So, what shall we talk about? Chemo? Radiation? Southern Vampires? The night is closing in. Tomorrow I go for my first chemo. Such fun. Some of my friends complain that I have stopped writing about magik. But I haven't. I'm about to become a gigantic alchemy experiment. Arsenic, quicksilver, lead. Maybe I will be turned into gold. Makes me wish there were true Vampires who would bite me and make me immortal. I'm a night person anyway. Living the life of a Vampire would be an easy transition for me. Just wait until I lose another thirty pounds. I don't want go through eternity a fat girl.
I sound bitter. Maybe I am. Slept for a couple of hours and dreamed that this was all a terrible joke. What is it? The joke stops being funny when the joke starts being you.
I painted my fingernails black. I never thought I would want to that. I was never into the goth scene, not even as fashion. But there was something almost perversely satisfying about spreading three coats of black polish over my nails.
Mom is harping at me for smoking. She says I smoke too much. I think I should smoke two at a time. What do you think?
I'm still looking forward to Samhain. Giving out candy, watching horror movies. Gaelyn called and asked me if he could come and spend Samhain with me. I haven't said yet. Maybe I will.
Maybe I won't.
My priest came by to speak to me. He's a wonderful man, full blooded Italian, Virgo, 73 years old. He worries about my faith during this time. I have the faith of angels. He needn't worry.
I listened to U2 today and tried to talk to mom about what they really mean to me. I told her that no matter how many times I hear Bono growl and moan, Edge hit that E cord, Larry pound the bass drum like a heart beat, Adam give the music some sex, I still thrill to them. I sat there in the gazebo and felt absolutely stoned. Like that Nine Inch Nails song "Perfect Drug", U2 takes me higher than any dope I ever did. I will make sure I take my mp3 player to the doctors with me so I can let them hypnotize me while I go through this. Bono's voice is like the hand of a lover on my mind and soul. He makes love to me, and me alone when I listen to him sing. But Ali mustn't worry, it's only music love, not anything franker. I couldn't make mom understand it. When I say that I love U2, I mean I love U2.
Went to a friend's house today to help him with his computer. He's 62, a friend of the family. He'd like to be sexy but I think he's reaching. He wants to be intellectual, but he doesn't have the nerve. He's afraid of what he might discover about himself if he would let go. "Afraid of what you'd find if you took a look inside" See I knew it, U2 is the I Ching.
We all hide, don't we? I know who I am. Aslinn, the Christian Witch, Crone, unemployed teacher with cancer. Two of my most favorite students do not even write me. Well, they are young, they don't know how to deal with the situation my situation is in. I miss them.
I'll quit
Tuesday, October 07, 2008
Another Thread
So, let's talk some more about these Southern Vampires. Let's talk about what the metaphor means when we see this strange coming together of species and what it is supposed to teach us.
I am fascinated by the fans of this show. Granted they are probably younger than I am, but I think I get it more than the average fan. Maybe not, but anything to take my mind off what is happening to me.
Allow me to speak of the book, Dead Until Dark, the 1st book of the series and the one the show is taken from. We are dealing with a lot of stereo types here. Racial stereotypes, gender stereotypes and regional stereotypes. For example, Mack and Denise Rattray are the quintiscential red neck white trash that makes Southern people want to cringe. Vulgar, rude, self serving, they deserved to be drained by Bill. Wonder what Bill thought he was going to do with them when he went out with the Rattrays anyway. I have the distinct impression that they didn't have enough brains to be glamoured by Bill anyway.
Then you have LaFayette. I like his character, though the book doesn't play him up as much as the show. He's a loud mouth, brassy queen who works as a short order cook at Merlotte's. He is wild and vulgar but in an amusing way we all enjoy when we see stereotypes of gay men. Along with that, you have Tara, his cousin, though she isn't in the first book. She is militant, pissed off because she is a smart black woman in this "podunc" town. I liked it when she said "College is for white people who want to read to each other, I thought I'd just save my money and read to myself," I really knew what she meant by that. I like it that she is pissed off for being named after a plantation. I hate to see people put Bill against the wall, but I kind of liked the scene when Bill was talking to Miss Stackhouse and she asked him if he ever owned slaves. Of course Bill is cool as a cucumber and admits that his father did. Tara isn't buying it.
In the show, there are examples of interracial trysts that simply don't exist in the book which would have put Sookie and Bills relationship in context. Tara has always been in love with Jason Stackhouse, and Tara sleeps with Sam Merlotte. LaFayette is a sort of hustler who has an overnight guest in his house in the form of a middle aged white man he claims is a state senator.
In matters of gender, Bill and Sookie's conversation during the moonlight walk is interesting. In the book, Bill notices that her dress is the same shade as her eyes, but then he remarks: "Not much of it, though," Bill shows his more conservative nature. Also, when he takes Sookie to Fangtasia he tells her she looks like Vampire bait. He thinks she is pretty but his masculine ego wants to cover her up, keep her to himself. He may be undead but he is still male, even if he doesn't consider himself human.
And then there are all those myths about Vampires, that they are evil animalistic creatures without a soul. Liam, Malcolm and Diane relish the notion of the old stereo types, they are quite arrogant about them. Even Bill is not above it. They play the part of Vampire that humans believe they are. When Sookie and Bill walk into Fangtasia in the show, Sookie remarks "It looks like a Vampire Bar if Disney made it an attraction," Bill says, "Don't feel to confident, it tends to become more authentic as the night goes on," When a man is rebuffed by Eric, the owner and oldest thing in the bar, the Vampires react very strongly. With a smug look on his face, Bill asks Sookie, "Still think you are in Disneyland?"
And if there is something I find absolutely distasteful about Bill is his attitude about Sookie's ignornace about Vampire culture, but he only teaches her after a crisis. I guess it is his own brand of arrogance, perhaps even distrust. Sookie doesn't really get him a lot of the time, he is 170 years old and he has a world of experiences, but he overlooks the fact that Sookie is a young woman in a Southern backwater and she is only 25 years old. Patience is not one of Bill's stronger points. But I suppose I have that same problem too, very little patience in matters of ignorance.
And of course, the story centers on those murders. It is based on prejudice as well, as it is apparently about someone who hates women who have sex with Vampires. It happened when white people and black people began to date each other, so it figures in the South there would be a built in dislike for Vampire/human relationships.
Then there is the notion of virus. In the book, the Vampires are believed to be victims of a virus that makes them allergic to silver, garlic and sunlight and crave blood. But on the show, Bill lays his cards down on the table. After the scene with Liam, Diane and Malcolm, Sookie goes home and Bill appears on her porch. She tries to read his thoughs though she knows it is an exercise in futility. "Why can't I read your thoughts?" she asked. Bill shrugs "Maybe its because I don't have brain waves," he answers. "Why don't you?" she asks. "Because I'm dead," he answers. Sookie tries to dance around that notion, arguing with him. "What animates you no longer animates me," says Bill. Bill may have a Longfellow's veiw of his own existance, but he should understand that Sookie just doesn't have the reference point to understand him.
I'll quit.
I am fascinated by the fans of this show. Granted they are probably younger than I am, but I think I get it more than the average fan. Maybe not, but anything to take my mind off what is happening to me.
Allow me to speak of the book, Dead Until Dark, the 1st book of the series and the one the show is taken from. We are dealing with a lot of stereo types here. Racial stereotypes, gender stereotypes and regional stereotypes. For example, Mack and Denise Rattray are the quintiscential red neck white trash that makes Southern people want to cringe. Vulgar, rude, self serving, they deserved to be drained by Bill. Wonder what Bill thought he was going to do with them when he went out with the Rattrays anyway. I have the distinct impression that they didn't have enough brains to be glamoured by Bill anyway.
Then you have LaFayette. I like his character, though the book doesn't play him up as much as the show. He's a loud mouth, brassy queen who works as a short order cook at Merlotte's. He is wild and vulgar but in an amusing way we all enjoy when we see stereotypes of gay men. Along with that, you have Tara, his cousin, though she isn't in the first book. She is militant, pissed off because she is a smart black woman in this "podunc" town. I liked it when she said "College is for white people who want to read to each other, I thought I'd just save my money and read to myself," I really knew what she meant by that. I like it that she is pissed off for being named after a plantation. I hate to see people put Bill against the wall, but I kind of liked the scene when Bill was talking to Miss Stackhouse and she asked him if he ever owned slaves. Of course Bill is cool as a cucumber and admits that his father did. Tara isn't buying it.
In the show, there are examples of interracial trysts that simply don't exist in the book which would have put Sookie and Bills relationship in context. Tara has always been in love with Jason Stackhouse, and Tara sleeps with Sam Merlotte. LaFayette is a sort of hustler who has an overnight guest in his house in the form of a middle aged white man he claims is a state senator.
In matters of gender, Bill and Sookie's conversation during the moonlight walk is interesting. In the book, Bill notices that her dress is the same shade as her eyes, but then he remarks: "Not much of it, though," Bill shows his more conservative nature. Also, when he takes Sookie to Fangtasia he tells her she looks like Vampire bait. He thinks she is pretty but his masculine ego wants to cover her up, keep her to himself. He may be undead but he is still male, even if he doesn't consider himself human.
And then there are all those myths about Vampires, that they are evil animalistic creatures without a soul. Liam, Malcolm and Diane relish the notion of the old stereo types, they are quite arrogant about them. Even Bill is not above it. They play the part of Vampire that humans believe they are. When Sookie and Bill walk into Fangtasia in the show, Sookie remarks "It looks like a Vampire Bar if Disney made it an attraction," Bill says, "Don't feel to confident, it tends to become more authentic as the night goes on," When a man is rebuffed by Eric, the owner and oldest thing in the bar, the Vampires react very strongly. With a smug look on his face, Bill asks Sookie, "Still think you are in Disneyland?"
And if there is something I find absolutely distasteful about Bill is his attitude about Sookie's ignornace about Vampire culture, but he only teaches her after a crisis. I guess it is his own brand of arrogance, perhaps even distrust. Sookie doesn't really get him a lot of the time, he is 170 years old and he has a world of experiences, but he overlooks the fact that Sookie is a young woman in a Southern backwater and she is only 25 years old. Patience is not one of Bill's stronger points. But I suppose I have that same problem too, very little patience in matters of ignorance.
And of course, the story centers on those murders. It is based on prejudice as well, as it is apparently about someone who hates women who have sex with Vampires. It happened when white people and black people began to date each other, so it figures in the South there would be a built in dislike for Vampire/human relationships.
Then there is the notion of virus. In the book, the Vampires are believed to be victims of a virus that makes them allergic to silver, garlic and sunlight and crave blood. But on the show, Bill lays his cards down on the table. After the scene with Liam, Diane and Malcolm, Sookie goes home and Bill appears on her porch. She tries to read his thoughs though she knows it is an exercise in futility. "Why can't I read your thoughts?" she asked. Bill shrugs "Maybe its because I don't have brain waves," he answers. "Why don't you?" she asks. "Because I'm dead," he answers. Sookie tries to dance around that notion, arguing with him. "What animates you no longer animates me," says Bill. Bill may have a Longfellow's veiw of his own existance, but he should understand that Sookie just doesn't have the reference point to understand him.
I'll quit.
Monday, October 06, 2008
I would not stop for death
I went to see my reiki healer today. I lie there as he directs me through the meditation process to put me in deep visualization and I can see the thing that would like to kill me. Like some evil alien child deep inside me, like Sigourney Weaver.
I have dreams during reiki, I shouldn't but I do. They give me a fever that the tylenol my mother gives as I lie in bed does not touch. I dream of my husband. He is dead, long dead, almost 13 years now. I would not stop for death, so death kindly stopped for me. I will fight it.
My mom and dad want to talk about it all the time. I can hear them whisper around the house and it makes me nervous. I want tell them to shut up about it, but I know it will upset them.
I broke up with the old goat, my Gaelyn. I can't have him nurse maiding me. He needs a whole person to live his very busy lifestyle with him. I am relieved on a lot of levels, but I do miss him. I'm selfish, I know, but I want to be alone through this, like an animal who is sick and wants nothing more than to crawl under the porch and sleep and maybe get well. Death, be not proud.
I have no doubt that I will live through this. I have willed it to be so, but I must fight the battle. My dad has scored me a half dozen joints and is keeping them for me for when I start chemo and radiation. The oncologist, using the vaguest terms suggested it since it is illegal. Funny thing is, he tells me I should give up cigarettes. Hell, doc, it can't hurt me now and might be the lone thing that will keep me from putting my hands around your neck and strangling you.
At night I lie in my bed in the dark. When was the last time I slept in the absolute dark? When I was married? Yes, I think so. Now I crave the dark, like those southern vampires I wrote about earlier today. It's like my coffin and I am for the time being one of the undead.
I got up last night and slipped out of the house and into the yard and walked barefoot in the drought dry grass and looked up to the cloudless night sky, but I have too many lights in my neighborhood and I can't see many stars. I lit a cigarette and smoked it to the filter and wished there was something I could do other than be poisoned nearly to death by chemo and radiation. I asked about surgery but they want to shrink it first and put another one of those damned nuclear discs in me. I had radiation burns on my suture site. My neighbor's daughter couldn't come see me because she was pregnant. I couldn't even go to Walmart.
I listen to U2's song Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own. Bono wrote it about his dad's last dying days and his efforts to be with him til the end. I love him. Bono. He is a loud mouth and he reminds me of a mix of St Peter and St John the Baptist. I listened to his voice all day and fell asleep and dreamed of angels and they were singing with him. I wish he were here so he could sing to me personally, or stand guard or something. I just personally believe that the angels fight on his side.
I feel like that guy in the Godfather, the old consiglieri, who is dying and he asked Don Corleone to stand guard so that if the Angel of Death sees the Don there he might pass him by. Bono's no Don, but I know he has the most wonderful blue eyes. I would love to just look into those eyes just once.
Darvocettes are kicking in and I am rambling. That's okay. I don't have a lot of pain so I get a little dopey when I med myself. The doctors say that will change after a couple of doses of chemo. Oh joy.
I wonder if I will lose my hair. I didn't the last time. I mean, it's sort of bummer because I used to shave my head and now I finally have my hair growing into something verging on a hairstyle and now I might be baldy. When it rains.....
I have dreams during reiki, I shouldn't but I do. They give me a fever that the tylenol my mother gives as I lie in bed does not touch. I dream of my husband. He is dead, long dead, almost 13 years now. I would not stop for death, so death kindly stopped for me. I will fight it.
My mom and dad want to talk about it all the time. I can hear them whisper around the house and it makes me nervous. I want tell them to shut up about it, but I know it will upset them.
I broke up with the old goat, my Gaelyn. I can't have him nurse maiding me. He needs a whole person to live his very busy lifestyle with him. I am relieved on a lot of levels, but I do miss him. I'm selfish, I know, but I want to be alone through this, like an animal who is sick and wants nothing more than to crawl under the porch and sleep and maybe get well. Death, be not proud.
I have no doubt that I will live through this. I have willed it to be so, but I must fight the battle. My dad has scored me a half dozen joints and is keeping them for me for when I start chemo and radiation. The oncologist, using the vaguest terms suggested it since it is illegal. Funny thing is, he tells me I should give up cigarettes. Hell, doc, it can't hurt me now and might be the lone thing that will keep me from putting my hands around your neck and strangling you.
At night I lie in my bed in the dark. When was the last time I slept in the absolute dark? When I was married? Yes, I think so. Now I crave the dark, like those southern vampires I wrote about earlier today. It's like my coffin and I am for the time being one of the undead.
I got up last night and slipped out of the house and into the yard and walked barefoot in the drought dry grass and looked up to the cloudless night sky, but I have too many lights in my neighborhood and I can't see many stars. I lit a cigarette and smoked it to the filter and wished there was something I could do other than be poisoned nearly to death by chemo and radiation. I asked about surgery but they want to shrink it first and put another one of those damned nuclear discs in me. I had radiation burns on my suture site. My neighbor's daughter couldn't come see me because she was pregnant. I couldn't even go to Walmart.
I listen to U2's song Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own. Bono wrote it about his dad's last dying days and his efforts to be with him til the end. I love him. Bono. He is a loud mouth and he reminds me of a mix of St Peter and St John the Baptist. I listened to his voice all day and fell asleep and dreamed of angels and they were singing with him. I wish he were here so he could sing to me personally, or stand guard or something. I just personally believe that the angels fight on his side.
I feel like that guy in the Godfather, the old consiglieri, who is dying and he asked Don Corleone to stand guard so that if the Angel of Death sees the Don there he might pass him by. Bono's no Don, but I know he has the most wonderful blue eyes. I would love to just look into those eyes just once.
Darvocettes are kicking in and I am rambling. That's okay. I don't have a lot of pain so I get a little dopey when I med myself. The doctors say that will change after a couple of doses of chemo. Oh joy.
I wonder if I will lose my hair. I didn't the last time. I mean, it's sort of bummer because I used to shave my head and now I finally have my hair growing into something verging on a hairstyle and now I might be baldy. When it rains.....
Southern Vampires
Okay, I admit it, I am hooked on True Blood, the new show on HBO. I have been sick for the last few weeks but I have decided to focus less on my illness and more on this amazing new show that has me entirely intrigued.
The show comes from Charlaine Harris' Southern Vampire novels. It centers on a fictional town in Louisiana called Bon Temps and it is set in a post Katrina South where Vampires are the new racial flavor among the citizens of the USA. We meet Sookie Stackhouse, a bar maid with telepathic powers and the mysterious Bill Compton, the local Vampire, claiming his family's ancestoral home and trying his best to mainstream, a Vampire among humans after centuries of solitude beyond the company of Vampires who he says are more apt to be cruel and have less humanity in them.
I am fascinated by the growing relationship between these two as they struggle with their otherness and their inability to be completely comfortable among so called normal people. I think I identify with them because being a witch is a sort of otherness. I confess to a sort of soap opera mentality to a certain extent, but I am also very aware of the differences I have with other people of mainstream religion and the Wiccan/Pagan world of witchcraft. I love the notion that these two people, these two characters, will somehow create a safe haven for each other.
One of the things that Sookie appreciates about Bill is that she can't read his mind, his thoughts do not intrude on her and she loves the silence he emits. Bill appreciates Sookie because she is at ease with him, unafraid of his being a Vampire and accepting of him when others distrust him and fear him. Both feed on each other for this emotional comfort. You have to ask the question, who is the Vampire and who is the victim.
In the middle of this unconventional love affair is a mystery waiting to be solved and this creates tension for the two, making their fledgeling relationship even more difficult. There have been two murders (so far) of women who have sexual relationships with Vampires and there are two suspects, Sookie's brother Jason and Sookie's Vampire, Bill.
Bill and Jason are extreme opposites in many instances. Jason is a womanizer to the "nth" degree, self absorbed and self indulgent. Bill is a Southern Gentleman, having lost his human life during the Civil War period of American history. He is courtly and gentle and polite and very charming. Jason is impulsive and inconsiderate and ignorant whereas Bill is careful and calculating, as a Vampire would be with an expanded history of experience as he walked through the decades to peer into human life. But there are similarities between the two men in her life, though the goals and aims are quite different. Jason seeks to control women for sex and pleasure and his own selfish needs. Bill seeks to control people for his one need, the desire to drink real human blood as opposed to the artificial blood developed by the Japanese (TruBlood) that may solve his nutritional needs but do nothing to kill his insticts. The Vampire himself must do that.
And not all Vampires want to mainstream. Take for instance Malcom, Liam and Diane. They are the stereotype Vampire, the sort of Vampires who don't want to follow the new directives from "Vamp Central". They create tension for Sookie and Bill beyond what tension there may already be. As Malcolm said to Bill during a confrontation: "Honey, what good is being a Vampire if you can't kill people?" They frighten Sookie, and they should because they are evil. But they do something insidious, they make her afraid of all other Vampires, and question her relationship with Bill who, when you get past the personalities are just as they, a hunter who loves the chase and the capture. Their behaviour taints her image of Bill as a potential suitor.
So how does she reconcile these things in her heart so she can fall in love and make love to this devistatingly handsome man whose thoughts she can't read? How does she loose herself and claim her own sense of her sexual self? Can Bill free her and love her without hurting her with his Vampire ways?
Who knows, but the tension is delicious.
The show comes from Charlaine Harris' Southern Vampire novels. It centers on a fictional town in Louisiana called Bon Temps and it is set in a post Katrina South where Vampires are the new racial flavor among the citizens of the USA. We meet Sookie Stackhouse, a bar maid with telepathic powers and the mysterious Bill Compton, the local Vampire, claiming his family's ancestoral home and trying his best to mainstream, a Vampire among humans after centuries of solitude beyond the company of Vampires who he says are more apt to be cruel and have less humanity in them.
I am fascinated by the growing relationship between these two as they struggle with their otherness and their inability to be completely comfortable among so called normal people. I think I identify with them because being a witch is a sort of otherness. I confess to a sort of soap opera mentality to a certain extent, but I am also very aware of the differences I have with other people of mainstream religion and the Wiccan/Pagan world of witchcraft. I love the notion that these two people, these two characters, will somehow create a safe haven for each other.
One of the things that Sookie appreciates about Bill is that she can't read his mind, his thoughts do not intrude on her and she loves the silence he emits. Bill appreciates Sookie because she is at ease with him, unafraid of his being a Vampire and accepting of him when others distrust him and fear him. Both feed on each other for this emotional comfort. You have to ask the question, who is the Vampire and who is the victim.
In the middle of this unconventional love affair is a mystery waiting to be solved and this creates tension for the two, making their fledgeling relationship even more difficult. There have been two murders (so far) of women who have sexual relationships with Vampires and there are two suspects, Sookie's brother Jason and Sookie's Vampire, Bill.
Bill and Jason are extreme opposites in many instances. Jason is a womanizer to the "nth" degree, self absorbed and self indulgent. Bill is a Southern Gentleman, having lost his human life during the Civil War period of American history. He is courtly and gentle and polite and very charming. Jason is impulsive and inconsiderate and ignorant whereas Bill is careful and calculating, as a Vampire would be with an expanded history of experience as he walked through the decades to peer into human life. But there are similarities between the two men in her life, though the goals and aims are quite different. Jason seeks to control women for sex and pleasure and his own selfish needs. Bill seeks to control people for his one need, the desire to drink real human blood as opposed to the artificial blood developed by the Japanese (TruBlood) that may solve his nutritional needs but do nothing to kill his insticts. The Vampire himself must do that.
And not all Vampires want to mainstream. Take for instance Malcom, Liam and Diane. They are the stereotype Vampire, the sort of Vampires who don't want to follow the new directives from "Vamp Central". They create tension for Sookie and Bill beyond what tension there may already be. As Malcolm said to Bill during a confrontation: "Honey, what good is being a Vampire if you can't kill people?" They frighten Sookie, and they should because they are evil. But they do something insidious, they make her afraid of all other Vampires, and question her relationship with Bill who, when you get past the personalities are just as they, a hunter who loves the chase and the capture. Their behaviour taints her image of Bill as a potential suitor.
So how does she reconcile these things in her heart so she can fall in love and make love to this devistatingly handsome man whose thoughts she can't read? How does she loose herself and claim her own sense of her sexual self? Can Bill free her and love her without hurting her with his Vampire ways?
Who knows, but the tension is delicious.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Creation and Evolution: A Christian Witch Perspective
I have to admit it, I was never that close to the earth and her seasons and her influences until I became a witch. Now, that doesn't mean I was a litter bug or anything like that, it just means that I was never that perceptive of the way the earth affects and influences the individual.
One of the things I have always believed about the creation of the earth is the notion that God took his own time creating her and the metaphors of time written in the Old Testament were simply that, metaphors. They were a way for early people to understand how God created the earth and how it became the way it is now.
So, for good or for bad, I will explain how I think the earth was created and remains the product of a divine hand. We are told through science that somewhere in space, particles were brought together and energy was produced that caused these particles to form a mass that eventually exploded, the big bang theory. These particles spun out from the center of the explosion but eventually stabilized into a slower pattern that now spins around the sun, the center of the universe and the source of the particles that are now our stars and planets and even other galaxies that created their own centers and systems spinning around them.
As the earth cooled, there were chemical reactions that created things like water, oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, all of the things that comprise life. Life begins as simple forms of bacteria that evolve into plants, animals, insects and sometime or another an intelligent primate appears and that is the beginning of human existence on the earth. I know this is very simple but bear with me. I'm not a physicist or biologist and only a fair paleontologist.
This we are told by scientists was a very slow and complex process, affected by the changes the earth underwent. Animals lived, reproduced and and died by the whims of the weather and the earth. So it was for primitive man.
Sometime during the development of man, they begin to consider how they came to be, how they came to live in this place and what was beyond them, in this world and the next. They tried to puzzle out these questions by observing nature. They did not understand thunder and the lightening and the hurricanes and tornadoes and the tides and the volcanoes, so they believed they must be the presence of the gods and they studied and meditated on the gods and some believed because they were patient and prayerful that they were given revelations about the gods and how they came to be and how the earth was made.
And the writer of the first five books of the Bible was no different. Moses was a Hebrew, born among the slaves of Egypt but he was raised by the sister of the Pharaoh who thought Moses was a gift to her from her dead husband. He was raised among the other royal children and was taught the ways and cultures and histories and religion of the Egyptians. When he is exiled from Egypt, he goes out to find the people of his birth and he found the people of Midean, people who would eventually become Muslims and they told him the stories of their religious beliefs, which was basically Hebrew. As Moses gains authority in his own people, he decides to compile all the stories he heard (as they were primarily oral traditions) to make a permanent record of the stories he heard.
He hears that God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh, but we are also told that a thousand years is but a day unto the Lord. We hear fabulous stories of Methuselah who was well over 900 years old when he died. So, one of the things we as philosophers must accept is that God does not count time the same way as humans do. For us, time is arbitrary, we simply say one day is from dawn to dark. We count time in the most basic way.
So what if Day One of Creation is longer? Day One then is the period of the big bang. God pulls to himself all the energies that exist to him and in a clap of his hands, causes the big bang to create the planet we stand on. Day Two is the cooling period wherein the waters and the atmosphere is created. Day Three is the beginning of simple life and so on until we get to the emergence of man.
Now, I personally don't believe we evolved from apes. I think our genetic partnership with the great apes is one we share with all living things, break us down and we are all carbon. What man evolved from was a primitive, thinking creature that began to contemplate beyond his circumstance and as he evolved his understanding became more complex. We are still evolving. Americans look different from their ancestors who landed on the shores of New England, those folks look different from their European ancestors of 700 years ago, and those folks look different from their ancestors living not very differently from the aboriginal peoples of America.
Evolution means simply change over a long period of time. To deny evolution is to deny the very instrument of God. I read a book called Einstein's Universe. I thought that Albert Einstein would be so elliptical and difficult to read, but what I discovered was a man of faith. And don't confuse this with religion, because though Einstein was raised as a Jew, he had very little feeling for religion. One of the things he said though was that science can only answer so many questions and then you have to say "What next?". He said that that after you get to the Big Bang as you work your way back through time to the very moment, you have to ask, "What next?" He described the Creator as the Priam Mobile, the prime mover. He said that someone had to touch off the spark, the act that caused the big bang. He said that religion without science is ignorance, and science without God was folly.
As a Christian and a witch, I have begun to observe the earth and the planets and the moon. I have begun to observe the seasons, and the tides and the way things grow. I have begun to ask the question of how to leave a smaller footprint on the earth and make the earth a better place. Because though Fundamentalists dispute the notion of evolution, they ignore the sacred duty God gave them to care for the earth. They say God called the earth into existence by the mere sound of his voice but then they ignore the fact that the earth is burning up and being consumed and her inhabitants are being destroyed.
If you believe that God was a part of an evolutionary design or if you believe that the Lord created earth in a day, then you must believe that you owe a duty to the earth. After all, he commanded that we care for his garden and its inhabitants. Or are you doing what you accuse us of, picking out what we want to believe about the Bible and making the rest over to suit our needs.
Aslinn
One of the things I have always believed about the creation of the earth is the notion that God took his own time creating her and the metaphors of time written in the Old Testament were simply that, metaphors. They were a way for early people to understand how God created the earth and how it became the way it is now.
So, for good or for bad, I will explain how I think the earth was created and remains the product of a divine hand. We are told through science that somewhere in space, particles were brought together and energy was produced that caused these particles to form a mass that eventually exploded, the big bang theory. These particles spun out from the center of the explosion but eventually stabilized into a slower pattern that now spins around the sun, the center of the universe and the source of the particles that are now our stars and planets and even other galaxies that created their own centers and systems spinning around them.
As the earth cooled, there were chemical reactions that created things like water, oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, all of the things that comprise life. Life begins as simple forms of bacteria that evolve into plants, animals, insects and sometime or another an intelligent primate appears and that is the beginning of human existence on the earth. I know this is very simple but bear with me. I'm not a physicist or biologist and only a fair paleontologist.
This we are told by scientists was a very slow and complex process, affected by the changes the earth underwent. Animals lived, reproduced and and died by the whims of the weather and the earth. So it was for primitive man.
Sometime during the development of man, they begin to consider how they came to be, how they came to live in this place and what was beyond them, in this world and the next. They tried to puzzle out these questions by observing nature. They did not understand thunder and the lightening and the hurricanes and tornadoes and the tides and the volcanoes, so they believed they must be the presence of the gods and they studied and meditated on the gods and some believed because they were patient and prayerful that they were given revelations about the gods and how they came to be and how the earth was made.
And the writer of the first five books of the Bible was no different. Moses was a Hebrew, born among the slaves of Egypt but he was raised by the sister of the Pharaoh who thought Moses was a gift to her from her dead husband. He was raised among the other royal children and was taught the ways and cultures and histories and religion of the Egyptians. When he is exiled from Egypt, he goes out to find the people of his birth and he found the people of Midean, people who would eventually become Muslims and they told him the stories of their religious beliefs, which was basically Hebrew. As Moses gains authority in his own people, he decides to compile all the stories he heard (as they were primarily oral traditions) to make a permanent record of the stories he heard.
He hears that God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh, but we are also told that a thousand years is but a day unto the Lord. We hear fabulous stories of Methuselah who was well over 900 years old when he died. So, one of the things we as philosophers must accept is that God does not count time the same way as humans do. For us, time is arbitrary, we simply say one day is from dawn to dark. We count time in the most basic way.
So what if Day One of Creation is longer? Day One then is the period of the big bang. God pulls to himself all the energies that exist to him and in a clap of his hands, causes the big bang to create the planet we stand on. Day Two is the cooling period wherein the waters and the atmosphere is created. Day Three is the beginning of simple life and so on until we get to the emergence of man.
Now, I personally don't believe we evolved from apes. I think our genetic partnership with the great apes is one we share with all living things, break us down and we are all carbon. What man evolved from was a primitive, thinking creature that began to contemplate beyond his circumstance and as he evolved his understanding became more complex. We are still evolving. Americans look different from their ancestors who landed on the shores of New England, those folks look different from their European ancestors of 700 years ago, and those folks look different from their ancestors living not very differently from the aboriginal peoples of America.
Evolution means simply change over a long period of time. To deny evolution is to deny the very instrument of God. I read a book called Einstein's Universe. I thought that Albert Einstein would be so elliptical and difficult to read, but what I discovered was a man of faith. And don't confuse this with religion, because though Einstein was raised as a Jew, he had very little feeling for religion. One of the things he said though was that science can only answer so many questions and then you have to say "What next?". He said that that after you get to the Big Bang as you work your way back through time to the very moment, you have to ask, "What next?" He described the Creator as the Priam Mobile, the prime mover. He said that someone had to touch off the spark, the act that caused the big bang. He said that religion without science is ignorance, and science without God was folly.
As a Christian and a witch, I have begun to observe the earth and the planets and the moon. I have begun to observe the seasons, and the tides and the way things grow. I have begun to ask the question of how to leave a smaller footprint on the earth and make the earth a better place. Because though Fundamentalists dispute the notion of evolution, they ignore the sacred duty God gave them to care for the earth. They say God called the earth into existence by the mere sound of his voice but then they ignore the fact that the earth is burning up and being consumed and her inhabitants are being destroyed.
If you believe that God was a part of an evolutionary design or if you believe that the Lord created earth in a day, then you must believe that you owe a duty to the earth. After all, he commanded that we care for his garden and its inhabitants. Or are you doing what you accuse us of, picking out what we want to believe about the Bible and making the rest over to suit our needs.
Aslinn
Friday, September 12, 2008
Here are the Daughters of Eve
I just read on the internet that there are places in the world that condones the "honor" killings of women who go against their families. Places like Pakistan and India and Saudi Arabia and Iran and Iraq and Africa where women are still considered chattles and according to the most extreme versions of their religions and cultures are not even endowed with human souls, unable to recieve the benefit of an afterlife because they had the nerve to be born women.
It sickens me, and not because I think that Christianity is unimpeachable in the matters of recognizing the humanity of women. I am sick because there are still places in the world where women can be forced to have their clitorises removed in savage, unsterile rituals, where women can be accused of lechery because she has the termerity to say that she loves someone outside her class, or that she doesn't love someone her fathers, uncles and brothers have chosen for her. Where women cannot seek out modern medicine because they can't disrobe in front of a male doctor and female doctors are unable to practice, so they must have painful births without the aid of medicine, and sometimes die from botched deliveries, babies who should have been delivered by cesarean, or are punished because their first baby was not a baby or cannot concieve at all.
There are places in the world where women can be sold as if they were a car or truck or even cattle because their families can't care for them. There are places in the world where men can and do cheat on their wives and give them the AIDS virus, and are then punished because they are accused of infidelity while their husbands walk away free to infect more. I read a story that there were a rash of rapes in small African village and one of the victims was a small baby baby girl of only a few months old. The local medicine man told the men that they could get rid of the AIDS virus if they had sex with a virgin girl. They could not find anyone but the small baby girl and they opened holes in the body of that precious child and raped her through them because her vagina had not been formed yet.
Here in America, women complain about everything, they think they have it so hard because they don't have a pair of Jimmy Choo's or if they aren't keeping up with the Paris Hilton's or the Brittany Spears' or they aren't like "Desperate Housewives". I see them, walking around half dressed, with glazed looks in their eyes as they talk non-stop on their cell phones carrying their scurvy little dogs in their hand bags. But there are women out there who would love to live in the poorest American home and work the hardest job if it meant that they would be safe, that they wouln't be raped and considered "damaged goods" by their families, or they could say no to a husband who wanted to have sex with them after working like a slave hauling water from a mile away while her husband sat in the shade with the other men because hauling water is woman's work and wouldn't dare do such a thing.
I don't just castigate these primitive countries, I point my fingers at the US. I have been in those fundamentalist churches where women are ordered to be silent, to obey your husband, even when he gets you with one child after another and forces you to home school them and doesn't lift a finger unless it is to raise your nightgown. I point my finger at the men in the US who go on foriegn trips to these countries so they can see exotic sexual practices and have a few practiced on them, sometimes by the children no one wants. I point the finger at my government who since the days of colonial expansion we wandered into these primitive countries and raped the land of their people and their valuable natural resources and then left them for the vultures in the form of dictators and despots. South America, the Congo, India, they were betrayed by the so-called Christian countries after they were exploited.
Women were created by the hand of God, to be a helper to Adam in the beautiful garden. Because she was taken from Adam's body, men are to love their wives because they come from them and they from women. We are all beautiful creations of God and to desecrate one another with violence is desecrate God. And not just the God of Christians or Muslims or Jews or Pagans. We are the reflection of the divine. You want to see the face God? You want to see the God Particle? Look in the mirror, look into the face of your sister, your wife your daughter and your lover, your father, your son, your brother and there is God. And the next time you rape a woman, or beat a woman, or deny the basic human rights of a woman, all of these things will be done to you. For you come from the Daughters of Eve.
Aslinn
It sickens me, and not because I think that Christianity is unimpeachable in the matters of recognizing the humanity of women. I am sick because there are still places in the world where women can be forced to have their clitorises removed in savage, unsterile rituals, where women can be accused of lechery because she has the termerity to say that she loves someone outside her class, or that she doesn't love someone her fathers, uncles and brothers have chosen for her. Where women cannot seek out modern medicine because they can't disrobe in front of a male doctor and female doctors are unable to practice, so they must have painful births without the aid of medicine, and sometimes die from botched deliveries, babies who should have been delivered by cesarean, or are punished because their first baby was not a baby or cannot concieve at all.
There are places in the world where women can be sold as if they were a car or truck or even cattle because their families can't care for them. There are places in the world where men can and do cheat on their wives and give them the AIDS virus, and are then punished because they are accused of infidelity while their husbands walk away free to infect more. I read a story that there were a rash of rapes in small African village and one of the victims was a small baby baby girl of only a few months old. The local medicine man told the men that they could get rid of the AIDS virus if they had sex with a virgin girl. They could not find anyone but the small baby girl and they opened holes in the body of that precious child and raped her through them because her vagina had not been formed yet.
Here in America, women complain about everything, they think they have it so hard because they don't have a pair of Jimmy Choo's or if they aren't keeping up with the Paris Hilton's or the Brittany Spears' or they aren't like "Desperate Housewives". I see them, walking around half dressed, with glazed looks in their eyes as they talk non-stop on their cell phones carrying their scurvy little dogs in their hand bags. But there are women out there who would love to live in the poorest American home and work the hardest job if it meant that they would be safe, that they wouln't be raped and considered "damaged goods" by their families, or they could say no to a husband who wanted to have sex with them after working like a slave hauling water from a mile away while her husband sat in the shade with the other men because hauling water is woman's work and wouldn't dare do such a thing.
I don't just castigate these primitive countries, I point my fingers at the US. I have been in those fundamentalist churches where women are ordered to be silent, to obey your husband, even when he gets you with one child after another and forces you to home school them and doesn't lift a finger unless it is to raise your nightgown. I point my finger at the men in the US who go on foriegn trips to these countries so they can see exotic sexual practices and have a few practiced on them, sometimes by the children no one wants. I point the finger at my government who since the days of colonial expansion we wandered into these primitive countries and raped the land of their people and their valuable natural resources and then left them for the vultures in the form of dictators and despots. South America, the Congo, India, they were betrayed by the so-called Christian countries after they were exploited.
Women were created by the hand of God, to be a helper to Adam in the beautiful garden. Because she was taken from Adam's body, men are to love their wives because they come from them and they from women. We are all beautiful creations of God and to desecrate one another with violence is desecrate God. And not just the God of Christians or Muslims or Jews or Pagans. We are the reflection of the divine. You want to see the face God? You want to see the God Particle? Look in the mirror, look into the face of your sister, your wife your daughter and your lover, your father, your son, your brother and there is God. And the next time you rape a woman, or beat a woman, or deny the basic human rights of a woman, all of these things will be done to you. For you come from the Daughters of Eve.
Aslinn
Sunday, August 31, 2008
There's No Place Like Home
Gaelyn and I got back from Virginia yesterday morning and after a quick visit to my parents and a nap, I went to work doing our laundry and dusting Gaelyn's place and I have begun picking our lovely ripe herbs that my dad has been taking care of while we were away. I also had a tearful reunion with my cat Ishee, who promptly bit me and licked me at the same time. I missed my slightly autistic cat and have promised to come home after the long holiday and take residence in my room once again.
I finally finished my Book of Shadows and have it bound. It is more wonderful than I could have thought. I am sending a version on disc to my little witches and I hope they enjoy it as much as I have writing it and illustrating it.
I am now on a search for a job. Since I am not subbing, I have to redefine what I want to do. That is okay, each step in life is an adventure and I embrace it though sometimes I admit that I am a bit afraid. I am not like Gaelyn with his trust fund and wealthy parents and though he says that I should not bother myself, I know that I have to because I am one of those unruly women who wish to define my own life, not have it defined by others. I think he understands.
I was just looking at my blogs the other day. I have been writing this blog for four years now and I have been doing the Almanac for eight months and I think it is beautiful. It is a real enigma to see how times go by so quickly and how you change or stay the same. I can honestly say that I have come to a place in my life where the simpler things matter more to me. To work and draw a wage, to enjoy my loved ones, to pray and be close to God, to work the Craft and continue studying and to find new things about myself and others. To continuously redefine who I am and be the person I want to be. Sometimes I am afraid, being a witch doesn't stop that, and I do worry sometimes. But as Merlin said to King Arthur in Excalibur "It is good to be afraid sometimes, of the unknown."
And it is close to Mabon, that time to think about what we are grateful for, the second of the harvest sabats and I know that I am greatful for the experiences I have had, good or bad, and the challenges I now face and the people I have met and the loved ones I know. I am greatful for the love we have for each other and the talents we have and the dreams we share.
Brightest Blessings Be from Me to Thee,
Aslinn
Friday, August 22, 2008
Bits and Pieces
Merry Meet
Gaelyn and I have one more week before we head home. We have had a great time here in Colonial Williamsburg. We have met some great people, eaten at some fanastic restaraunts, gone to all of the sights and worked hard at the store, ganing wonderful insight and experiences. We have had two of the best sales periods in a long while the folks who run the store are just tickled. They would like it if Gaelyn and I would just move there and open our own store, but we miss home, especially me, and we are ready to go on to the next part of our adventure.
While I was here I finished typing up my Book of Shadows and I am going to try to put it on online as an adobe document. I don't know if I will be able to but I will try to make it available. I am also sending my novel In the Pale Moonlight to two publishing houses and I hope they will make me an offer and publish my book. Maybe if I publish this book, I can publish my BOS.
I am still doing the Christian Witch Almanac and have just posted September. I have a lot of articles for October written by wonderful witches I met at witch conference and at the Medieval Faire and here at the store. Some of the articles may be two parters, if the first articles are any indication. If you haven't checked it out, take a look at it. If you wish to contribute just write me at aslinndhan01@yahoo.com and I will be happy to take a look at any writing idea.
Finally, I had a bit of a tiff with one of my young neophytes. Sorry about that mate, I wish you well in your endeavors and I have heard from all my little witches back home who are anxious for my return so we can resume our lessons and activities and from our circle who went on sabbatical during the summer and are looking forward to celebrating Mabon with Gaelyn and I and getting back into a regular study and worship routine.
Brightest Blessings Be from Me to thee,
Aslinn and Gaelyn
Gaelyn and I have one more week before we head home. We have had a great time here in Colonial Williamsburg. We have met some great people, eaten at some fanastic restaraunts, gone to all of the sights and worked hard at the store, ganing wonderful insight and experiences. We have had two of the best sales periods in a long while the folks who run the store are just tickled. They would like it if Gaelyn and I would just move there and open our own store, but we miss home, especially me, and we are ready to go on to the next part of our adventure.
While I was here I finished typing up my Book of Shadows and I am going to try to put it on online as an adobe document. I don't know if I will be able to but I will try to make it available. I am also sending my novel In the Pale Moonlight to two publishing houses and I hope they will make me an offer and publish my book. Maybe if I publish this book, I can publish my BOS.
I am still doing the Christian Witch Almanac and have just posted September. I have a lot of articles for October written by wonderful witches I met at witch conference and at the Medieval Faire and here at the store. Some of the articles may be two parters, if the first articles are any indication. If you haven't checked it out, take a look at it. If you wish to contribute just write me at aslinndhan01@yahoo.com and I will be happy to take a look at any writing idea.
Finally, I had a bit of a tiff with one of my young neophytes. Sorry about that mate, I wish you well in your endeavors and I have heard from all my little witches back home who are anxious for my return so we can resume our lessons and activities and from our circle who went on sabbatical during the summer and are looking forward to celebrating Mabon with Gaelyn and I and getting back into a regular study and worship routine.
Brightest Blessings Be from Me to thee,
Aslinn and Gaelyn
Thursday, August 14, 2008
The Woman's Body: The feminine image of God
Merry Meet,
There is a lot on the news and Internet about female body image. We are constantly bombarded with contradictory messages about weight and female beauty. It is so confusing, in one breath a news person tells about the rise in anorexia and bulimia and in the next breath, they are quarreling with some fellow news caster about calories consumed. There are these ads that tell girls that they are beautiful regardless of their size and yet we hold up rail thin, silicone enhanced models as the examples of perfect beauty.
I was a thin girl and teenager, my prom dress my senior year was a size five. But somewhere along the line I became a chubby woman, wearing a size 12/14. I have lost the weight once but to tell you the truth I wasn't any happier as a size eight. And I was a lot hungrier.
When Gaelyn came into my life after many years of thinking there could not be anyone out there for me, I told him that though I was happy as a chubby woman for myself, that I knew that men expected something completely different. He got up from the couch and pulled down this huge book called Images of God: Images of Women. He opened the book and laid it in my lap. In the book were pictures of all sorts of women, of modern times and antiquity. They were all shapes and sizes and hues, of all cultures and religions. He said "God made you the way you are now from the womb. Everything he does is beautiful. Why should I as a man not see you in the beauty and perfection he made you, why should I want someone who is made of plastic and poison (botox) and stains and dyes when I can have you. You are real, the symbol of the earth mother," Then he turned the page to the Venus of Willendorf, the mother goddess figure with the large belly and breasts and hips. "See, you are my Earth Goddess, you are beautiful!"
Well, he is as smooth as a baby's bottom, but he made me appreciate that not all men want what we see in the media. Some men will run with time warp speed to the woman with the fake boobs, but there are men who like the natural woman, thin or fat, short or tall, buxom or flat chested. We are all beautiful, and I don't need a bath soap to tell me that.
Brightest Blessings Be my beautiful sisters, love yourself for who and what you are and don't let some talking head tell you otherwise.
Aslinn
There is a lot on the news and Internet about female body image. We are constantly bombarded with contradictory messages about weight and female beauty. It is so confusing, in one breath a news person tells about the rise in anorexia and bulimia and in the next breath, they are quarreling with some fellow news caster about calories consumed. There are these ads that tell girls that they are beautiful regardless of their size and yet we hold up rail thin, silicone enhanced models as the examples of perfect beauty.
I was a thin girl and teenager, my prom dress my senior year was a size five. But somewhere along the line I became a chubby woman, wearing a size 12/14. I have lost the weight once but to tell you the truth I wasn't any happier as a size eight. And I was a lot hungrier.
When Gaelyn came into my life after many years of thinking there could not be anyone out there for me, I told him that though I was happy as a chubby woman for myself, that I knew that men expected something completely different. He got up from the couch and pulled down this huge book called Images of God: Images of Women. He opened the book and laid it in my lap. In the book were pictures of all sorts of women, of modern times and antiquity. They were all shapes and sizes and hues, of all cultures and religions. He said "God made you the way you are now from the womb. Everything he does is beautiful. Why should I as a man not see you in the beauty and perfection he made you, why should I want someone who is made of plastic and poison (botox) and stains and dyes when I can have you. You are real, the symbol of the earth mother," Then he turned the page to the Venus of Willendorf, the mother goddess figure with the large belly and breasts and hips. "See, you are my Earth Goddess, you are beautiful!"
Well, he is as smooth as a baby's bottom, but he made me appreciate that not all men want what we see in the media. Some men will run with time warp speed to the woman with the fake boobs, but there are men who like the natural woman, thin or fat, short or tall, buxom or flat chested. We are all beautiful, and I don't need a bath soap to tell me that.
Brightest Blessings Be my beautiful sisters, love yourself for who and what you are and don't let some talking head tell you otherwise.
Aslinn
Thursday, August 07, 2008
A Witch Shoppe
Merry Meet,
Gaelyn and I have been running a witch shoppe for the last few weeks for some friends of his who are in Europe on a buying trip. In my area there have been a couple of witch shoppes but they don't last long. I don't know if they are hounded by trad folks or there isn't enough business, but I have always like the notion of a metaphysical store where you can go in and buy things and people don't look at you sideways.
The shop is situated just outside of Colonial Williamsburg. It is a double shop space, that is it was a building with two shops downstairs and two apartments upstairs. When the couple bought the building, they opened up the two shops into one shop and made the two small apartments one large apartment.
The shop has book cases and shelves all along the walls, large display windows and tables in the center to display things. In the back is a reading room for their thousands of reference books that they do not sell but make available to the public as a library. They can sit there at the tables or in the comfortable chairs and do research. Then there is a work room/lunch room and they have a small stove and fridge and a work table. Both sides have loos.
They sell everything the witch would need. Wands of different woods and crystals are in large round cardboard containers. On slow days, I have decupaged the containers with witch symbols and wands and made them colorful. There are assorted jars of herbs that you can buy by the jar or the ounce, and I spend a lot of time just measuring the herbs for the customers. When I encounter an herb that I haven't seen or used before, I ask the customer how they use it. I have gained so much information from various trads and pratices that I have filled a steno pad, as I do take time to jot down the uses.
There are of course new and used books and I have spent time reading them and taking notes on them in the apartment above at night. Gaelyn has bought me a couple of boxes worth and I have sent them home and cannot wait to read them. I make candles in the back, some the usual kind and some are made custom for one person or other who needs a special candle for a ritual or spell.
One of the things I do like very much and wrote one of my good students about were the brooms. They are hand made and some have detailed carvings of the celtic and norse style, some African and South American. They are well made and you could actually use them for sweeping if a muggle happened to pop in and buy one, for they are truely the most beautiful brooms I have ever seen. Some of them have rosemary and lavender and lemon grass woven in with the broom straw on the brush. A few are plain and the buyers can carve them anyway they wish. One little muggle lady bought a broom and wand for her grandson who is simply waiting for his Hogwarts letter any day.
To tell the truth, though, many people who wander in think at first that the shop is just a hippy shop because we burn incense and play celtic and pan flute music. When they realize that they have spent upwards of an hour in a witch shop they are amazed. I had one lady ask me "Are you really a witch?" and I said yes and she said "You don't look like a witch!" and I told her that was because witches look like everyone else.
I like to perch on the high stool with the padded back and look out the window. Gaelyn and I wear khaki pants and white button down shirts, nothing at all conspicuous. I suppose that there are many people who recognize the shop as a witch shop. I like to watch the people as their eyes go over the front of the shop and then just notice me sitting there, reading or sewing.
You can always tell when a muggle comes in and they know what sort of shop it is. They are wary, a bit nervous, and they are all eyes. They are there for a purpose. Most women, if Gaelyn asks if he can help them, say that they are just looking. Then they spot me. "Can I help you?" I ask.
Usually it is about love. They want to know if love potions will work. Sometimes it is about the future and I read their cards for them, free of charge. I always steer muggles away from magikal solutions. I wouldn't want them to dabble and I wouldn't want them to give up on themselves and always seek a magikal solution for everything.
I haven't had any bad experiences, knock on wood, except for one of those smudgy little Jack T. Chick tracts that fundamentalists like to hand out left on one of the shelves. I just threw it away. No sense in making my visit a bad one.
Boxes come in everyday and they have to be inventoried and put up on the shelves. We got a case of hand sized tarot cards the other day and I bought a few decks to bring back to my little witches back home. We close at five and I go out with Gaelyn to dinner or I cook something upstairs.
We have enjoyed our stay and have learned a lot and worked hard. I think we will miss the shop when we return home.
Brightest Blessings Be
Aslinn and Gaelyn
Gaelyn and I have been running a witch shoppe for the last few weeks for some friends of his who are in Europe on a buying trip. In my area there have been a couple of witch shoppes but they don't last long. I don't know if they are hounded by trad folks or there isn't enough business, but I have always like the notion of a metaphysical store where you can go in and buy things and people don't look at you sideways.
The shop is situated just outside of Colonial Williamsburg. It is a double shop space, that is it was a building with two shops downstairs and two apartments upstairs. When the couple bought the building, they opened up the two shops into one shop and made the two small apartments one large apartment.
The shop has book cases and shelves all along the walls, large display windows and tables in the center to display things. In the back is a reading room for their thousands of reference books that they do not sell but make available to the public as a library. They can sit there at the tables or in the comfortable chairs and do research. Then there is a work room/lunch room and they have a small stove and fridge and a work table. Both sides have loos.
They sell everything the witch would need. Wands of different woods and crystals are in large round cardboard containers. On slow days, I have decupaged the containers with witch symbols and wands and made them colorful. There are assorted jars of herbs that you can buy by the jar or the ounce, and I spend a lot of time just measuring the herbs for the customers. When I encounter an herb that I haven't seen or used before, I ask the customer how they use it. I have gained so much information from various trads and pratices that I have filled a steno pad, as I do take time to jot down the uses.
There are of course new and used books and I have spent time reading them and taking notes on them in the apartment above at night. Gaelyn has bought me a couple of boxes worth and I have sent them home and cannot wait to read them. I make candles in the back, some the usual kind and some are made custom for one person or other who needs a special candle for a ritual or spell.
One of the things I do like very much and wrote one of my good students about were the brooms. They are hand made and some have detailed carvings of the celtic and norse style, some African and South American. They are well made and you could actually use them for sweeping if a muggle happened to pop in and buy one, for they are truely the most beautiful brooms I have ever seen. Some of them have rosemary and lavender and lemon grass woven in with the broom straw on the brush. A few are plain and the buyers can carve them anyway they wish. One little muggle lady bought a broom and wand for her grandson who is simply waiting for his Hogwarts letter any day.
To tell the truth, though, many people who wander in think at first that the shop is just a hippy shop because we burn incense and play celtic and pan flute music. When they realize that they have spent upwards of an hour in a witch shop they are amazed. I had one lady ask me "Are you really a witch?" and I said yes and she said "You don't look like a witch!" and I told her that was because witches look like everyone else.
I like to perch on the high stool with the padded back and look out the window. Gaelyn and I wear khaki pants and white button down shirts, nothing at all conspicuous. I suppose that there are many people who recognize the shop as a witch shop. I like to watch the people as their eyes go over the front of the shop and then just notice me sitting there, reading or sewing.
You can always tell when a muggle comes in and they know what sort of shop it is. They are wary, a bit nervous, and they are all eyes. They are there for a purpose. Most women, if Gaelyn asks if he can help them, say that they are just looking. Then they spot me. "Can I help you?" I ask.
Usually it is about love. They want to know if love potions will work. Sometimes it is about the future and I read their cards for them, free of charge. I always steer muggles away from magikal solutions. I wouldn't want them to dabble and I wouldn't want them to give up on themselves and always seek a magikal solution for everything.
I haven't had any bad experiences, knock on wood, except for one of those smudgy little Jack T. Chick tracts that fundamentalists like to hand out left on one of the shelves. I just threw it away. No sense in making my visit a bad one.
Boxes come in everyday and they have to be inventoried and put up on the shelves. We got a case of hand sized tarot cards the other day and I bought a few decks to bring back to my little witches back home. We close at five and I go out with Gaelyn to dinner or I cook something upstairs.
We have enjoyed our stay and have learned a lot and worked hard. I think we will miss the shop when we return home.
Brightest Blessings Be
Aslinn and Gaelyn
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Change of Title
Merry Meet!
I have decided to change the title of my blog to Christian Witch so that more people will find me. Hope this doesn't confuse anyone.
Aslinn
I have decided to change the title of my blog to Christian Witch so that more people will find me. Hope this doesn't confuse anyone.
Aslinn
Friday, July 18, 2008
Check out the Almanac
Merry Meet!
Hey there guys, I have been working on the Christian Witch Almanac Blog for 6 months now. It is pretty good and very fun to put together. I have each day, the moon cycles and the days of the saints and special events in the witchcraft community as well as Sabat days. Hope you are enjoyingmy almanac and if anyone who is looking at it would like to suggest an added feature or would like to submit a five or six paragraph essay on the topic of your choice, email me at aslinndhan01@yahoo.com and submit your topic idea or the article as a word document or simply in the body of your email and I will let you know if and when it will be posted
Brightest Blessings Be
Aslinn
Hey there guys, I have been working on the Christian Witch Almanac Blog for 6 months now. It is pretty good and very fun to put together. I have each day, the moon cycles and the days of the saints and special events in the witchcraft community as well as Sabat days. Hope you are enjoyingmy almanac and if anyone who is looking at it would like to suggest an added feature or would like to submit a five or six paragraph essay on the topic of your choice, email me at aslinndhan01@yahoo.com and submit your topic idea or the article as a word document or simply in the body of your email and I will let you know if and when it will be posted
Brightest Blessings Be
Aslinn
Friday, July 04, 2008
America the Responsible
Merry Meet!
We are feeling the pinch. There is no doubt about it. Gasoline prices are up and jobs are shrinking. Our resources are limited. But what does a witch do? We are supposed to be concerned with what happens to Mother Earth and I think we try to be. Not always but we try.
But this is not just a problem for witches, it is problem for us all. When gasoline was $1.50 we didn't care, we drove our big SUV's and trucks and gave not a thought in the world to the impact we are having on our world. Now we are in this damnable war and we are under more pressure to find what we can do to have plenty and not waste.
First of all, try to travel less if you have a big SUV or truck. Carpool to work, church or sabat. Shop together at the grocery store. Use fewer petroleum goods. Use and reuse. Donate to and shop at second hand shops, wash clothes in cold water, hang some things to drip dry, put kitchen scraps, excluding meat and bones, into a scrap bucket and compost it, turn up your thermostat and turn down your lights. And vote. You heard me. Vote and get people in office who have a plan to help your local and state and federal government get on the right track.
We can make it through this hard time we are having. We just have to think before we do.
Brightest Blessings Be
Aslinn
We are feeling the pinch. There is no doubt about it. Gasoline prices are up and jobs are shrinking. Our resources are limited. But what does a witch do? We are supposed to be concerned with what happens to Mother Earth and I think we try to be. Not always but we try.
But this is not just a problem for witches, it is problem for us all. When gasoline was $1.50 we didn't care, we drove our big SUV's and trucks and gave not a thought in the world to the impact we are having on our world. Now we are in this damnable war and we are under more pressure to find what we can do to have plenty and not waste.
First of all, try to travel less if you have a big SUV or truck. Carpool to work, church or sabat. Shop together at the grocery store. Use fewer petroleum goods. Use and reuse. Donate to and shop at second hand shops, wash clothes in cold water, hang some things to drip dry, put kitchen scraps, excluding meat and bones, into a scrap bucket and compost it, turn up your thermostat and turn down your lights. And vote. You heard me. Vote and get people in office who have a plan to help your local and state and federal government get on the right track.
We can make it through this hard time we are having. We just have to think before we do.
Brightest Blessings Be
Aslinn
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
What is Patriotism
Merry Meet!!
Most folk in the Craft community do not think of themselves as political, mostly because there just aren't that many witches in office. But, with the elections upon us and the debate over patriotism always used as a campaign platform, I just felt that I should stand up and throw my two cents into the fray.
First of all let me say that I do not speak of one candidate over the other. I think all Americans or any free people who have the right to vote should at least vote. If you don't vote you can't complain.
Second let me say that I never saw myself as patriotic. I was a rebel and a black sheep and something of an extreme liberal in my teen years. I joined groups like Green Peace and Amnesty International and I wrote to people like FW Declerk and demanded that he free Nelson Mandela and then give the black South Africans the freedom to vote and I joined in other sort prisoners of conscience campaigns but I never felt strongly about my country until I went to work for Vietnam Veterans.
But patriotism for me was less about saluting the flag and more about making sure that all Americans were able to enjoy their fair share the promises made to every American. I love my country, at least the ideals of my country. I understand fully that we have many injustices, racism, sexism, classism, creedism, but there is still the promise in America that does not exist in any part of the world.
Patriotism isn't about just about who served their country, or who didn't or who wears an American Flag on their lapel, it is about what you are willing to stand up for. Are you willing to stand up and say "Enough!" to social injustice in your country and other countries? Are you willing to help a person up? I say "Stand on my shoulders and when you get up there, hold your hand down to me and we will pull someone else up together" It is the rule of three in action.
Patriotism is not about saluting the flag and saying the pledge, but it is about standing still and silent when someone else does it. It is not about getting choked up when we hear the Star Spangled Banner, it is about understanding the words and emotions and feeling a part of the land of the free and the home of the brave. The song means nothing if the words do not ring true.
Patriotism is not about one nation under God if you cannot celebrate the image of God in your own way, whether your creed's symbol is a cross, or a cresent or a six pointed star or a five pointed star.
Patriotism is about being the best part of your nation, not her symbols, not her songs, not her military might. It is about seeing injustice and trying to right it, it is about lending a helping hand, it is about exercising the rights of any free citizen of a free nation.
So may God bless America, regardless of how you see the sacred and God bless Americans, regardless of your notion of patriotism.
Brightest Blessings Be
Aslinn
Most folk in the Craft community do not think of themselves as political, mostly because there just aren't that many witches in office. But, with the elections upon us and the debate over patriotism always used as a campaign platform, I just felt that I should stand up and throw my two cents into the fray.
First of all let me say that I do not speak of one candidate over the other. I think all Americans or any free people who have the right to vote should at least vote. If you don't vote you can't complain.
Second let me say that I never saw myself as patriotic. I was a rebel and a black sheep and something of an extreme liberal in my teen years. I joined groups like Green Peace and Amnesty International and I wrote to people like FW Declerk and demanded that he free Nelson Mandela and then give the black South Africans the freedom to vote and I joined in other sort prisoners of conscience campaigns but I never felt strongly about my country until I went to work for Vietnam Veterans.
But patriotism for me was less about saluting the flag and more about making sure that all Americans were able to enjoy their fair share the promises made to every American. I love my country, at least the ideals of my country. I understand fully that we have many injustices, racism, sexism, classism, creedism, but there is still the promise in America that does not exist in any part of the world.
Patriotism isn't about just about who served their country, or who didn't or who wears an American Flag on their lapel, it is about what you are willing to stand up for. Are you willing to stand up and say "Enough!" to social injustice in your country and other countries? Are you willing to help a person up? I say "Stand on my shoulders and when you get up there, hold your hand down to me and we will pull someone else up together" It is the rule of three in action.
Patriotism is not about saluting the flag and saying the pledge, but it is about standing still and silent when someone else does it. It is not about getting choked up when we hear the Star Spangled Banner, it is about understanding the words and emotions and feeling a part of the land of the free and the home of the brave. The song means nothing if the words do not ring true.
Patriotism is not about one nation under God if you cannot celebrate the image of God in your own way, whether your creed's symbol is a cross, or a cresent or a six pointed star or a five pointed star.
Patriotism is about being the best part of your nation, not her symbols, not her songs, not her military might. It is about seeing injustice and trying to right it, it is about lending a helping hand, it is about exercising the rights of any free citizen of a free nation.
So may God bless America, regardless of how you see the sacred and God bless Americans, regardless of your notion of patriotism.
Brightest Blessings Be
Aslinn
Monday, June 30, 2008
Medieval Faire
Merry Meet!!
Gaelyn and I went to the Medieval Faire last week. I have been going for years with my circle sisters. Throughout the year I make shawls and tarot pouches with celtic designs and herbal candles and little spell books and decoupaged boxes and other witchy/ medieval goods. I make enough of a profit to stay at the faire for the whole week and enjoy being with my circle sisters and other folk who practice the way of the wise. Not all participants do, but there are enough of us to have a regular Craft convention.
These faires are fun. We have a tent, army style, fitted out with medieval and celtic hand painted patches over it. That is another thing I do, I cut out twelve by twelve squares and draw elaborate celtic designs and medieval shields and hand paint them and then sew them to the body of the tent. So the olive drab tent we started with now looks like a dramatic jousting tent from a fairy tale. I make about a dozen a year. My Gaelyn made some honey mead and brought some jars of honey and some of my sisters make wine, which is pretty good.
After the sales day is over, we have events, like jousting and sword contests and highlander games style exhibitions. We also have jugglers and magicians who perform sleight of hand and gymnasts and dancers. One outfit does various morality plays. This year they did a version of a Faustian style story. It was very good and in some parts rather scary.
When all of the tourists are gone for the night, we wise folk (aka Witches) get together and raise energy, dance and sing and share stories and magik. I met with a great little bunch of Christian witches from Pennsylvania and I am hoping they will be writing in and sharing some of their stories and articles for the almanac.
One of the things that did bother me is the amount of manufactured goods. I know that there are a lot of fine companies who make medieval apparel and I understand you might have to resort to them for leather goods and shoes and boots, but many of the dresses and blouses and skirts can be handmade and should be handmade. And there is the issue of simple things like pouches and bags and the like that came from retail stores and mail order like the Pyramid company.
But I had a great time and we made a few bucks to keep us comfortably at the faire and pay for our gas back home and keep us excited about the next faire. If you get a chance to go to a Medieval Faire, go, you will have a great time.
Brightest Blessings Be
Aslinn
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
Love Spells: I Called the Witch Doctor
Merry Meet!
They call you late at night, breathless and a little apprehensive. They confess to you that they have met someone they could fall in love with but they don't know their secret love is crazy about them. Then with baited breath they say: "Couldn't you mix up a little love potion #9" They have their hopes and dreams wrapped up in a magikal solution.
What do you say to that person? How do you explain that it is against your ethics to try and control someone with a spell or potion? Is there a way to help this person?
There is a way and it is not to try to magikally control the person, but to enhance the person who is infatuated with the object of their desire. Most of the time the person who is the admiree is afraid of rejection from the admired. A short charm for them recite to give them courage may be all they need. A small talisman to make them feel desireable may do the trick. To enhance the one who is love stricken and make them more friendly and have more confidence is what that person needs. They would not really want that person to be fascinated with them just because of a spell, they would hopefully want the person to admire them for who they are.
You might also do divinatory work for them. You might want to see if they are a good match. If you practice astrology, you might want to see if their signs match up. You might want to do some tarot readings for them. There are other things you can suggest.
Remind them that not all desires are fulfillable and even if you do these for them, they may not get the person who is their focus. Tell them to keep in mind that fate may have a different partner in mind for them.
Blessed Be
Aslinn
They call you late at night, breathless and a little apprehensive. They confess to you that they have met someone they could fall in love with but they don't know their secret love is crazy about them. Then with baited breath they say: "Couldn't you mix up a little love potion #9" They have their hopes and dreams wrapped up in a magikal solution.
What do you say to that person? How do you explain that it is against your ethics to try and control someone with a spell or potion? Is there a way to help this person?
There is a way and it is not to try to magikally control the person, but to enhance the person who is infatuated with the object of their desire. Most of the time the person who is the admiree is afraid of rejection from the admired. A short charm for them recite to give them courage may be all they need. A small talisman to make them feel desireable may do the trick. To enhance the one who is love stricken and make them more friendly and have more confidence is what that person needs. They would not really want that person to be fascinated with them just because of a spell, they would hopefully want the person to admire them for who they are.
You might also do divinatory work for them. You might want to see if they are a good match. If you practice astrology, you might want to see if their signs match up. You might want to do some tarot readings for them. There are other things you can suggest.
Remind them that not all desires are fulfillable and even if you do these for them, they may not get the person who is their focus. Tell them to keep in mind that fate may have a different partner in mind for them.
Blessed Be
Aslinn
Saturday, May 31, 2008
A Petition for Wiccan Chaplains
Merry Meet!
Here is a little something I wanted to let you know about. It is a petition for the US Military to provide for Wiccan Chaplains. Many Wiccan trads hold that at a ceratin level you are the priest/ess of your own trad, but to have a Wiccan Chaplain would ensure that the Wiccans in our armed services would be able to have some expectation of the ability to celebrate the Sabbats and have time to raise energy and pray with fellow Wiccans. Follow the links or paste them on your browser and sign the appeal.
FWD: Petition to get Wiccan Chaplains into the U.S. Armed Forces
Posted by: "~)0(~ Mishka" mishka.wytch@gmail.com hekate6164
Mon May 26, 2008 9:39 pm (PDT)
Petition to get Wiccan Chaplains into the U.S. Armed Forces
There are over 5000 Wiccans serving in the U.S. Armed Forces. However,
there are currently NO Wiccan Chaplains. This is a petition to get
Wiccan chaplains accepted. Other religions with small numbers are
allowed chaplains.
Among the nearly 2,900 clergy on active duty are 41 Mormon chaplains for
17,513 Mormons in uniform, 22 rabbis for 4,038 Jews, 11 imams for 3,386
Muslims, six teachers for 636 Christian Scientists, and one Buddhist
chaplain for 4,546 Buddhists.
In 2007, when a pentecostal chaplain turned Wiccan he applied to change
his religious affiliation to Wicca, and the Army railroaded him out of
Iraq and out of the Army. This is unacceptable.
Sign this petition and tell the the Army Chief of Chaplains office and
other government officials that Wiccans deserve chaplains and should be
afforded the same rights as other religions.
http://pagancauldron.com/modules/xpetitions/index.php?id=1
~Mishka
http://www.myspace.com/YaYaMishka
http://www.myspace.com/MishkaWytch
http://www.covenspace.com/MishkaWytch
Thanks to Chris and Mishkawytch for their information.
Blessed Be
Aslinn
Friday, May 23, 2008
A Christian Speaks of Wicca and Witchcraft
This article appears on numerous witchcraft and Wicca sites and I love it so much, I wish to add it to my blog. Thanks www.wicca.com for having the article available. It is also on my links.
A Christian Speaks of Wicca and Witchcraft
by James Clement Taylor
I am a Christian and not a Wiccan. A Christian is one who has been baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and who has made a personal, free-will decision to commit himself and all his or her life to our Lord and God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Both of these things are true of me. I am a member of St. Mary's Eastern Orthodox Church, Calhan, Colorado. In this paper, I am not speaking as agent for any church, but I am, entirely on my own responsibility, speaking the truth in love, as we Christians are supposed to do.
A Situation of Strife and Shame:
There are many Christians today who believe that anyone who is not a Christian is doomed to an eternity of suffering in hell. Any decent person, believing this, would be compelled to try to save as many people from this fate as possible. But is this belief correct? Jesus Christ, having noted the faith and righteousness of a Roman centurion, a Pagan, proclaimed:
"Assuredly I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel! And I say to you that many will come from east and west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." (Matthew 8:10-12)
If we accept these words as true, and surely we should, then it is clear that heaven will contain many who are not Christians, and hell will contain many who are! Clearly, throughout the Gospels, Jesus Christ sets forth the criteria for entrance into the kingdom of heaven, and those criteria include love, kindness, forgiveness, and a refusal to judge others:
"For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." (Matthew 6:14-15)
"For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the same measure you use, it will be measured back to you." (Matthew 7:2)
"But go and learn what this means: `I desire mercy and not sacrifice.'" (Matthew 9:13)
"Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful. Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven." (Luke 6:36-38)
Is it not clear? Anyone who fails in these things, will calling himself a Christian save him? Anyone who obeys God in these things, will being unbaptized condemn him? Jesus said, "Not everyone who says to Me, `Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven." (Matthew 7:21)
Yet it is not by good works that we earn our way into heaven, because there is no way we can earn the free gift of God's mercy and grace, which alone can save us. But it is clear that it is not by faith, in the sense of sharing the Christian faith, that we are saved, either. The faith which saves us is not faith in the goodness of our works, nor faith that we have the right theology and/or belong to the right church. Rather, it is faith in God, and in His mercy:
"So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who has mercy." (Romans 9:16)
But the Wiccans, you will say, do not have faith in God. Yet by their own theology, they certainly do. Those who call them Satan-worshippers are entirely wrong. They do not worship Satan, or even believe that Satan exists. Instead, they worship a Goddess and a God whom they understand as manifestations of a higher and unknown Deity.
Now if you are a Christian, this will sound familiar to you, and it should. In the Bible we find the following:
"Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, `Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious; for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Therefore, The One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you" (Acts 17:22-23)
The Wiccans worship the Unknown God, as manifested to them in the form of a Goddess and a God. Therefore, our Bible tells us they worship the same God we do; and if they do not know this, we should know it!
For those of us who are unable to simply stand on God's Word, and must prove to themselves the truth of what it proclaims the holy Apostle John has given us the method for doing this. You have only to attend any public Wiccan ceremony, and test the spirits which are there, to see "whether they are of God" (1 John 4:1). You will find that, while the power manifested there may be less than what you have experienced as a Christian, that power is clearly the power of God.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, these people of Wicca have been terribly slandered by us. They have lost jobs, and homes, and places of business because we have assured others that they worship Satan, which they do not. We have persecuted them, and God will hold us accountable for this, you may be sure, for He has said, "Assuredly I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me." (Matthew 25:40)
Let us, from this point onward, repent of our misdeeds and declare that henceforth we shall obey Christ our God, and not judge others or condemn them, so that He will not have to judge and condemn us for our sins.
A Christian Speaks of Wicca and Witchcraft
by James Clement Taylor
I am a Christian and not a Wiccan. A Christian is one who has been baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and who has made a personal, free-will decision to commit himself and all his or her life to our Lord and God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Both of these things are true of me. I am a member of St. Mary's Eastern Orthodox Church, Calhan, Colorado. In this paper, I am not speaking as agent for any church, but I am, entirely on my own responsibility, speaking the truth in love, as we Christians are supposed to do.
A Situation of Strife and Shame:
There are many Christians today who believe that anyone who is not a Christian is doomed to an eternity of suffering in hell. Any decent person, believing this, would be compelled to try to save as many people from this fate as possible. But is this belief correct? Jesus Christ, having noted the faith and righteousness of a Roman centurion, a Pagan, proclaimed:
"Assuredly I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel! And I say to you that many will come from east and west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." (Matthew 8:10-12)
If we accept these words as true, and surely we should, then it is clear that heaven will contain many who are not Christians, and hell will contain many who are! Clearly, throughout the Gospels, Jesus Christ sets forth the criteria for entrance into the kingdom of heaven, and those criteria include love, kindness, forgiveness, and a refusal to judge others:
"For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." (Matthew 6:14-15)
"For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the same measure you use, it will be measured back to you." (Matthew 7:2)
"But go and learn what this means: `I desire mercy and not sacrifice.'" (Matthew 9:13)
"Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful. Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven." (Luke 6:36-38)
Is it not clear? Anyone who fails in these things, will calling himself a Christian save him? Anyone who obeys God in these things, will being unbaptized condemn him? Jesus said, "Not everyone who says to Me, `Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven." (Matthew 7:21)
Yet it is not by good works that we earn our way into heaven, because there is no way we can earn the free gift of God's mercy and grace, which alone can save us. But it is clear that it is not by faith, in the sense of sharing the Christian faith, that we are saved, either. The faith which saves us is not faith in the goodness of our works, nor faith that we have the right theology and/or belong to the right church. Rather, it is faith in God, and in His mercy:
"So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who has mercy." (Romans 9:16)
But the Wiccans, you will say, do not have faith in God. Yet by their own theology, they certainly do. Those who call them Satan-worshippers are entirely wrong. They do not worship Satan, or even believe that Satan exists. Instead, they worship a Goddess and a God whom they understand as manifestations of a higher and unknown Deity.
Now if you are a Christian, this will sound familiar to you, and it should. In the Bible we find the following:
"Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, `Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious; for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Therefore, The One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you" (Acts 17:22-23)
The Wiccans worship the Unknown God, as manifested to them in the form of a Goddess and a God. Therefore, our Bible tells us they worship the same God we do; and if they do not know this, we should know it!
For those of us who are unable to simply stand on God's Word, and must prove to themselves the truth of what it proclaims the holy Apostle John has given us the method for doing this. You have only to attend any public Wiccan ceremony, and test the spirits which are there, to see "whether they are of God" (1 John 4:1). You will find that, while the power manifested there may be less than what you have experienced as a Christian, that power is clearly the power of God.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, these people of Wicca have been terribly slandered by us. They have lost jobs, and homes, and places of business because we have assured others that they worship Satan, which they do not. We have persecuted them, and God will hold us accountable for this, you may be sure, for He has said, "Assuredly I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me." (Matthew 25:40)
Let us, from this point onward, repent of our misdeeds and declare that henceforth we shall obey Christ our God, and not judge others or condemn them, so that He will not have to judge and condemn us for our sins.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Witch Hunts Still Happen
Kenya mob reportedly burns 11 ‘witches’
Police say locals accused women and men of ‘bewitching’ their children
updated 3:37 p.m. ET, Wed., May. 21, 2008
NAIROBI, Kenya - A group of up to 300 young men have burned to death 11 people suspected of being witches and wizards in western Kenya — in some cases slitting their victims' throats or clubbing them to death before burning their bodies, officials said.
The gang moved from home to home through two villages, identifying their victims by using a list with names of suspected witches and wizards and the kind of spells they were believed to have cast on the community, said Ben Makori, a local councilor.
"The villagers are complaining that the (suspected) wizards and witches are making the bright children in the community dumb.... These (suspected) witches are not doing good things to us," Makori told The Associated Press on the phone.
Deputy police spokesman Charles Owino said the gang hunted down the eight women and three men in the western Kenya villages of Kekoro and Matembe. Most of the victims were between 70 and 90 years old, Owino said.
Senior administrator Njoroge Ndirangu said the gang hunted down their victims Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.
Victims slashed or clubbed in some cases the gang pulled the victims out of their homes, slit their throats or clubbed them to death, said a police officer, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.
The victims were then thrown back into their homes, which the gang had already set on fire, the officer said. He said 36 houses were burned.
Another police officer, Mwaura Njoroge, said the body of a victim burned to death in her house was, "reduced to something so small, you cannot tell which is the leg and which is the arm."
"How can they (the young men) prove that a person is a wizard? It is likely that the people who committed these killings had personal vendettas against their victims," Njoroge said.
"These people identified who is to be killed by accusing their victims of bewitching their sons and daughters," said Ndirangu, the commissioner in charge of Kisii Central district, where one of the villages is located.
Ndirangu said that residents are superstitious and have often targeted suspected witches and wizards, but this week's attack was the most shocking in recent years.
The police officer who spoke on condition of anonymity said investigators had little hope of making progress because the villagers have refused to identify the people who carried out attacks.
Police say locals accused women and men of ‘bewitching’ their children
updated 3:37 p.m. ET, Wed., May. 21, 2008
NAIROBI, Kenya - A group of up to 300 young men have burned to death 11 people suspected of being witches and wizards in western Kenya — in some cases slitting their victims' throats or clubbing them to death before burning their bodies, officials said.
The gang moved from home to home through two villages, identifying their victims by using a list with names of suspected witches and wizards and the kind of spells they were believed to have cast on the community, said Ben Makori, a local councilor.
"The villagers are complaining that the (suspected) wizards and witches are making the bright children in the community dumb.... These (suspected) witches are not doing good things to us," Makori told The Associated Press on the phone.
Deputy police spokesman Charles Owino said the gang hunted down the eight women and three men in the western Kenya villages of Kekoro and Matembe. Most of the victims were between 70 and 90 years old, Owino said.
Senior administrator Njoroge Ndirangu said the gang hunted down their victims Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.
Victims slashed or clubbed in some cases the gang pulled the victims out of their homes, slit their throats or clubbed them to death, said a police officer, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.
The victims were then thrown back into their homes, which the gang had already set on fire, the officer said. He said 36 houses were burned.
Another police officer, Mwaura Njoroge, said the body of a victim burned to death in her house was, "reduced to something so small, you cannot tell which is the leg and which is the arm."
"How can they (the young men) prove that a person is a wizard? It is likely that the people who committed these killings had personal vendettas against their victims," Njoroge said.
"These people identified who is to be killed by accusing their victims of bewitching their sons and daughters," said Ndirangu, the commissioner in charge of Kisii Central district, where one of the villages is located.
Ndirangu said that residents are superstitious and have often targeted suspected witches and wizards, but this week's attack was the most shocking in recent years.
The police officer who spoke on condition of anonymity said investigators had little hope of making progress because the villagers have refused to identify the people who carried out attacks.
Thursday, May 01, 2008
Amazing things Happen even in the midst of Prejudice
Merry Meet!
Gaelyn and I are attending a witch conference this week and this was something that happened to us last night. It just goes to show that even negative things can turn into positive energy.
Boy what a night!!!! Let me tell you what happened, you won't believe this!!! Gaelyn and I went to dinner and went to our circle meeting and then went to the bale fire circle. While we were there, the local campus Christian folks were there. You know, I had never experienced prejudice before...a little harassment when I used to shave my head, but other than that, nothing I couldn't ignore. We weren't even wearing ceremonial clothes, just jeans and a white blouse for me and a white poet's shirt for Gaelyn. I had flower crowns for us to wear for the circle but they were in this canvas bag I was carrying.
This good looking kid with a white Campus Crusade for Christ came up and asked what the bon fire was for and I said it was a May fire and we were having a unity circle. He looks at me and says you know, hell burns hotter than that fire. I looked at him and asked him what he was talking about. He said that I was going to hell for being a witch and that it was a shame he couldn't carry out the commands of the Bible and suffer not a witch to live. There were little kids and babies going to the fire and they started shouting that we were all going to hell and that we were damned and the kids started crying. So I spotted this police officer and I told him that we were being harassed and we needed the people to move back because they were scaring the children who were coming to the fire celebration. So this cop calls in a few fellow officers and start to move the people back and they started throwing stuff at us!!!!! One lady had a rock hit her on the eye!!!! It really marred the night for us. We still had our bale fire and the High Priest who was leading it asked us to send our anger to the fire and to pray that their hatred and anger would be burned up with the fire, but it was awful!!!! After the fire, a couple of witches even got mad at us Christian witches. But the neatest thing happened.
The High Priest came over to the group and he told us that this was not the way to show unity in the face of challenge and that anyone who worked Craft were entitled to be witches regardless of their religion and any witch who thought otherwise were not true followers of the Rede and then he said something that I have fervently believed ever since I became a witch. He said someday the government would want all of our lives because we believed something that would someday be considered heresy. He said that included anyone who believed in anything, Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Wicca and the Craft. He then looked at us Christian Witches and said "You are my Brothers and Sisters in the wise way, and you are brothers and sisters of the Christ. That makes us all family and I fight for my family" and walked away....It was the most incredible thing.
So, we sort of stood there and looked at each other and the Wiccan and Pagan Witches apologized and embraced us and it turned into the most wonderful meeting of the minds. We got together and sat in this coffee shop until they ran us out early this morning and we found a diner and had breakfast together and we agreed this was the most amazing thing we had ever experienced in our Craft lives.....It was wild. And the magikal energy was so intense...it blew my mind.....
There are hidden blessings everywhere if we wait and be patient for truth to win out.
Brightest Blessings Be
Aslinn and Gaelyn
Gaelyn and I are attending a witch conference this week and this was something that happened to us last night. It just goes to show that even negative things can turn into positive energy.
Boy what a night!!!! Let me tell you what happened, you won't believe this!!! Gaelyn and I went to dinner and went to our circle meeting and then went to the bale fire circle. While we were there, the local campus Christian folks were there. You know, I had never experienced prejudice before...a little harassment when I used to shave my head, but other than that, nothing I couldn't ignore. We weren't even wearing ceremonial clothes, just jeans and a white blouse for me and a white poet's shirt for Gaelyn. I had flower crowns for us to wear for the circle but they were in this canvas bag I was carrying.
This good looking kid with a white Campus Crusade for Christ came up and asked what the bon fire was for and I said it was a May fire and we were having a unity circle. He looks at me and says you know, hell burns hotter than that fire. I looked at him and asked him what he was talking about. He said that I was going to hell for being a witch and that it was a shame he couldn't carry out the commands of the Bible and suffer not a witch to live. There were little kids and babies going to the fire and they started shouting that we were all going to hell and that we were damned and the kids started crying. So I spotted this police officer and I told him that we were being harassed and we needed the people to move back because they were scaring the children who were coming to the fire celebration. So this cop calls in a few fellow officers and start to move the people back and they started throwing stuff at us!!!!! One lady had a rock hit her on the eye!!!! It really marred the night for us. We still had our bale fire and the High Priest who was leading it asked us to send our anger to the fire and to pray that their hatred and anger would be burned up with the fire, but it was awful!!!! After the fire, a couple of witches even got mad at us Christian witches. But the neatest thing happened.
The High Priest came over to the group and he told us that this was not the way to show unity in the face of challenge and that anyone who worked Craft were entitled to be witches regardless of their religion and any witch who thought otherwise were not true followers of the Rede and then he said something that I have fervently believed ever since I became a witch. He said someday the government would want all of our lives because we believed something that would someday be considered heresy. He said that included anyone who believed in anything, Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Wicca and the Craft. He then looked at us Christian Witches and said "You are my Brothers and Sisters in the wise way, and you are brothers and sisters of the Christ. That makes us all family and I fight for my family" and walked away....It was the most incredible thing.
So, we sort of stood there and looked at each other and the Wiccan and Pagan Witches apologized and embraced us and it turned into the most wonderful meeting of the minds. We got together and sat in this coffee shop until they ran us out early this morning and we found a diner and had breakfast together and we agreed this was the most amazing thing we had ever experienced in our Craft lives.....It was wild. And the magikal energy was so intense...it blew my mind.....
There are hidden blessings everywhere if we wait and be patient for truth to win out.
Brightest Blessings Be
Aslinn and Gaelyn
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