Month: June 2014

Tonight’s Alchemeet was fabulous

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Alchemeet is an online community building project sponsored by Spiralheart Reclaiming community. I will try to remember to promote future Alchemeet sessions here as thus far I’ve only been promoting it on Facebook.

Tonight’s subject was taboo workings and specifically around, bindings, blood magic, and abortion. Other topics were discussed that fall inside the framework of defining what is taboo to speak of in community (if anything). Some subjects are assumed taboo based on the over-arching societal construct we live within in the USA. Many fall into the safe-to-shame category with that shame perpetrated around us and against us (all of us).

We talked about how to share resources for these subjects within everyone’s comfort level, and how to open the conversation up in the first place. The folks of Spiralheart on the chat tonight committed to hosting a table at a meal at camp (2 weeks away!). The working nickname of Taboo Table was bandied about with the table peppered with those willing to sit, listen, and share information surrounding taboo subjects.

It was a worthy session tonight with brave, open, vulnerable humans being their best selves while talking about the most sensitive of subjects. Here’s to opening new conversations!

Silent No More – part eleventy-thousand

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In 1997 when I finally first started the healing process surrounding the sexual abuse of my childhood I titled my journey “Silent No More”. Every time I blog, repost, comment, or update somewhere about sexual abuse I hear that phrase in my head ….Silent No More.

New/old chapter in the continuing saga of abuses by humans is the Marion Zimmer Bradley revelations. They are not new. They are old. They are just no longer hidden. Below is a post link with the story from MZB’s daughter.

Marion Zimmer Bradley: It’s Worse Than I Knew

JUNE 10, 2014 BY 

Trigger warning: child rape, child abuse

 

Gender and Transgender in Modern Paganism

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Posting the link again because it was and still is worthy and important work. I like to keep this active.

After the Pantheacon incident a few years ago where transwomen were turned away at the door of a “women only” ritual this is one of the good things that came after that experience. Other good things in terms of dialogue about sacred space, discrimination, and how an event such as Pantheacon should address these issues going forward happened, too. This is a free shareable file for non-commercial use titled “Gender and Transgender in Modern Paganism”.

Read chapter 11 “Boys Shorts: an experience of gender and modern paganism” by Lance Moore for a ride through the USA and varying Pagan circles and how gender was treated and felt by Lance over an extended period of time.

Excerpt from ch 11:

Video from Harvest Moon Celebration, about 1990, somewhere near Los Angeles, CA.

Press `Record.’

Perhaps 150 people, at the end of a weekend of ritual and connection (and unsafe sex, by all later accounts). We’re separated into lines of men and women. It’s dark out.

 The women gather in the ritual hall, a big, open space, bare, but our energies have filled it all weekend.

 The women are singing a couple of lines from – a chant – we sang a lot of chants.

 The men file in, taking places among the women, singing the other lines of the chant; where the sound of the women’s voice went quiet, the men’s filled in, back and forth, interweaving bodies and song.

 It gives me chills.

 I think I am in the wrong line. I am a young female adult. To all appearances, anyway. No one would’ve imagined otherwise. I squirm inside… appreciating every moment of this ritual, and still squirming inside.

Press `Stop.’

I went to about three Harvest Moon Celebrations. They were so amazing; pagans gathering together in LA! Judith Butler rocked my world with her giant book and her in-depth presentation on the chakras. A woman! I went to a great intensive on runes… the book I was working from was not one of the ones the presenter recommended. Bummer. I recently found the name of that presenter, while going through my rune notes. It was Patrick McCollum. How the wheel turns!

 There was no word for ‘trans’ then. In some ways, I didn’t exist.

 …..con’t. in book…..

Walk this way – Monday blogging

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One of my peeps apprenticing with me gets a kick out of most of the same things I do. Today I introduced her to a walking meditation that Dragonfly taught me last year at Witchcamp. It is simple, difficult to master (if you are like me and want to “get ‘er done!”), and effective for connecting outward to the physical world and the Unseen world around you.

When I learned it last year moving that slowly really stretched my limits of patience. It is literally a very slow walk that quiets the mind. Standing firmly one one leg, lift and set the other foot on the ground in a smooth heel-ball-toe motion until the whole foot contacts the ground. Then shift your weight to that leg. Then lift the other foot and slowly place it on the ground heel-ball-toe. Set, lift, place, smoothly from one to other, but ever so slowly.

Having been taking Tai Chi this stepping is much more natural to me than it was a year ago. My mind settles quickly, chi flows, and my senses are heightened and connected. I get into Tai Chi Mind and feel the zen. That sounds trite, but the feeling anything but.

Today we went to the local park and did the walking meditation. The sun was warm, the wee creek was flowing, and serendipity provided our part of the creek with a multitude of dragonflies. We wiggled out toes in the water after meditation, then we relaxed and chatted. We both hit our zen during the walking meditation and the ease stayed with us. It was a lovely space to enter and stay engaged in. I am grateful to have learned the technique and grateful to be able to pass it forward. Good day.

Solstice Bee Blessings!

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Sub-Rosa

bee glassMay your summer be a-buzz with bees of some sort.  Now, don’t freak out and reach for a fly-swatter!  It is Pollinator Week!  Besides, bees are SO pretty!

And we need our honeybees and other wild ones, after all, you like to eat, right?  And don’t say “Oh, who cares about honey?” or I will have to hit you with…oops, never mind, almost no fruit left to throw.  Pollinators are even needed by chocolate!  Do I have your attention now?

I hope the White House knows that to save the bees, it will have to address the issue of the toxic pesticides MOST responsible for their decline.

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Working with East – Monday blogging

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As a group of us folk work our way through Thorn’s _Evolutionary Witchcraft_ book one chapter at a time (in order which is a different approach for me) I find East perfectly timed with the Spring-to-Summer that is happening now. This time of year/book chapter is all about opening up and starting fresh. It is breathing deeply the green all around me and letting go of the drab dead pieces within and without As I cut what I no longer need from me I also cut the dead parts of the plants outside that didn’t survive the harsh Winter. What no longer serves, goes.

Breathing in the energy of East.  It is softer than South who also removes what no longer serves to allow new to occur. I feel my heartbeat slow, my mind clear, my inhalations ease, and peace flow – in me, around me, and through me. Blessed Guardian of the East, hail.

Elements of Magic (Reclaiming core class) in Pittsburgh, PA

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We (Amoret and myself) are gauging interest for the timing of the Elements of Magic class we will be offering through Bone and Briar within the next few months. It will be offered on 6 (mostly) consecutive Fridays. We can start as early as the final week in July or the last week in August. There will be one week off in August for the July start and up to 2 Fridays in the beginning of October which would put a long space between the 5th and final class of the August start class.

Elements of Magic is a class that delves into the elements of Air, Fire, Water, Earth, and Spirit through visualization, trance, ritual, movement, and spell work. It is a core class of Reclaiming and it serves as a basis on which all Reclaiming rituals are built. Focusing will, deepening vision, and empowering yourself to act in the world are the tools you will learn and these will be useful in all parts of your life. Cost is $60 up front (save $30!) or $15 per class if you pay as you go. We ask that applicants be committed to attending all classes.

If you are interested, please send an email to thewitches@boneandbriar.com and let us know if you have a timing preference.

Monday Blogging – I love the Internet!

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Overall, I love the Internet. Sometimes it is frustrating, and angering, and just plain full of stupid, but mostly I love the tech that allows me to connect with people from all over the globe. I also love the video tech of the Internet. Skype, Google Hangout, TinyChat. Seeing people I’m talking to is great. Modern day conference calls that allow seeing facial expressions, hand waving, and heads thrown back in laughter. These things make me happy. Very happy!

So, to make this a religious post – I use this tech to keep in contact with my co-religionists, my fellow initiates, my up-and-coming initiates, students, etc. I like that if we have things to go over and time is short, or traveling is not feasible we have this option. Even locally we have this option. I still prefer in person, yes, but options! The Internet Haz Them! I like the timing of this lifetime very much because of this. Huzzah!