30 Days of Advocacy

I have decided to participate in something larger than myself. I usually shy away from large subjects because I feel there are others who could be more effective than me, but if everyone felt that way and acted upon that feeling, nothing would get done. I am participating in the 30 days of advocacy against witch-hunts. I will be posting articles on examples of witch hunts from modern days to ancient days just to show that the burning times are not over on my Random Madness page on Tumblr. I may be sharing personal experiences with negative experiences I have had as a witch out of the closet.

The point of these stories isn't about pity, it's about highlighting a real issue. We can not allow crimes against humanity to continue in the name of anything and as a witch watching the witch hunts continue, it is literally a personal nightmare brought to life. The crimes being perpetuated are aimed at people who are not even associated with the craft. Most of them are women and children considered to be a burden or just plain inconvenient. They don't even get a trial. They are branded and, often times, murdered by a mob of frightened people who feel justified in committing murder. These things are happening right now in South Africa, the African continent and in Haiti.

Here in the states we also have issues with the persecution of those who are witches. Most recently, a TSA agent was fired after being accused of causing a co- worker's car heater to stop functioning with a spell. After this accusation was made, she was bullied, harassed and then her personnel file began to fill up with negative reports. . . hrm sounds a bit suspicious to me, but we'll see how this plays out.

The most frightening case to me in the states is the West Memphis three. In 1994 three teenagers were accused of a horrific murder of three little boys. The case went on in it's circus type fashion and in the end three teenagers are are convicted with little to no real evidence other than the fact that they are different than the rest of this small town. In fact, there was more evidence that they didn't commit these crimes than evidence that they did. They were convicted by a group of fearful people based upon lies, prejudice and religious zeal. To this day these three, now grown men, are sitting in prison cells: two serving life sentences, one on death row. There was no justice here. The system failed and, in this case, continues to fail epically.

There are more subtle manners of continued persecution. In one case, a beer manufacturer placed upon one of its bottle labels the image of a woman burning at the stake with faceless monks peering on. The brew was called Witches Wit. I can think of many other images to use to depict that title that doesn't include committing murder. Most recently, I was watching a popular online show about film making that depicted a witch burning in jest. I realize they think they were being funny, but I did not see the humor. Making jokes about "burn the Witch" is akin to making jokes about "gas the Jew." It's not funny in any context.

This must stop.

For more information:

West Memphis three:
http://www.wm3.org/

30 days of advocacy:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=117751598282929&index=1
http://www.paganrightsalliance.org/30_days.html

Fired TSA agent
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/41959553/ns/business-us_business/

Witch hunts in Haiti:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2010-12-02-haiti-cholera_N.htm

I solemnly swear I am up to no good.

I stepped on it. It was already broken and it was rather annoying that it hurt so much for a little bugger! I started to stomp  off in a huff toward the circular file with the broken soldier in hand. . . it was gonna go see   toy pearly gates then I heard something in the back of my mind that sounded an awful lot like James Earl Jones: "Hold your horses there girlie pants! That is an amazing tool of healing in your hands. Look closer!" So, I stopped in my tracks. Mostly because when I hear that voice I start looking around for Darth Vader. We are talking about a mom whose three year old hums the Imperial March anytime we are out shopping! Yea shopping with Darth Vader, but  I digress.

I took a good look at this piece of annoyance that poked at my foot. I thought about it and agreed. This beloved toy has been in many a fire fight in my son's theater of battles with storm troopers and dinosaurs and has diligently served the Army of Little Dude. This broken toy soldier is not unlike the real deal. It is broken with little hope of the people who sent them off to battle helping them with their healing process when they come home. Look at how our soldiers' healing processes have been hampered in the past by their own government. I'm not just saying that they have been neglected. . . I am saying that our government placed roadblocks to their healing process by denying that certain conditions were caused by the government's willingness to use our men and women in the military as guinea pigs or denying that said condition was a result of certain actions: one example agent orange. . . another gulf syndrome. 

Whether these things are a result of classified actions, unknown factors, accidents or result of warfare is irrelevant. Our soldiers wrote out a check up to and including their lives to serve and defend the constitution and it is up to our government to make sure that they get the healing they require when they come home. They have families who love them and need them to be whole.

What am I up to? Well, I solemnly swear that I'm up to no good. Actually, on the 21st of June I will be performing a ritual to help make sure our wounded warriors get the healing they need. In this ritual I will be reading a list of names, written in my own hand, aloud in the presence of Krom and asking him to help our men and women in the military who are in need of healing services get those services. I need your help in name gathering. If you know a wounded warrior or know someone who knows someone's uncle who knows someone. . . just kidding, but you get the idea. Submit their names via comment or email, by the 19th of June, which ever way you feel comfortable. If you are out of the country of the United States, add your warriors too. I am sure that this is an international problem.

In return, I will be putting your name into a hat to receive a bottle of Oleum of Isolde ( a healer's aid and ritual healing oil.) I will announce the winner of this prize on the 22 of June. 

What? Did Mrs. Oddly just bribe you??? She sure did!

Good Hunting!

Mischief managed!

A vacation: in which I find a rusty nail!

I had a very busy spring vacation in which mostly I stayed at home with the kids and did some personal work. We did however get out to the Air Show at Luke AF Base. It was little man's first official trip, I say official because  the last time he was there, he was still all curled up cozy in mommy. He sure does remember the sound though. He has always been fascinated by the sound of jets. His first comment upon hearing them in person: Wow! That's loud!

As you can imagine, it was a very early morning sprinting out the door so we don't get stuck in traffic and waiting for hours in line. Of course, I had a very late night the night before ( thank you insomnia.) I was amongst the walking dead ( put the shot gun away) but I went anyway. My attention however was not really on the planes and hardware. My focus was drawn toward the persistence of earth. Everywhere I looked at the airfield, there was a rather large knoll of grass pushing it's way through the asphalt. They were large enough and plentiful enough that when it was show time all I had to do was sit on a cushion of grass on the asphalt. There were many spaces to choose from.

As I sat there in my tired stupor I could feel my eyes shift in and out of soft gazing focus in which I usually see the silvery slip of auras. That's as far as I usually get, but as I sat there I began to see motion within them as though  the auras were breathing. I noticed it first in the grass knolls. It progressed into bluish colors as and a pair of young Air Force personnel I saw yellow around them, with the exception of the couple pushing a stroller: they were a bright rosey pink! As I looked around me, there was a whole field of people and flashing, dancing colors! The thing that really caught my attention was most of the military personnel were a bright yellow. I felt at the time that was connected to the confidence instilled into them at training and associated with the solar-plexis chakra.

I did watch the aircraft as they boomed by me, it was impossible not to as the ground vibrated with their passing. Everything vibrated. We stayed and watched for a few hours until the little man got very cranky and decided to leave. Upon leaving the asphalt and hitting the concrete tarmac I spied something: a very large rusty nail: a potent tool indeed and a lovely parting gift from the earth!

Iron nails have a long history of magic use including warding sickness and potential danger. Here is a very well researched and written essay on the subject by Martin Duffy at Threehand Press if you want to learn more: Concerning the Use and Symbolism of Nails. I picked  up my gift and brought it home. I know that there will be a use for it later down the line. Nails not only have a magic use in them, its power also resides in where you find them. Most of my nails of late have come from shopping malls and construction sites, this one came from a very active military base, it even got an interesting number assignment by my phone. I'll be reserving that one!

And the winner is:

Miss B picking a name!

Miss B has volunteered to draw a name out of the hat and her little maiden fingers grabbed:

Elizabeth Clements! Congratulations sweets! Email me your shipping information so I can send you your magic mirror and star shaped scrubbies!

Thank you to everyone who put your name in the hat. There will be other give aways as the year goes on. Blessings! 

Closing Song - "We Won't Wait Any Longer"

Red Riding Hood trailer

Well Here we go fairy tales as scary as they should be are about to hit the theaters! Yea!
http://somethingoddly.blogspot.com/2010/12/great-granny-its-wolf_01.html
Just incase you missed this blog posting ;)

Japan Earthquake, Whirlpool off the Coast 3/11/2011

Blessings and prayers go out to all affected by Big Mama. I see She is dancing but the dance has many costs.

Spring give away!!!!

Next week will be vacation time for the witchlings and they will be sort of running the show ( I say sort of because I know that the house will be about 20 decibles louder and my concentration will be out the window!) I plan on being on vacation with them and getting out and about with them so I will not have my regular postings up next week, but I will have the sacred bath and mudra of the month up! See not a total loss ;) I will also be checking my etsy and email may be twitter too as it is easy to do on my mobile ( Thank you honey for the iPhone. You were right.)

With the Ostara season upon us I have been feeling generous! In honor of Spring I am giving away a magic mirror blessed during Brigid and a pair of star shaped scrubbies! This will be a draw from a hat/ fates decision on who the winner is! I will be collecting submissions until the 19th of this month. To enter your name in the hat just email me (mrs.oddly@gmail.com) your name and on the 21st I will be making the announcement as to who the lucky winner is! Good luck and Happy Ostara!

Invisible Enemies

http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs28/f/2008/175/2/6/dragons_and_swords_and_shit_by_Morriperkele.jpg

A friend of mine asked an interesting question this weekend: do you fight invisible enemies? My answer was yes and I think that deserves further examination as to why I answered as such. Let me qualify the invisible enemy I am talking about. I am not talking about imaginary enemies as bred by paranoia and imbalance. I am speaking of enemies that do not necessarily live here on this plane of existence.

I am going to get pretty personal about this as to draw a clear picture for you.  Not too long ago i discovered that I was not being a paranoid ninny about something I had kept feeling trying to attach to me from my mother's line. I kept getting a nagging feeling through my childhood that something had attached itself to my mother and was causing her life to be very difficult. I just never knew what to do about it and I oscillated between trying to write it off as I was losing my mind to taking it seriously. Upon talking to my elders about this phenomenon, I discovered that it was in fact a real possibility. In fact they had a name for it: riders. Something had indeed piggy backed itself on to my mother's line and was looking for a new host.

I went into faery to talk to one of my guides about this and he had VERY specific information for me. This was not a dis- incarnate non human being. This, in fact, was a person in my family line who had created an energetic resonance of herself that has been following the maternal line for over a hundred years and creating havoc in our family ever since! The woman was born in 1905. She later in life was jilted at the altar and then committed suicide, but before she committed suicide she laid a curse. A curse that trapped her and my family in a deadlock series of tragedy and misfortune. I later took this information and did my own research on this person and then discovered that this person also had a name sake! This name sake was very much responsible for much of my mother's childhood traumas and in turn responsible for how I was raised. Something had to be done. This could not continue. This cycle had to stop. I was NOT going to let this person continue on her merry destructive path.

I went back into Faery and spoke to my guide again about what needed to be done. He told me that a cord severing was necessary and a bonus would be to send the spirit back through the gates to recycle and find peace. Now to get to the cord was a little harder than I had anticipated. She most certainly was not going to go quietly. She had been existing like this for over one hundred years and was quite content with her revenge. I found tools I didn't know I had during this session and finally made my way to the cord and severed it. I called the gate and pushed her through like children pushing that old witch into the oven in Hansel and Gretel!

My Mother is much happier now in recent years and I hope that my ancestor is now resting in blissful peace.

So when I am asked if I fight invisible enemies. . . my answer is YES! Those particular brands of invisible enemies have a real impact on our incarnated lives here and should be dealt with by qualified persons. In my line, on my Mother's side I am the first witch since that rider. I will not have that rider passed down to my children. Therefore, it is my responsibility and duty as a parent to handle it.

Warning: caustic rant ahead.

You have been warned!

I am not much of a believer in the artifice of dogma. I think that if you can't think for yourself and have to rely on dogma to guide your moral system, than I think it is time to go home and rethink your life. With that said, I am sure you can guess where I put the value of the three fold law: the circular file, under complete and utter garbage. The first thing that comes to mind, is that it was created to alleviate the fear of the masses toward witchdom. The fact is, as long as you are breathing regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation, gender or economic status there will always be someone who despises you for what you are. Most of the time you can get away with ignoring the haters. However, there are times where you have been left with no other option than to step up and defend the line without remorse or mercy. They don't happen often, but they happen.

The Dalai Lama was asked what the purpose of life was. He responded by saying: to be happy and useful. How can anyone be happy and useful while instead of defending themselves from attack, if and when they are, they are waiting for the hand of karma to come down and make everything better? Why you ask? Because they are afraid to cause harm to their enemies because the rede says harm none. What the rede really says is: 'Lest in thy self dense it be, ever mind the rule of three.' I don't know how the first part of that phrase gets over looked by some, but it does with alarming regularity. Because that first part of the phrase gets deleted from the ' three fold law' it has created an environment where there are those who are so afraid to do anything that looks like harm, including defending themselves, it makes all of us a target for those who think we would be easily trod upon or, even worse, erased.

I think the key phrase here is: 'living in fear.' There are things you definitely should be wary of if you are a witch: the inquisition, zealots, oath breakers, liars, politicians etc. . . However, I find it absolute silliness to be afraid to use your power in your own self defense or that of your family because of peer pressure into obeying a piece of dogma written to make witches appear less threatening to the general populace. We are not here to make everyone 'okay' with our presence. We are here to be happy and useful.

We live in a society where it has been made politically incorrect to specifically identify your enemy. Dangerous times indeed. Times where your enemy hides behind a deceptively benevolent smile and expects to go unpunished by spouting the modern dogma of 'harm none' while slyly slashing their victims and leaving knives in their backs under the guise of kinship. Somehow these individuals still end up looking like the good guy. You know what that's called? It's called killing sheep in passing.

You know what else these folk are famous for? It's called scheming with self inflicted wounds. Heavy emphasis on the self inflicted; they lie, steal, cheat and scheme until they get caught and appropriately dealt with. Then they balk at the top of their lungs about how so and so and whose a whatzit injured and wronged them while covering up the fact that they were the ones who started the ball rolling and are now eating the desserts they ordered up! Some how, nothing is ever their fault.

Identify and name your enemies. Then, for the love of the gods, defend yourself!