Archive | March 2011

10 years gone- Dad would have been 96 today

Mar31

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We’re Bards

Mar29

We had our Barding ceremony on Sunday. Two of us, the Heiromum and myself were supposed to go out to the Sepulveda Wildlife Refuge compass and call Clamproir_mary and bansagart and do it in a techno-pagan conference call. Best laid plans and all that, it was pouring. It was supposed to rain early Saturday and clear up Sunday. The weather people were wrong. It held off until Sunday morning after midnight and let loose. Since the Refuge is closed when it rains because the city objects to having to rescue people by helicopter who get trapped out there. Funny that…

Anyway we did it by Skype again and it still worked and I don’t know about the others but I felt it settle in and is still settling in. This one was my ritual to write and I think it was a fairly credible attempt, Mary and Denise do the next one. The Heiromum did the Companion one and will one after that.

For some reason this is all mixed in my head with all the Tongva stuff that I keep tripping over. I don’t believe in coincidence so there has to be a reason. The last thing was the Tongva village out at Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Gardens where we are taking our Spring walk in 2 weeks. And where we plan to have the next Hazelwood Grove companion ritual if people are interested in joining our merrie band of Hazelwood nuts.

Did you know the Tongva, they are main tribe that inhabited our area from Glendale and to the east, had 4 sacred mountains? They were Mt Baldy, Mt San Gorgonio also known as Greyback, Mt San Jacinto and Saddleback peak. I’ve been up 3 of the 4. Never done Saddleback. They also have Tongva Peak in Glendale that we spent a lot of time climbing around as a kid above Brand Park. It was one of those things we didn’t tell our parents about until after we did it. And we had all our Camp Fire Meetings down below it.

Tickled

Mar22

I got the proofs for my book and thanks to the Heiromum and her sharp eyes and my own going over it, I have been making corrections. I have to say that holding that book in print even though it’s a proof is the most magical thing. I didn’t expect it to be but it is.

It’s now all desecrated with all kinds of highlight colours but it’s still magical. It’s my book! With my name on the front and my art work! Somehow it’s more real than the electrons I sent on the way to Kindle and I do have to fix the errors in that one too. I apologize for that if you bought it. I had to re-write the scarab story for violating the space/time continuum. Oops!

But I’m still getting a thrill just looking at it

Wildlife adventure

Mar21

I swatted some wildlife this morning. Didn’t mean to exactly but I did. Last night I put a bag of trash out on the front porch so I could take it to the dumpster in the morning and tied it shut. It was raining too hard to venture out to the back without water wings and a boat. Plus I had no desire for a second try at enlightenment via lightning, once was enough.

This morning right before I was getting ready to leave, (It was still pretty dark) I heard something in the trash bag making a racket by the door and Liath went on point on my side of the door. Liath should have been a dog not a Maine coon. She heals and goes on point better than most sporting dogs.

So, not thinking it was going to be something other than the cat next door, I opened the door and saw in the dim light a grey cat. I swatted the side of said grey cat and was confronted by a very confused possum who then tried to head into the house. Thankfully I managed to turn him around to the outside. I don’t know who was more startled the possum or me but he took off like a shot and my heart was hammering when I realized I’d whacked a possum and could have been nailed by some very sharp teeth.

If I’d seen his butt I would have known but I only saw light grey fur and it wasn’t making any noise other than ransacking the trash bag. I have to admit he was really soft and nice but I ran to wash my hands in case it had fleas or something. Liath was really disappointed when I closed the door and didn’t let her give chase.

Wildlife doesn’t normally scare me but possums can be mean and have quite a number of large pointy teeth and this was really close range. I’ve confronted all kinds of wildlife up at camp, bears, raccoons, foxes, rattlesnakes and a few possums from farther away than my foot. I have never whacked any of them although a 45 lb coon tried to whack me in the bathroom once when I went to get my toothbrush. This morning almost gave me a heart attack.

Moon memeage

Mar20

You were born during a New moon
The moon is dark in this phase, because the half that’s illuminated by the sun is facing away from Earth.

– what it says about you –

You want to leave an impression on people and make your mark on the world. When you love an idea, you’ll work hard for it, sometimes even dropping whatever it is you’re doing to go on to the next new great thing that’s captured your imagination. The more freedom you have to chose what you’re doing, the busier you’ll be.

What phase was the moon at on your birthday? Find out at Spacefem.com

Musings on a Sunday

Mar20

I’m supposed to be performing our Bard Ordination right now but instead I’m at home with a case of some kind of intestinal distress and it’s pouring rain and windy and occasionally thundery so I guess we’ll do it next Sunday out at the Refuge. I’ve spent a couple of weeks planning it, I guess I can refine it a bit more.

I’ve written several posts this week just haven’t liked them enough to post or was just too tired when I got home from work. I still may post them if I re-read them and like them.

One was about last Friday morning. Every morning that I get up and get dressed to go out I have a sort of ritual about choosing what jewelry I’m going to put on. I have a quiet meditation time and choose what seems to be the right thing to wear. Last Friday before I knew about the earthquake I chose one of my Kwan Yins to wear. I then came down to a text message from Alison to turn on the news and watch the earthquake coverage from Japan. Why is that a bit odd? Kwan Yin among other things is a Japanese goddess of healing and compassion. Kind of made my hair stand on end a bit.

Kwan Yin or Quan Yin or any of number of spellings is a goddess or in some places a Bodhisattva who stayed on earth to relieve people’s suffering. Can’t be an easy job right now, I imagine.

It’s absolutely bucketing right now outside and Alison says its supposed to get harder and go sideways later on. I have to go out and do a load of laundry. If I didn’t know better I would say it was sabotage. I have a childhood friend who is on a campaign at the moment to reconvert me so she doesn’t have to worry about me going to heaven with her. This is all a bit odd since she has converted to some kind of hyper religious Catholicism and she was raised with a Presbyterian minister for a dad. Her mom was my mom’s best friend and they rode to choir together every Thursday night for over thirty years and Karin as become this weird anti-abortion crusader. She is in the process of leaving her husband for the gazillionth time for being addicted to porn and having affairs so I guess he needs a focus. I just don’t want it to be Alison and me. And to cap it off her older brother who lives in Europe sends her books on the divine feminine and the Goddess. I’d LOVE to have a chat with Eric right now about her.

Their family used to bring out the Swedish in Mom because they still spoke it at home and used a lot of Swedish customs. Too bad the broadmindness of most Swedes didn’t rub off on Karin. The Vikings brought a lot of new ideas home that while being Lutheran often made them think bigger than some of the other countries around them. You don’t hear about many Swedish witch burnings.

Anyway, Karin has invited me out every single weekend that has been a pagan high holiday since she found out I was pagan. Every six weeks she ramps up and she wanted me to go out with her last night to a mime show one of my high school class mates does when he isn’t head writer for Sponge Bob Square Pants and I had to tell her no, I was busy. She didn’t like that. People on Kat’s FB page will never have to see her prolife diatribes. I keeping her corralled on my other one. I’m sorry if you are on the other one I have told her to behave but she’s on a mission. Yesterday she posted a comment on Alison’s page to not pay attention to horoscopes to which I commented that pagans considered them a useful tool. I couldn’t resist even though I know a generated horoscope for a sun sign is virtually useless. About as relevant as a fortune cookie most times but still fun.

I got the proofs yesterday for BunniHoTep some I’m going to sit down with a highlighter and go over it and see what I’ve missed. Then maybe I start on one of the other two books so all you Luddites with out a Kindle can add it to your bookshelves. (Tongue firmly in cheek there since I love physical books too.)

And if I’m feeling really creative I’ll write some more chapters on Tamsin.