Not all of the Tower falls when lightening strikes. . .

. . .only that which is unstable. 

It was a month ago the Lightning Struck Tower showed up on the horizon. At least I know where I am. I just had no idea that this time around that I would be playing the part of the Tower itself. Wow did lightning strike! I remember being warned that things will fall: some will just drift away in the turbulence and some violently. Nothing was to be picked back up when it fell and there were things that were most important to hold at my core and protect. I am still watching this thing unfold. I should feel more nervous, but being forewarned makes it easier to be ready for slippery ground.

" I'll show you things," She said. She didn't say they would all be pleasant. All of it important. All of it relevant. We have bickered about how best to execute the task, but this is what happens when the mail person hands you squished mail. I am now even more firm in my assessment of the statement put before me by an action of the Dalai Lama. He refused to bless a temple because it had no library. Without my library or helpful librarians, I would be in a world of hurt. Especially with all the barracudas out there calling themselves sharks. I know a few sharks. They have better manners.

I am working into this new relationship with a new mail man so to speak. She is a rough rider and introduced herself with an 8 1/2 hour cat on a hot tin roof act that nearly dropped me on my head: on September eleventh! I'm not sure, but I think I may have been an amusing toy at the moment. I know without a doubt if she really wanted to She could have snapped me up fast and rode my little meat bag into the ground. This is something that at first I thought was going to be left untalked about, but I am being poked from all realms of faery to talk not only about this but them. 

All of these strangenesses are now so many in number and so frequent and seem to have a real effect in the dense world that I can no longer see these things and think they are something I have made upon my imagination.  I have received validation of this point time and again from the dense world itself. People keep reminding me: "you aren't crazy, that really happened." I give up! 

I give up searching for my sanity cup. It can stay good and planted where it is because I am holding it and filling it with soul tea. I give up not trusting my eye when it sees something. They are there and they have a profound effect on this dense place in spite of the fact they do not live here. I give up people who ask if I need to go take my meds. They do not know what they do not know and that's just fine. I do not know the things a rocket scientist or a history professor knows and that's okay. I am neither of those things. And besides that: Really??? Who the fuck is anyone other than a qualified expert to judge whether a person needs meds or not? And if you are not that expert, then I suggest you check yourself because you are also not Gods.

I have taken the quiet moments in this parade of Spirits and ancestors to go in and work the work given me. I can see the efforts beginning to take root. . . I suppose when I come tripping into spring as I usually do, I will see green little hair sprouts rise as long as the work is done well. I have faith that I can get the work done well. Other workings as such have come to bear fruit. I am finding that I tend to take the long route when ever possible. . . ugh. Okay, well maybe not entirely ugh. I do have the most excellent adventures.

For example: I went to the Dancing Chicken House to see that a new structure had been placed there. I knew it right away to be the goat stable. Yes. . . a giant goat at that with flaming nostrils and lightning breath. The last few years I had been sick sick sick at this time ( so glad I'm not right now) and the ride was forbidden to me. I ran out to greet my friend and we saddled up to go see another friend who must be greeted up on top of the mountain peaks where the winds whip. I didn't really have anything I wanted to ask or say to my very large friend when she dropped out of the sky. ( The first time she did this I almost fell on my face and then off the mountain.) I told her I didn't know why I was there other than to say hi. She knew that. If very large predatory birds could smile I think she did. She gave me something that I was told to give to a friend of mine before I left. I'm still a little floored by the gift. I know that he will be ecstatic to get it. I don't remember the rest of the trancing, but I felt a peace wash over me that I know can only come from the blessings of the faery realm.


One more thing:

Don't argue with anyone who is committed to misunderstanding you.

Fear the copper pennies!

I may be delusional, but I think Autumn may have more than a two week shelf life out here this year. The evening is chilled enough for me to think that a long sleeve is a good idea and that strange 'cold clarity' that comes with that chill is slowly rising out of a mirage stricken pavement.

My ancestor working beads came in and I quickly went to work making ancestor connection talismans. The first one goes to my witchling who is actively learning to walk in a 'crooked' manner. The rest go out from Odd soon to seek others ready to do the work. Samhain feels thick this year. I know that sounds like a paradox, but I think I have pin pointed the feeling upon review of the situation. It's plain old 'I'm addicted to fear and if I can't have real fear I'll make some.' Really there are loads of people who make their weather and cry about the rain. That's all this is. It's like grow up class got skipped or something.

I have been at least observant of the pagan online community for quite some time *shudder* and every single year as the equinox rolls through there is this crazy voice decrying how evil we are for praying over candy in spite of the fact that they pray over candy as well. Quite frankly, I am nauseated to boredom on this subject but I dare not take my eyes off of fanatics lest they do the standard desperate we are right and if we are not we will crash the plane in spite thing. True story. . . it happens.

So my solution to all this insanity is to pray over the candy. EVERY BLASTED SINGLE BAG OF IT I COME ACROSS!  Yesssssssss! Even and ESPECIALLY the candy corn because I'm a bitchy faced witch right now. If the fanatics are going to bang the fear mongering drum as loud as they possibly can with out-right bullshit and lies, then I will pray for the safety and preservation of common sense within the innocents they attack. We have seen this behavior in other aspects as well. Remember the Texas Gov's The Response??? Or how about the renaming of the States (my favorite was Throw Jezebel From a Wall State: New Jersey) and reclaiming the District of Columbia as the District of Christ because if it isn't properly Christian  ( in their fanatic eyes) it must be of absolute profane evil. . . like the rest of the world doesn't exist or something like that. . . really children??? . . stop throwing sand in the sand box or you'll get sand in your eyes too.

So here goes:

Holy Mother, 
Divine hand of Providence, I pray that you bless those who receive these sweets be endowed with your grace, protection from the profane, an open eye of wisdom so true discernment may happen, a will to call the hypocrites out on the harmful bullshit as bullshit, and stand firm in their assessment with resolve to move forward toward love. 

Ho O'pono pono Amene


Yes I know. . . it's not the Maleficent I originally intended ( lucky everyone). I actually talked myself out of the Victor style praying tree. . . but there's always next year. Pray I do not alter the magic. Yes go ahead, fear the copper pennies you find in the candy display bins if you want, but if you are smart, you'll pick it up and make a wish.

Just got stranger. . . new cup!

Mabon came in with a bolt of lightening and turned things on their head. Including me. Everything is still facing North but it is all upside down, if that makes any sense at all. I must be feeling the season settle in or some strangeness indigenous to Odd, but I feel a calm even as I know there is a storm coming and it may not be pretty. That is the most Odd thing of all. I am usually spun up emotionally and tempest tossed by the current. Am I sitting on my surf board well finally? I don't know. I just know that now, more than ever I feel compelled to watch carefully everything. I can feel my inner self smell the shifting winds and even though there is a calm hand upon me, I feel a dreadful purpose and it draws closer to us all. I am not left with out hope. Quite the opposite, it feels like grim focus on what it is I need to do to make things right with me and mine.

Three words have been spinning around in my head:

Love
Honor
Order

It rolls through my head like my reiki mantra does while I am working. I feel like I have been struck by lightening as I am going through my daily rituals. Each one has had an added dimension to them with subtle shifts that have shifted some of the meanings of things I grew up with in my pagan witchy career. I still trying to absorb everything in an organic gentle way. I know better to push something like this. Butterflies must open by themselves lest harm comes to them and prevents them from flying.

I have been quietly witnessing the shifts I have seen happen in the online pagan community. Once respected voices have fallen away in either frustration or disgust. There is behind the scenes gossip girl  behavior that makes my bottle of gossip girl gag want to find bottom. Name calling, finger pointing, personal attacks. . . blah blah galah. AAAAAAHHHKK!


NEW EFFING CUP!

I am sorry those voices have felt compelled to leave the general online pagan community. Those voices will be missed, but I understand the need to step back and gather oneself. I wish them fair travel winds and sweet water enjoy your journey and come home when you are ready. I will be waiting patiently for you at any rate.


I don't know how close to the surface I am going to be this year as the Samhain Gods come to call me to my work. I feel some thing very deep below calling my name and I am compelled to respond. I will try to be in touch with the world via twitter, but you all know how my blogging becomes at this time of year.

One more thing to remember:

She who stirs the cauldron is not the slave.

Names have been called. The Land of Odd just got stranger if that is at all possible.

Close your eyes and look up.

Press Play

I can feel the Gods rouse to their time on the year wheel's stage. His hooven feet start to scrape and echo; I feel it in my bones. It's a sort of thing that resonates like a gong only it comes from within.  It won't  be long before the magic chore whoring for the season begins and I volunteer for the annual kidnapping. Yeah, sure, I'll stir that for you. ( note to self. . . don't touch anything and don't taste anything!)  If you close your eyes and listen to Panoramic from the Book of Eli score, you can get an idea of what that pull feels like.

Breathe Deeply Through your Nose

I think I am in love with the way that sound feels. I reminds me of the pull of gravity. It's not the gravity that pulls you down here on this well we call Earth, but the pull of our personal sun star. That piece of ourselves that is both manifest and ethereal; I call that center and I do see it as a star. I think I see my center as a star because I grew up with my Father telling me that I was made of star stuff.

The sound that I crave to hear often comes as something that, at first blush sounds, empty and lonely. It is this sound that makes me seek out its source and I always come back to me and when I am at my most still I can hear that my whispers are not being echoed back at me, but whispers from something far more immense in measure and wisdom. Most of the time I don't remember the words. The words were never important. It was that peace that washes through me in that moment. Maybe the words and wisdom and imagery were indeed all in my head, but there is also, in fact, a physical response to what my brain is experiencing.

Many years ago, a friend posed this question: how would you feel if you were the last person to see the last of a dying star's light? I was sad at first and told him so. The question has pitter pattered behind me with it's mark still dancing in my mind. The emotional response has shifted over the years, like a snake that sheds it's skin to reveal a new understanding of a larger body. I have come to an understanding that the reason this sound feels lonely at first is because it is the sound of light traveling to a specific destination though a vast ocean. Light years. . . that's a long time to measure by earth human standard. Everything would echo in your soul. There's no where else for it to go. If I am made of star stuff and I am the custodian of the last of the light from a star, wouldn't I be moved by the sound of its travels?

This has been your visit to Odd.

Peace.

And remember that you are made of star stuff too.

Going for a Bitch Walk. . .

I was in a conversation with peers on the subject of social activism and how far our responsibility to it goes. I am not really a social activist, but when I see something wrong ( and right) I have a terrible habit of opening my mouth and putting my .02 on the table. Really, I should be paying a quarter because most of what I say is not terribly pretty. Ugh. There were others who felt as though they should be advocating their calling to justice and rightness, but they weren't too sure how much and how far to go with it. Hopefully they work through and find an answer that works for them. I wish them good hunting. My answer is simple. It works for me. I focus on the city I live in for the most part. I have a personal calling to the protection of women and children. I have a special wicked venom for child molesters and rapists.

There are two separate workings I will share with you because I can't be in every city and I am sure I am not alone in this feeling of no more! Not in my city!

Bitch Walk

If you are so lucky as to have a bitch (female dog), most excellent. You will want to leash her up and go for a twilight walk, as it is a great liminal time to call upon Hecate and her hounds. Yes, do walk by all the houses in your neighborhood with annoying barking dogs. See how many dogs you can get barking. ( no cheating. just walk by the house respectfully.) Of course, the entire time you are whispering to Hecate and her hounds about the particulars of the violation against women and children and calling upon her for help. Be very specific about what happened. Be certain to whisper. It connects you to the divine in an intimate manner. Listen to your bitch. Watch were she wants to go and what's around. Take mental notes and taste the wind. If you want, you can do this with a poppet in hand of the perpetrator or a rolled up scroll of the artistic rendering. When you have gathered your forces to a point you feel you can take no more, head for a crossroads and leave the poppet or scroll at its center. Walk away. Do not look back. When you get home, make sure your faithful bitch is well rewarded.

If you do not have a bitch, do not fret. Get a dog fetish or simply print out a picture of your favorite breed of dog and go for the same walk. Leave an offering of a special dog treat on your altar.

To Catch a Rapist
best performed during the times the perpetrator is known to strike.

Tools:

black candle inscribed with the name of your city, the sigil for Venus and a pentacle for protection.
red thread
photo of perpetrator, or the composite sketch
war water
ziplock bag
water from the tap ( city water from which you live or the perpetrator if you know him/her)
garlic bulb or egg for offering
goofer's dust

*ground
* call circle and guardians
*Call Hecate

Queen of the Heavens
Queen of the Dead
Walker above, below, and between the worlds
Come be near your priest/ess this hour
Help me/ us to stop this violator of women and children
Lend your might to this casting,
Come and attend and protect this rite and this city.

Wait for a sign of Her presence, in darkness if you can. Light inscribed candle. Cut out the composite sketch while focusing on his or her every move being foiled by his/ her own hand. Place a pinch of goofer's dust in the middle of the paper and fold into thirds before very carefully rolling into a scroll. You may want to do this on news paper because goofer's dust is not something you want to spill all over the place and have a hard time cleaning up. Continue to focus on this person goofing up enough to be caught properly by authority to be punished civilly. As you focus on this wind the red cord around the scroll saying:

This red thread to start the charm
This red thread to end your harm
This red thread to track your tread
this read thread to stop you dead. ( Let the Goddess determine how literally to take this phrase.)

Repeat this with heat ( not hate) until the scroll is glowing with heat and power and the scroll is wrapped and knotted three times.

Hold the charm and visualize the violator being caught and appropriately handled. Place the charm in a zip lock bag with war water and city tap water. Seal it well and place it in the freezer until the violator is caught and dealt with.

* Thank Hecate and say farewell
* Thank the guardians
* Open circle

When done take the whole frozen bag to a crossroad with a trash can far from your home and toss it. Leave the offering ( egg or garlic bulb.) Do not look back.



from the Book of Purple

Basic Goofer's dust
equal parts patchouli and graveyard dirt
( properly paid for from the grave of a beloved Matriarch; preferably from the head or heart area. If that is not available, buy it from a graveyard gateway)
sulphur or saltpeter ( only a couple of pinches, something to give it oomph.)


I don't generally meddle in a whole bunch of things outside my city or state. I tend to pick my fights, as we all should. On occasion there are things that have been brought to my door that would normally be considered "out of my jurisdiction."  For example a friend brought my attention to an attack on one of her best girlfriends. Yup. You bet' cha jurisdiction went right out the eff'ing window.


You may or may not agree with me about my policy on hexing and that's okay. But, if ever there comes a time you change your mind and need one of these workings, they are here patiently waiting for you.

Blessings

Angry imps!

I like this discussion on the dark side of meditation and the issues that can occur. I view them of course not necessarily from a scientific or even scholastic perspective. I come to this discussion from personal experience ( which is king in my book) and a shamanic eye. It is necessary to have this discussion because these are real consequences of awakening a possible shaman without the lore/ guiding hand/ shamanic ethos and spirit contact. Meditation is not a practice of scientifically silencing the mind and it's voice, it is a conscious effort to connect yourself with the divine part of yourself and divinity as we are able to perceive and understand. This requires understanding of uncommon sense to be applied in a common sense world. Yes this is indeed a paradox, but if you are in the mirror's reflection, everything is backward, yet we still understand it.

 I agree with the Dalai Lama: you cannot have a Temple without a large library to support it. ( Library guides are also very much desired.) Libraries and library guides teach us that there are answers out there and if they are not direct answers, we are able to take the facts or read a pattern and bring it into focus to understand or at least come to terms with the strangenesses currently in play. Between libraries and meditation, shamans thrive; remove the libraries and the whole kit and caboodle is insanity in a crazy burlap bag of angry wet cats. Poor burlap bag. I believe that when you are centered within yourself while in meditation that what you have learned has the potential to become wisdom through right action.  I think we often forget that life is a mystery to experience not analyze.

I have had some very negative experiences in both meditation and trance. That does not make me unstable. It makes me pretty "normal." EEEEEKKKK When these disturbing things occur it is a cue for me not to run away, but to carefully inspect. I may be experiencing an angry shard of myself or even missing soul piece! That is not to be ignored or taken lightly in the shamanic world. ( it is also not red alert/ klaxon alarm/ panic button pushing event.) It could be causing illness, true indeed, even emotional disturbances. . . the good news is that you can fix it. In fact, when these things come up you are being invited to help heal the issue. Not just fix it; heal it, mend it, bring the tattered ends together for peace talks. These things, these dark frightening things that hide in our beings. . . they are us. And they want the same things we want: love and acceptance for who and what they are. Really it's like the soul shattered off and made all these little imp like shards and they come back to haunt us. The only truth we need to understand in these moments is this: It may be an imp, but it's my imp and I love it. Well loved imps are much better behaved than ignored, ostracized, and angry imps.

Thus the witch proverb:

Faithfully serve your imp, and S/He shall faithfully serve you.

Flying monkeys spotted over school offices everywhere!

Oh my dear Oddlings,
I have to do a terrible thing.

I must share with you a string of connections that made me cringe.

We all know that I have been labeled a combative parent because I will not allow the adults in the school to bully me into compliance with what ever inane plan they come up with. With my eldest he was too much a handful to control in the classroom environment ( for teachers with no ability to hold authority.) In other words they do not know how to discipline effectively and when we at home disciplined him for stealing from a store, the school called CPS on us for child abuse. The only thing that saved us was the fact that our,  then,  6 year old son could not keep his lies straight. At one point in time the police pulled my son from the school property to question him with out my permission. I only found out because he was not on the school bus. When I called the principal in hysterics to find out what the hexes happened to my son, he raged and screamed at me that it was HIS job to make sure my child was safe.

My son was a real lightning rod when it came to authority figures and their abuse of the system and even violations of the constitution over the next school years and they sure as heck made sure that he continued to not learn. Yes. . . those IEP's waste of time and breath and most heinously a waste of paper. He would not have graduated high school if I had not sent him to his Grandparents and removed him from this system. In reality, that is both his and the system's fault. I fault the system because they said things like: ( "don't worry about making him do home work. . . preserve the relationship. ") WTF???! No! Don't teach him that it's ok to not do the work and not do it well! ( btw this is one of the reasons I have been labeled combative. I argue about how to raise my kids when they make insane suggestions as the previous statement.)Well apparently, I am a dumb ass combative parent who does not know thing one about anything since I can't submit to their authority.

After the CPS disaster with the school, we opted for a charter school, who also had trouble getting my son to heel. I had trouble getting my son to heel after he figured out that he could play the school against the parents! What came next was every minorities nightmare. My son would get into the car sobbing and he wouldn't tell me why. When he finally did he told me that the teachers were talking about Harry Potter and how witches weren't real. This lead to me being outed as a witch. He stood up and said: That's not true! My Mom is a witch! And she's real!

well fuck!

He revealed to me how the other kids were picking on him and no one would do anything about it. I asked the school about this and they denied knowing anything about it. Which was interesting since it was a small one room class setting with very little possibility of not over hearing a bunch of children being bullies. Needless to say after a big fat fight I withdrew my son from that school and into another public school in the district were had moved to.


I made certain at that point to inform the school that they had a pagan child. I went to WitchVox's section for said suggestions and followed them. BTW not a good idea. Word gets around. The grapevine is merciless and back shooters abound. It's like from that point on I opened myself and my children to a silent sort of bigotry that led to low level emotional hostility. No one bothered to hear anything other than witch and non compliant and combative parent. It's like Pass Down notes from the previous security shift that I can't prove exist, but they're being used against me. There has been so much bad faith and plain horrendous customer service at the school office that it's enraging. I can't accomplish a simple task with out consuming behemoth amounts of time for them to get around to helping me. And when you will no longer take their mean girl bullying and moral lectures of how holy a place a school is and how grand their position is they bring down the might of the law. It doesn't even have to be an accurate accounting of events, as they have so aptly displayed by their accounting of what happened. I think someone is a liar and afraid.

So here I am today, thirteen years later still not taking their crap, and pretty much having the same sort of fights. Nothing has changed. Nothing is better. In fact it's worse! And I have 11 more years of this crap to go!

Arizona School districts, if your budget hadn't been  raided by Sheriff Joe's show dog routine yet, might I suggest you get some serious attention on how better to service you customers. Other states are talking to giants like Disney. No really. . . you need to do something. . .  Just because you are in admin does not mean you are not in customer service. Any time you engage a customer from behind a desk, that means customer service and I have had better service at one of the dirtiest Walmarts in town than at most school offices that I have had to stand before in the last 13 years!


And now the scary connection I promised you. I am certain that it is not just parents who are fed up with the adult bullies in schools. I am certain they are the reason our children become non compliant and refuse to learn. They seem to have completely rejected the whole kit and caboodle and want nothing to do with anyone who enforces such inane policies. I can't say that after everything I have experienced at the hands of 4 different schools, 3 different districts, and through all three children, I blame anyone for becoming non compliant in the eyes of this kind of "authority".  Here's the horror: 15 year old denied heart because he has bad grades and is non compliant. They have changed their minds about that, but only after a raucous noise was raised. That's racism of a new breed.

I do believe that is called eugenics.

So, you'll give someone like Dick Cheney ( who eats kittens) a brand spanking new borrowed heart, and not a 15 year old who has a whole world ahead of him because he's not compliant??? What other essential things are going to be denied due to 'non compliant' behavior?

Here's some food for thought: If you don't want your authority challenged, you have no place being in authority. Ever.



Customer service so bad they actually have to take classes on how to do it right!

http://www.paysonroundup.com/news/2010/nov/23/teachers-learn-about-customer-service/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/dc-schools-insider/post/dcps-tries-to-make-school-office-sad-sacks-and-sorry-sues-more-customer-friendly/2011/12/09/gIQA32AMiO_blog.html

http://www.examiner.com/article/georgia-colleges-focusing-on-customer-service-1

http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20130728/SCHOOLS/307280012/

http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2013-06-17/news/fl-broward-disney-customer-service-20130614_1_disney-institute-broward-schools-disney-world

http://articles.dailypress.com/2010-10-07/news/dp-nws-customer-service-20101007_1_hampton-schools-school-board-meeting-ann-stephens-cherry



ARS 13 2911 (and relevant passages)

http://www.azleg.state.az.us/ars/13/02911.htm

http://www.azleg.gov/ArizonaRevisedStatutes.asp?Title=15

http://www.azleg.gov/ArizonaRevisedStatutes.asp?Title=39

http://www.azleg.gov/FormatDocument.asp?inDoc=/ars/39/00161.htm&Title=39&DocType=ARS

Articles of admistrative abuses:

http://www.hawaiibusiness.com/Hawaii-Business/May-2013/Report-Card-School-Administrators/

http://www.guelphmercury.com/sports-story/2790126-laurier-s-baseball-team-strikes-back-accuses-school-of-abuse-of-power/

http://mashable.com/2009/07/29/cheerleader-lawsuit/

http://www.examiner.com/article/stop-principal-abuse-of-power-public-schools

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/comment-public-servant-fear-risks-system/story-e6freon6-1226459215084

http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2013/03/11/schools-guns-suspensions-education-column/1976751/

http://open.salon.com/blog/kayto/2011/01/12/abuse_of_power_in_our_schools

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/an-abuse-of-power-schools-and-pupils-take-gcse-grade-row-to-high-court-8405881.html

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/07/09/CA-SB-131-Exempts-Public-Schools-from-Lawsuits-on-Sex-Abuse

Alarming!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/dc-schools-insider/post/dcps-tries-to-make-school-office-sad-sacks-and-sorry-sues-more-customer-friendly/2011/12/09/gIQA32AMiO_blog.html