garbage. I will not delete it or do anything rash like that. I am just feeling very unsure about it. I have been doing what I can to stay too busy to be sucked into the trap of unhealthy thinking. I honestly don't know how well that has worked out today. I've gotten a little bit more knit on this scarf I'm making and I got at least two pages written on the manuscript. It was, however, difficult work to get either done.
You're right, by the way, and I'll publicly admit it, I have been too hard on myself. I am not doing very good with the whole self-compassion thing. It's exhausting and I feel like I'm doing it all wrong. Yeah, I know, it's counter-productive to put things in those terms but it was the best I could think of right now. I apologize for not having enough faith in myself and getting snippy when you encourage me. It's really a thoughtless thing to argue with someone when they're just trying to get you to see the positive side of things. I apologize for that.
You've said it several times over the last week that you're furious with the people who hamstrung my confidence in my writing. I was thinking about this after you said it again earlier this evening. I suppose I never really thought to take the perspective that my difficulties were learned. I'm not talking about glaring typos and grammatical nightmares. Those are all me when I get sloppy about things, I own that. But the idea that what I write simply isn't good enough for anyone to see and that I don't have the stuff (skills/knowledge/authority/whatever) to write about given topics... I never considered that this was something I learned.
Now, however, as I look back, I can point at some people in formative years who made a point of telling me how badly I was doing things (even when I did them right, they found something to criticize) and insisting that I had no legitimate talent. I thought about it this evening and I am of mixed feelings about this. On one hand, I suppose the first step to resolving the problem is recognizing there is one and what the signs of its presence are. On the other hand, this shift in my personal narrative makes me very uncomfortable.
And I'm pretty angry about the fact that I'm uncomfortable with shifting my personal narrative to more positive terrain. I don't know what I'm going to do with that anger. I may just go ahead and do some artwork. Knitting isn't exactly good for anger unless I'm so angry I need something to hyper-focus on to avoid tearing someone's head bodily off their shoulders. I'm going to do my best to get through the squicky feels about doing artwork from a place of anger. You're right, after all, what ever I put down on the canvas or paper can't harm me. In some respects, it's literally binding that thoughtform to the physical object and reducing its sway over me.
I also really should have that conversation with Odin. My avoiding him really isn't doing any good and I suspect if I keep it up any longer he's going to come to me and start the conversation. And he probably won't be in a good mood when that happens. Irritating Odin is pretty big on my DO NOT DO list.
I guess I had more to say then I thought I did. Thank you for being so patient with me. And thank you for getting so angry and outraged on my behalf when the bad stuff from the past pops up. It validates me and I don't have word to express how much that means to me. I'll try to do better tomorrow. Who knows, maybe it will be a good brain day. I kinda needed because I've got to go out of the house and do stuff tomorrow. Ah well, I won't whine about it because that doesn't change anything. Thank you again.
Love and Gratitude,
Me
1/23/15
Rough day for writing.
Waxing Hunger Moon (Age: 4 days)
Sign: Void of Course
Weather: Partly cloudy, seasonable temps
snowpack depth unchanged.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
I spent my day working on my newest manuscripts. Yes, I have wound up working on two books at the same time. I have a deadline for the first but not for the second. I have been feeling pretty low about my writing and if I'm qualified enough to write these books. To say that Loki has been opinionated about this is to make an understatement like saying the Sun is a little bit warm.
Loki is spitting mad about the people who 'hamstrung' my confidence in my writing and mystic stuff. When he hasn't been muttering in norse (which sounds shockingly disturbing when said rapidly in a half snarl by a deity that is furious), he has been poking me to keep writing when I have been wanting to give up on this project. It's a comforting but awkward thing for me to have him so angry on my behalf. He's a bit calmer now but earlier today he was very upset. I turned my music up kinda loud to drowned out the sound of his swearing.
My mood has been all down and angry for a while now. I know I'm in a depressive episode. It has been a rough ride and I'm angry with the fact that I'm even dealing with this right now. The more depressed I feel, the angrier I get. Unfortunately, that anger isn't solving anything. It's just making me short tempered and giving me heartburn. Freyr's right, I really do need to calm down over this. But the anger just keeps coming back. I found it kinda amusing that the moon is void of course on a day that I'm having a difficult time with my mood and stuff. I'm half tempted to see if my mood cycling matches up with lunar stuff. But that's just the geek in me coming out.
The Filianic daybook is slowly coming along. I'm almost finished with the second month's worth of meditations. At the same time, I am writing down my visions, meditations, and spiritually moved recitations. I feel like an enormous fraud to be referencing my own work here. Still, it is what I have to work with.
1/18/15
TPE: Divinities
Old Wolf Moon (Age: 27 days)
Sign: Capricorn
Weather: Just above freezing, partly cloudy,
snow total around 4 in
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
I am a polytheist. I believe in many gods. I worship many gods. I am involved with many gods. Some of what I do looks like a study in paradox. I believe and work with a goddess of a monotheistic religion. At the same time, I believe and work with the gods of the Nordic pantheon. And I have passing interactions with deities from pantheons that I don't generally involve myself in. (At times, those interactions I try desperately to avoid but get boxed in on that front. And I'm looking at you, the lwa. I know you've got eyes on me. Here's your public acknowledgement, as I agreed not long ago to do.)
Some may think that my involvement with a deity of a monotheistic religion would negate the polytheism. That makes the mistake of assuming that only one religion is correct. As strange as this might sound, all religions are correct. So, is Ragnaroc going to happen? Yep, so is Armageddon and a laundry list of other things. They all manifest differently. The upheaval you see in the world is partly due to that manifestation. (Oh, on the point of doomsday scenarios, they have happened, are happening, and will be happening all at the same time. Because gods experience time differently then we do. So, all of the endings are happening at the same time as all of the beginnings. And all the stuff in the middle still happens to.)
We can't constrain the gods to human perspectives. This would lessen them and reduce their stature to projections of ourselves. I'm not saying that archetypes are not important and useful. And I'm not saying that there are not large scale projections of ourselves out there. (Look up egregores and you can get an interesting view on how that little trick works.) But gods go beyond the level of egregores. Egregores are limited in what they do. They operate on the basis of how they are programmed. Gods, on the other hand, are like cats and will do what ever they damn well please, regardless for how humanity wants it to go.
They are intelligent, sentient forces that create, sustain, enliven, control, and destroy universes. To some extent, our universe is a single thing. But we must acknowledge that there is an aspect of the universe that is accessible only for the individual. My experience of the universe is different from your experience of the universe, which is different from the experience of someone ten thousand miles away. And all these experiences are different from that of a blade of grass, an animal, or protozoa. And if you are an animist, there is the myriad of things traditionally considered not to be alive by Western thought (this tradition going back to the Enlightenment, if not a bit earlier) that have their own experience of reality. Somewhere, in the midst of all this soup of experience, gods move through it all.
And the 'truth' of reality and its relationship to deities is a murky thing to puzzle out because we have no way of knowing all the information on our side of the relationship, let alone begin to comprehend anything of the deities and their side of the relationship. It is a mystery. Some people get afraid when this mystery is pointed out. I find comfort in it. It tells me that somewhere in the universe, there is a meaning to what happens that goes beyond pure causality. Given that my experience with deities has been generally positive, I am inclined to think that meaning is something positive.
1/13/15
TPE Week 2: Personal Practice
Share your favorite spiritual/magickal practices. What tools are
incorporated into your daily practice? What feeds you and replenishes
you?
I have a love for divination. I always learn something new each session. While I enjoy the luxury of having someone else divine for me, I also deeply enjoy the practice of doing so myself. I have a wide range of divination tools that I use but my most frequent tool of late has been my rune set. Now, my primary tool for divination for others has been a tarot deck (and I have 11 to choose from because they're all so pretty) but I have been using runes more for other people as well.
I also deeply enjoy spiritual practices that connect me with the gods. I regularly burn candles for them and when I have the opportunity I burn incense as well. I pray daily and meditate often. To be honest, daily doesn't do justice to how often I communicate with the gods. But, my practices tend towards attempting to make every act a prayer, no matter how small and common it seems.
Prayer and ritual gestures such as the lighting of candles give me a deep sense of connection and stability. I find that it supports me through the times of difficulty and gives me a means to share my joys even when I lack the words to do so.
I have a love for divination. I always learn something new each session. While I enjoy the luxury of having someone else divine for me, I also deeply enjoy the practice of doing so myself. I have a wide range of divination tools that I use but my most frequent tool of late has been my rune set. Now, my primary tool for divination for others has been a tarot deck (and I have 11 to choose from because they're all so pretty) but I have been using runes more for other people as well.
I also deeply enjoy spiritual practices that connect me with the gods. I regularly burn candles for them and when I have the opportunity I burn incense as well. I pray daily and meditate often. To be honest, daily doesn't do justice to how often I communicate with the gods. But, my practices tend towards attempting to make every act a prayer, no matter how small and common it seems.
Prayer and ritual gestures such as the lighting of candles give me a deep sense of connection and stability. I find that it supports me through the times of difficulty and gives me a means to share my joys even when I lack the words to do so.
TPE: Post 1 (2nd attempt)
Well, I clearly did not pay enough attention to how things are going with The Pagan Experience Project. As such, I am now going to do the post for week 1 again. This time keeping with the theme for the week.
~*~*~*~*~*~
TPE Wk 1: Resolutions
~*~*~*~*~*~
TPE Wk 1: Resolutions
- To write more in my Book of Shadows (I'm still catching up on material from last July.)
- To write more on my blogs (here and Veiled Witch)
- To be more active in my efforts to grow socially (social phobia is awful.)
- Finish the daybook manuscript before Moura.
- Become more active with magic and rituals again
Letters to Loki #8 - Last night.
Hello there Commander Insanity,
I am still a bit annoyed with how last night went but I admit that I do see the humor in it all. I suppose that I was being a bit to rigid in refusing the apologize to my stuffed bear for using it to hit my husband. I still maintain that I had no reason to apologize to an inanimate object. You and Beloved, however were of one mind on that front.
It was when you both agreed that a pillow would have been fine as an impromptu smiting tool because apparently that is clearly an inanimate object that things crossed the line from goofball to insane. I think you could have made your point with out it. I wound up laughing and hurting my ribs because of it. I'm still smirking over it, but I am a wee bit annoyed with that whole business.
I will confess, you are right when you say that my pride is a cold comfort on a winter's night. I get the message, I need to stop being so damn proud and accept that I am allowed help when I need it. And that I need to stop being so damn proud and be willing to make a fool of my self for the sake of humor. I really do. I just wish that it could have been done with out making my ribs hurt more.
They're still aching from the laughter last night. Any one who says that you don't use humor as a weapon doesn't know you very well. Also, I think I can never hear the phrase 'kiss the dwarf' with out snickering now. Oh, one last thing, the next time you send me a dream of zombies please don't show up as one. That was just too damn weird. (Of course this request probably means I will be having that dream for the next week.)
Still snickering at it all,
Me
I am still a bit annoyed with how last night went but I admit that I do see the humor in it all. I suppose that I was being a bit to rigid in refusing the apologize to my stuffed bear for using it to hit my husband. I still maintain that I had no reason to apologize to an inanimate object. You and Beloved, however were of one mind on that front.
It was when you both agreed that a pillow would have been fine as an impromptu smiting tool because apparently that is clearly an inanimate object that things crossed the line from goofball to insane. I think you could have made your point with out it. I wound up laughing and hurting my ribs because of it. I'm still smirking over it, but I am a wee bit annoyed with that whole business.
I will confess, you are right when you say that my pride is a cold comfort on a winter's night. I get the message, I need to stop being so damn proud and accept that I am allowed help when I need it. And that I need to stop being so damn proud and be willing to make a fool of my self for the sake of humor. I really do. I just wish that it could have been done with out making my ribs hurt more.
They're still aching from the laughter last night. Any one who says that you don't use humor as a weapon doesn't know you very well. Also, I think I can never hear the phrase 'kiss the dwarf' with out snickering now. Oh, one last thing, the next time you send me a dream of zombies please don't show up as one. That was just too damn weird. (Of course this request probably means I will be having that dream for the next week.)
Still snickering at it all,
Me
The Pagan Experience Project: Post 1
Old Wolf Moon (Age: 22 Days)
Sign: Libra
Weather: Bitter cold, clear skies
approx. 4 in snow on ground
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
I have decided to participate in the Pagan Experience Project. It was nice to learn that this was taking up the void left when the Pagan Blog Project ceased at the end of last year. I will be striving to stay on top of this and write at least once per week on here.
I have made a little change to how I am posting the initial information on my blog here. Because it is winter and some may be curious, I am going to start tracking what the total snow fall is when I post. I confess, I am a little bit of a weather geek but this motivation to track the weather and such at the beginning of my posts is actually rooted in something that I learned a few years back. Apparently during the Colonial era of the United States, it was found to be quite common that people began their journal entries with a quick note about the weather conditions. This is a nod to my ancestors from this era of history.
Like the Pagan Blog Project, I believe I am going to work my way through the alphabet. I am honestly cheating with this first post. Because my reasoning is A is for Announcement is just flat out silly. Still, this is what I am doing for this first post. I will still be posting my weekly letters to Loki. Recovering from some illness, I found that I didn't get as much done as I wanted to over the last few weeks. Sadly, I think this means I forgot to post a letter to Loki last week. I know it is part of the reason why I forgot to post this week's letter yesterday.
Still, I am going to post that next, so I think this covers that base. I may or may not make that letter do double duty and have it be my second 'A' themed post. I'm undecided.
1/9/15
Rant re: Your Native American Totem meme
Waning Wolf Moon (Age: 18 days)
Sign: Virgo
Weather: bitter cold, lake effect snow
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
I've seen this meme flying around Facebook. I'm pretty sure it is on other social media platforms too. It is a click-quiz that proposes to determine what your "Native American Totem" is. I've seen several variations of this meme over the last few years (if not longer) and I am rapidly hitting a point where I want to poke people with a stick for posting it. I recognize that all things Native American are popular in fashion and pop culture right now. Their version of Native American chic is a repulsive lampooning of these dignified cultures and should be rejected.
I can understand if someone who is fairly new to the idea of animal spirit guides latches on to the idea that the Native Americans know more about it then the rest of us. It is intimidating to start researching spirit guides, especially when you come at it from an angle that doesn't seem to have much going on from your background (for example Asatru doesn't really have an official line on animal spirit guides). It is tempting to use something from another background because it is 'ready made' and can theoretically be applied by most anyone with a minimal amount of research.
There is, however, a big problem with that. It is called cultural appropriation. This is when someone assumes elements from another culture into their own activities with out any sensitivity or consideration for the original source of the material. A fine example of this, with the Native American cultures, is the use of warbonnets as a fashion prop. For the cultures that warbonnets originate from (and by the way, the Native Americans have multiple cultures and its an idiot who thinks there is only one), a warbonnet is both formal military dress and military honors. Wearing a warbonnet as a fashion statement is like putting on a full formal USMC uniform with a bunch of ribbons and medals that you not only haven't earned but you're not even remotely attached to the USMC and wearing it. Sadly, however, there are people who feel that stealing things such as warbonnets and wearing them for fashion are appropriate because the cultures they are taking from are 'defeated.'
There is a lot wrong with the idea of stealing from another culture. It is even more offensive when you are doing so from one that has suffered mightily at the hands of the 'dominant' culture. It is rubbing salt into those old wounds after forcibly reopening them whilst denying that there is anything wrong with that behavior. It is utterly callous and disgusting to do so. Now, there are ways to borrow elements from another culture with out engaging in cultural appropriation. When the elements adopted are done so from a position of respect and scholarship, it makes it possible for the person adopting those elements to do so in a manner that honors the original culture.
Now, some people may be wondering if an animal spirit guide is the sole property of the Native American cultures. While the concept is heavily influenced by how scholars (both professional and hobbyist) interpret the concepts from Native American cultures, the modern take on animal spirit guides really has developed into something different and unique to our time. While it is tempting to say that these ideas are for the really serious modern shamans, the modern understanding of animal spirit guides is fairly accessible to most anyone. The people who apply the label 'Native American' to these concepts (which are what is pretty much always shown in these memes) do so out of an attempt to 'legitimize' the concept by associating it with an older culture and earlier era.
This, however, is not necessary. I have friends who are modern, urban shamans that work with animal guides all the time. They don't paint things in the terms of 'Native American' anything because they don't need to. What they are using works with out any need to 'legitimize' it. While they recognize that there are some common elements between the animal guides of Native American cultures, they own the fact that what they are working with is a product of our society and era, of our culture. And that is more then ok.
I just wish that more people took that approach, to be honest.
1/7/15
Letters to Loki # 7
Hey there Loki,
I'm not sure what I should write. I just learned that my great aunt Jackie died last night. I suppose I am in a bit of shock. I feel horrible for my great uncle Ed and my second cousins Eddie and Wayne. Also for Wayne's boys who have lost their grandmother. I'm pretty sure that I won't be able to make it out to Long Island for her services.
It upsets me to watch the fading and dying of my grandparent's generation. While I recognize that it was simply a matter of time, it still bothers me. They have lived through so much. I don't know if it is selfish and cruel of me to want them to hang on a bit longer. Down inside me, however, there is that little girl who wants to keep her whole family close. The passing of my great aunt just reminds me of how much of that dream has and is slipping out of my fingers.
I'd write more but I just don't have the words.
I'm not sure what I should write. I just learned that my great aunt Jackie died last night. I suppose I am in a bit of shock. I feel horrible for my great uncle Ed and my second cousins Eddie and Wayne. Also for Wayne's boys who have lost their grandmother. I'm pretty sure that I won't be able to make it out to Long Island for her services.
It upsets me to watch the fading and dying of my grandparent's generation. While I recognize that it was simply a matter of time, it still bothers me. They have lived through so much. I don't know if it is selfish and cruel of me to want them to hang on a bit longer. Down inside me, however, there is that little girl who wants to keep her whole family close. The passing of my great aunt just reminds me of how much of that dream has and is slipping out of my fingers.
I'd write more but I just don't have the words.
1/3/15
Dreamwalking whilst ill
Full Wolf Moon (Age 13 days)
Sign: Cancer
Weather: Windy, thaw, rain
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
In the midst of my resting today, I went dreamwalking. I didn't intend to do it. Generally, when I am sick, I try to limit my expending of effort to recovery, even on the spiritual level. Still, as I was resting this afternoon, I went on a spirit journey.
I found myself in a corridor with white walls and lots of light. There were windows along the right hand wall that looked out over a garden. The corridor was more like a very large room then a hallway. It was like some kind of hospital with many beds situated by the windows. In the spiritual realms, I was just as sick as I am physically, which doesn't usually prove the case when I go dreamwalking but I think it was just a sign of how ill I felt.
As I shuffled down this corridor in my scuffed up slippers, rumpled pajamas, and fluffy pink bathrobe, I noticed how the space was mostly empty. I got the impression that this place of healing was experiencing a temporary lull in occupancy. I walked to the bed at the end of the corridor that was nearest to a set of french doors that looked out onto the garden and sat down. I was impressed with how clean and tidy everything was there. It was like the image of an 1800s hospital ward, if it was empty and spotless.
As I sat there on the foot of that bed, I heard someone come into the corridor from a doorway back behind me. I looked over and saw Freyr walking with a diminutive woman. He towered over her. She was dressed like the archetypal image of a civil war era nurse. Honestly, she looked so much like the images of Clara Barton that I was impressed. She was dressed in white and had a starched white apron. Her salt and pepper gray hair was carefully caught up in a caul and pinned up quite elegantly.
This 'nurse' had such an air of command about her that I could only think that she was the head nurse of the ward I was in. The nurse and Freyr were talking about something as they approached in a language that I didn't know. It sounded like a cross between gaelic and german. When they reached me, Freyr gave me a smile as the nurse gave me a stern look. She took my pulse and felt my neck. Then she made some sort of pronouncement before walking off.
I was waking up as Freyr sat down beside me and wrapped an arm around my shoulders. I woke up coughing and with the feeling that he was helping me sit up. I'm pretty sure that he brought me to this hospital-like place I went in my dream. I do not think it was mere coincidence that after this dream, as I woke up more fully, I started feeling better then I had been earlier in the day. I just wish that I could have understood what they said. I suspect that I will be dreaming of that place again tonight.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)