January 22nd, 2017

Hello, everyone, and Happy New Year. Yes, I'm a little late to the party, but I think we all know by now that I am incapable of posting consistently. I have some more explicitly Pagan things to share, but first: yesterday, all around the world, was the Women's March, in solidarity with the Women's March on Washington, DC. Things have been looking bad since the election back in November, but to echo the statement made by many others, for the first time yesterday, I felt hope.

I participated in the local march here at school. It's a small college town, but they still had a turnout of at least 1,000 people - we surrounded an entire city block!

Here is the sign I made to carry; in all caps, it says "I'M WITH HER," and then in smaller font, it lists "Black, Hispanic, Arab, Asian, Disabled, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Non-binary, Asexual, Muslim, Christian, Pagan, Hindu, Atheist, Mentally Ill, Lesbian, Immigrant, Buddhist, Sikh, Jew, Neurodivergent, Poor, Middle Class, CEO, Janitor, HUMAN".

And this is me at the Civic Center before the march, with my pantsuit, pussycat hat, "Love Trumps Hate" pin, and asexual pride pin. The local Women's Center was also giving out pins, so I got ones saying "Start by believing" and "I <3 consent".

Beforehand, there were some speeches and even a Native American blessing of the marchers, but there were so many people that I actually couldn't get close enough to hear what was going on. Instead, I met up with some friends, and we checked out the booths of local organizations like the Sierra Club. Gaia House also had a booth, specifically sharing information on their Labyrinth Peace Park.

Then we marched. We only went a little over a mile, but there were so many people that it took something like two hours. While we marched, we chanted things such as, "The people united will never be divided," "Justice - we're coming for it! Freedom - we're fighting for it!" and so on. There were news crews, and people filming, and even a group of frat boys standing outside their house with a megaphone to read off people's signs as they went by.

It seemed like every other car to go by would slow down to honk, wave, or give us a thumbs up. The reaction was so overwhelmingly positive, it was incredible. And it was also clear that people were there marching for a huge number of reasons - gender equality, racial equality, religious equality, LGBTQ+ rights (My favorite sign was held by the child of a queer couple in front of me - it was the pride flag with the words "Toddlers against fascists" on it.), acknowledgement of climate change, and more. I know I marched for all of these things.

I am not necessarily an outspoken person. I learned the hard way growing up that divergence from the norm would be punished by my peers, and nothing about who I am would typically be classed as "normal". As such, I tend to be quiet, and easily steamrolled by those who are willing to speak over me. I am going to end that. In the face of misogyny, racism, xenophobia, homophobia, ableism, Islamophobia, Antisemitism, misinformation, and fear-mongering, we must not be silent. I am not Wiccan, but I do ascribe to, "An it harm none, do what ye will". Or, to put it another way, "Do no harm, but take no shit". I am not going to sit back and take this shit. 

To all those who marched, thank you. To all those who could not march for one reason or another, your resistance is not less important just because it may be less visible. No matter what path you take, we all stand in solidarity against hatred, because we know that we are stronger together.

As scary as it is that this WWII poster is once again relevant, I will close with this final sentiment:

Freedom is in peril. Defend it with all your might.

January 27th, 2016

Somewhere in the past 24 hours, my blog passed 20,000 page views. I never thought, when I started this page a little over four years ago, that it would be something I'd be able to keep going, let alone that anyone else would want to read it. I just wanted to thank you - yes, you - for stopping by, whether this is your first time or if you're a regular visitor. It really means a lot to me that my words and experiences are of interest to others, and if I've helped anyone by running this blog, then that's all I could ask. 

I wanted to put up another book review today while the text is still fresh in my mind, but first, here's a quick update on me: this week has been and will continue to be a busy one. Gaia House has been running a "Free-cycle" event the last day or two, so I swung by today and picked up an electric pencil sharpener and some kind of reddish crystal pendant necklace. I have a project due tomorrow morning for my Technical Woods class, and over the weekend, I'll be volunteering at Habitat for Humanity before attending SIPA's Imbolg ritual. I'm really looking forward to that! 

And now, without further ado... (I don't think I've said that in a while.)

Title: Dancing With Dragons: Invoke Their Ageless Wisdom & PowerAuthor: D. J. Conway

© 1994

I'll admit, I was a little wary of reading this after really not caring for a lot of Moon Magick, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that I liked this quite a bit better.

The book breaks things down into a lot of smaller chapters, but essentially, she begins by discussing different cultures' perceptions of dragons, and ways in which dragon energies manifest themselves in the environment. She then discusses ritual tools specific to her brand of dragon magick, before leading into a series of rituals written to connect and work with different dragons for different purposes. The last group of chapters focuses on different types of dragons, where they can be found, and how and why one might work with them.

Dragon magick practitioners should be advised that Conway approaches her subject from a predominantly Wiccan perspective. I personally do not have an issue with that in this context, but if you prefer to work secularly or in some other variety of Pagan framework, then Conway's dragon rituals may or may not work for you.

She talks extensively about dragons of Eurasia, and Chinese dragons in particular, which I appreciated as my grounding in Chinese mythology is not as strong as I would like it to be. I'd really like to do a more in-depth study sometime, when I can get the books to that end. Anyway, I digress. Conway also touches briefly on the amphithere dragons of Central and South America, but she gets into some of the dismissive language which bothered me in Moon Magick; it strikes me as wrong to call civilizations such as the Aztecs "primitive", when in fact their society was highly sophisticated, no less so than any contemporary Old World nation.

On the whole, I liked Conway's rituals, and found her poetic incantations to be very nicely phrased. I tend to be a little picky about that sort of thing, but most of them, in my opinion, had both good meter and phraseology. 

Her text meshes well with previous research I've done into different kinds of dragons, and for that reason in particular, I connected with her work, because in general, it made a lot of sense to me.

There were only two other concerns which stuck out to me as something to look out for. Dancing With Dragons does provide a few mentions of ritual adaptations for disabled practitioners, but to be perfectly honest, it was pretty clear that Conway hadn't put more than the very minimum of thought into it. Whether they would actually be useful to anyone, I couldn't say for sure, but I kind of doubt it.

I also felt like Conway put a lot of emphasis on people having all of the exact tools she recommends. As someone who doesn't have access to a lot of the things her rituals employ, it bugs me a bit. Certainly any of the rituals could be adapted easily enough, but it still rubs me the wrong way to be told that I must have a specially engraved pentacle and a sword and a bunch of other stuff to work with dragons, when that is not the case.

Long story short, Conway's work seems to consistently come with at least a few caveats, but if you're looking for information on working with dragons, especially in a ritual setting, then Dancing With Dragons could be a good resource.

YouTube Channel Update

As you guys probably know, I've been trying to revamp my YouTube channel the last few weeks. I started off by going back and adding closed captioning to all my videos. I am happy to say that as of tonight, all my older videos are fully captioned. Of the new set of four I posted today, only the first one is captioned; hopefully I can get the other three up to speed tomorrow.

Speaking of new videos, check it out! I did a four-part series today just briefly introducing people to my crystal collection.

August 24th, 2015

I had my first round of classes today, and on the whole, they went pretty well. I did spend a couple of hours doing homework this afternoon, but it luckily wasn't anything too stressful. I was able yesterday to read my new book from the thrift store, but by the time I finished it, I didn't get the chance to do a review. Hopefully I can bang one out in short order here.

Once again, the title of this was We'Moon '07: Gaia Rhythms for Womyn. The 2007 theme was "On Purpose".

This was a datebook and sort of almanac for the year 2007, but it also contained a lot of general astrological information, poetry, short stories, information on the sabbats, and lots of gorgeous illustrations. Interestingly, the calendar component also followed the lunar calendar, so there was that element of femininity to it.

Parts of this book were really great, and parts I was less interested in. The spelling of "women" as "womyn" threw me off a bit. I do have grapheme > color synesthesia, and any time the spelling of something is altered, it also changes the color of the word, so that was weird. They did it, they explained, to create a word etymologically separate from the word "men"; "women", "female", and etcetera are all obviously derived from words referring to the male gender, which the authors apparently found too patriarchal. I sympathize with the sentiment, but found their solution to read as rather contrived.

Besides that small linguistic criticism, I found it to be very readable, and actually more inclusive than I had been afraid it would be. Obviously the calendar was eight years out of date, but if this sounds like the sort of thing you'd want to look into, they are offering a 2016 datebook on their website here.

The message of this book, On Purpose, was really about intention, and using one's energies to focus on the future. A lot of the works asked, what can I, as a person, do to make the world a better place for future generations, and I think that's a message which still bears relevance eight years later. Much of the discussion was about the environment and climate change, but social justice was also a prevalent theme.

There was a poem about being gender-nonconforming, some art and a story by disabled women, works which crossed racial lines... In general, it struck me as being one of the more intersectional books I've come across.

I'd originally bought the book thinking maybe I'd cut out the artwork and do a collage or something, but now that I've read it... Yeah, I think that's just going to stay intact on my bookshelf.

A few other things from today...

That's my "back to school" picture outside the design building.

And then, I was able to pick some sage today!

I only got a couple of leaves, but remember that spiral garden I helped build last spring? Sage and kale were about the only things that grew, and there's a lot of them! I'll probably harvest more gradually, but I need to clean out another jar first.

January 8th, 2014

I thought I'd put out another book review, this time of I text I bought at a bookstore while in Iowa with my folks for Christmas. The title is Handfasting and Wedding Rituals: Inviting Hera's Blessing, by Raven Kaldera and Tannin Schwartzstein (2003).

I'd like to preface my actual review by saying that I really, really liked this book. It was incredibly inclusive and accessible, and altogether a thoughtful, well-composed read.

Never having seen a text solely devoted to Pagan weddings before, I immediately knew that this was going to be a take-home item for me. Regardless of whether or not I ever have a handfasting ritual of my own, the fact remains that I have multiple friends who might, and truthfully, it seems important to understand the wedding ceremonial practices of whatever religion one subscribes to. 

The book has a dozen or so subheadings, and the information therein spans everything from party favors and choices of incense to developing Quarter calls which won't freak out any of the non-Pagans in the crowd. In fact, that's one thing among many that the book does very well - developing level one, two, and three suggestions, the authors provide varying levels of Pagan over- and undertones. For example, if one wants a handfasting but also wants to invite one's extremely conservative Christian relatives, Raven and Tannin offer level one rituals wherein the Paganism is there, but it's subtle enough that it shouldn't cause an issue. If one is on the opposite end of the spectrum and wants a hardcore Pagan wedding with as much overt ritual as possible, they provide that, too, in the level three handfastings. Level two rituals are written to be somewhere in the middle - a bit of Pagan Lite, if you will - for people whose family and friends are generally supportive, but would be uncomfortable with an ultra-Pagan ceremony.

Another thing that the book does incredibly well is to develop rituals that any couple can participate in. If one or more partners has a physical disability, but would still like to incorporate the traditional jumping of the broomstick, Raven and Tannin provide accessible alternatives. For all those same-sex Pagan couples out there? Raven and Tannin have an entire chapter devoted to LGBTQ+ handfastings, with specific rituals for transgender, genderfluid, bisexual, and polyamourous couples, in addition to the commonly-acknowledged gay and lesbian relationships. Moreover, for those same-sex couples who want to incorporate the symbolic Great Rite in a way they can identify with, the authors provide solutions. Is your significant other of a different religion? Raven and Tannin take that into account as well, providing examples of how to blend wedding traditions across religious lines for Catholics, Jews, Hindus, Muslims, and so forth. 

For all my fellow theatre lovers out there, have you considered including a bit of drama in your handfasting? If reenactment of mythological weddings (Hades and Persephone, Janet and Tam Lin, etc.) sounds like something you might be interested in, this book provides sample scripts, as well as ideas for costumes and props.

No book is ever perfect, but in general my criticisms here are minor ones. On occasion, the language used was probably more appropriate to the year in which it was published then present day. Couples may find that the substitution of a word here or there is the only change really necessary.

Also, it would have been nice to see a handfasting included for we Pagans on the asexual spectrum. So much of the language in our rituals, no matter which book one reads, focuses on fertility, sacred sex, and etcetera. I don't take issue with that - in many cases, the language is beautifully poetic - but it's not the intent of every couple to "get busy" after they're married. That being said, most of the rituals are pretty easily adapted by changing a handful of words, so it's not like it's a huge deal, either. 

Anyway, if you have any interest in learning more about handfasting in Pagan traditions, I strongly recommend you check out this book.