by Johann W. Von Goethe

Tell a wise person, or else keep silent,
because the mass man will mock it right away.
I praise what is truly alive,
what longs to be burned to death.

In the calm water of the love-nights,
where you were begotten, where you have begotten,
a strange feeling comes over you,
when you see the silent candle burning.

Now you are no longer caught in the obsession with darkness,
and a desire for higher love-making sweeps you upward.

Distance does not make you falter.
Now, arriving in magic, flying,
and finally, insane for the light,
you are the butterfly and you are gone.


And so long as you haven't experienced this:
To die and so to grow, you are only a troubled guest on the dark earth.

As Children of Divinity, we are trying to move into holy alignment. This yellow brick road often leads us into some challenging situations as we move into authenticity and alignment. Magic creates change. As magical practitioners, we use magic to create lasting structures that will enable us to embody Source. All faith traditions do this; Christians call this sanctification, Muslims have the spiritual jihad and pagans have magic. The sharpening aspect of the change can feel like a slow grinding or a blinding light of illumination.

These sharpening experiences cause us great pain. We ask the Lords of Light to test us through initiation or rites and rituals that we invoke, and as Dolores has said so often, we don't always agree with them about how much we can take. Other times, our experience of the Changes that we have asked to come into our life, feel like chaos. It is at this point that the Goddess can come in if we ask and move us back into alignment. Keeping in mind that we asked for these changes, the Goddess exhorts us to let naught stop you or turn you aside.

Remember, the saying "Let naught turn you aside" implies that we are the ones in charge of our change, both as the one being changed and the one asking for the change. What we cannot negotiate though is what happens after the change. We cannot micromanage the Goddess. She knows what she is doing!

Secondly, we must not view change and discomfort as being a sign that something is wrong. Instead, as magic practitioners, these experiences and feelings are a tool and an indicator about where we are at. Our inner Dweller at the Threshold would like us to stay comfortable so things stay status quo. This dweller demonizes pain, change itself, any fears that we carry and pushes us to uphold our personal biases against ideas and practices that make us uncomfortable.

Even our Lady found herself heading into the gates of death to hallow the underworld. And when Death hallowed her she came back in full power. It is time for us to do the same. The path of nobility of heart and mind is to face the ways in which you invoke separation into your life and then to be willing to let our Lady heal it.

This is a song written by Fattah Kyraphia, a brilliant witch and renown reiki practitioner, for those of us that seek to move ourselves out of our pain and back into our joy. Orion Foxwood says it like this, "we are looking to divorce madness and marry the miraculous."

Release Us Goddess

Release us Goddess...Release us
We are crying desperately
Free us from the egocentric
Obsession which we carry

The pages of our existence
Fill with negativity
Precious Goddess this we know
You have come to give us refuge
Blazing light reality
Precious Goddess this we know

Free us for the sake of our kin
Immerse us in your beauty
Include us in the great circle
Lovers of your Beloved

We are servants of your servants
Crying out for your mercy
Precious Goddess this we know
Immerse us in the one essence
End our Shadow's legacy
Precious Goddess this we know

Where do you begin with all of the good things happening?

I traveled to the Santa Cruz mountains to participate in the Phoenix Fire Gathering. The days were amazing, the nights were extraordinary! During the day we talked to amazing souls doing intense personal work, children who are some of the most intelligent and well adjusted I have ever met and creativity that would make a 4 year old jealous!

Each day has been filled with song, music, dance, drumming (oh goddess the drumming) and heartfelt conversations. Each day, I have felt my spirit soar as I meet people who are of the faithful in their tribe, coming together in the banner of unity. It has touched my spirit to see the level of love that the Hebrew tribe, the Jesus tribe, the Pagan tribe and the Star tribe (and so many others!) have for each other. To see that the faith matters in the fact that it is a point of integrity and that we all know that we are trying to open up more to divinity. The world is becoming an amazing playground for holiness, folks!

The nights were incredible, dancing the fire, releasing old wounds, allowing my soul to be vulnerable in community. I was reminded of my community at home, my Thalian community and my heart grew larger... so large I was realizing that I was going to have to do more work to make it bigger to contain it all!

My holy sparks moved into heaven and the Holy sent an angel to touch my lips! Let me love more, Blessed One, Let me love more!

Companionship with the holy makes you one of them.

Once again, The Washington Post has published the winning submissions
to its yearly neologism contest, in which readers are asked to supply
alternative meanings for Common words.

The winners are:
1. Coffee (n.), the person upon whom one coughs.
2. Flabbergasted (adj.), appalled over how much weight you have
gained.
3. Abdicate (v.), to give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach.
4. Esplanade (v.), to attempt an explanation while drunk.
5. Willy-nilly (adj.), impotent.
6. Negligent (adj.), describes a condition in which you
absentmindedly
answer the door in your nightgown.
7. Lymph (v.), to walk with a lisp.
8. Gargoyle (n), olive-flavoured mouthwash.
9. Flatulence (n.) emergency vehicle that picks you up after you are
run
over by a steamroller.
10. Balderdash (n.), a rapidly receding hairline.
11. Testicle (n.), a humorous question on an exam.
12. Rectitude (n.), the formal, dignified bearing adopted by
proctologists.
13. Pokemon (n), a Rastafarian proctologist.
14. Oyster (n.), a person who sprinkles his conversation with
Yiddishisms.
15. Frisbeetarianism (n.), (back by popular demand): The belief that,
when you die, your soul flies up onto the roof and gets stuck there.

16. Circumvent (n.), an opening in the front of boxer shorts worn by
Jewish men.


The Washington Post's Style Invitational also asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition.

Here are the winners:

1. Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops
bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows
little sign of breaking down in the near future.
2. Foreploy (v): Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting laid.
3. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the
subject financially impotent for an indefinite period. >
4. Giraffiti (n): Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.
5. Sarchasm (n): The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the
person who doesn't get it.
6. Inoculatte (v): To take coffee intravenously when you are running
late.
7. Hipatitis (n): Terminal coolness.
8. Osteopornosis (n): A degenerate disease. (This one got extra
credit.)
9. Karmageddon (n): its like, when everybody is sending off
all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it's like, a serious bummer.
10. Decafalon (n.): The grueling event of getting through the day
consuming only things that are good for you.
11. Glibido (v): All talk and no action.
12. Dopeler effect (n): The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter
when they come at you rapidly.
13. Arachnoleptic fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after
you've accidentally walked through a spider web.
14. Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito that gets into
your
bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.
15. Caterpallor (n.): The color you turn after finding half a grub in
the fruit you're eating.
And the pick of the literature:
16. Ignoranus (n): A person who's both stupid and an asshole.

I am not well... again...

Now, I am not one of those whiney, "let's cuddle up on the couch and watch my favorite show while I nurse theraflu" folks. This is not my idea of a good time or a way to relax. I know some crazy individuals who get sick and then think, "yay I get to be in bed and snuggle under the covers and not do anything all day." Yes, you know who you are! I know who you are!

Instead, I am one of those somebitches who gets cranky. My scorpio rising ass is the ultimate side seat driving punk who has an opinion about everything when I don't feel good and I am going to make sure that you know about it. And, while I'm at it, I'm going to let you know exactly what I feel about, oh.... whatever thing just happens to be on my mind that that moment. And believe me, this day in age, there is NO lack whatsoever of content.

I am not mean, mind you. Just loud and opinionated. And, in this passive aggressive little (Big) town of Portland, it might look mean. What can I say... grow a set of balls.

Back to your regularly schedule programming.
Michaela

Check out solar hot water heaters. There’s huge subsidies in Oregon to switch to solar hot water. I’m going to start shopping around for our house in Portland and with all the tax credits and rebates it looks pretty cheap and easy to accomplish. And it saves a huge amount of energy! It’s far more efficient than solar electric and much cheaper.

I have been looking for healthy recipes to eat that actually taste good and sort of hit my taste fancy. This is one that I came up with last night that I think is a keeper. I used Quinoa this morning and Hearts of Romaine last night to reduce the Carbs but any rice could be used just as effectively.

Quinoa or Hearts of Romaine
Craisins
Spinach
Olives (I used Greek)
soft boiled egg
sugar snap peas
Balsamic Vinegarette
Extra Virgin First Press Olive Oil

Cook the Quinoa. Then in a separate bowl mix in all but the egg together. Throw together with Quinoa or load up on Hearts of Romaine... put the egg on top to make it look pretty! Add any fresh herbs you might like the flavor of. Enjoy!

It was easy to make, and when you just stop and taste it, the layers surprised me. If you enjoyed it let me know!

LUX!
Michaela

I wound up in seattle this weekend, we were supposed to head to BC but someone (meaning me!) forgot her passport and couldn't cross the border. We did try! So we wound up in the University district... doing... *gasp!* SHOPPING! I found this book called The Secret Commonweath written by Rev. Robert Kirk. It is the documentation about Fairy stories in Scotland! I bought two copies, one for me and one for the library. I am so excited!

I am also reading a book called Embracing Jesus and the Goddess A Radical Call for Spiritual Sanity. I have been doing a great deal of inner work around the nature of where the feminine face of God fits into spirituality. What I have been taught all my life by the charismatic tradition of Christianity is that God is neither male nor female, so therefore it is a moot conversation. I have also been taught that it is a conversation brought out only by a suspect, wounded subculture that is angry at men, and therefore when they search for a feminine face, that it is out of anger and rage, not any holy qualities. Susan Shaw states that Feminism is the ideology that women are people too. It is not the same as lesbianism, nor is it the downplay and subversion of men. I do run across many women who are as cruel to men as they purport that men have been to them. And in my mind, you have the abused becoming the abuser.

It similarly doesn't help that in the Christian scriptures, the only blatant mention of the Goddess is in the prophetic books... but then the phrase is, "foreign practices to gods and goddesses". The scriptures mention both the masculine and the feminine, and their practices... so at this point, I can only imagine that this is referring to a specific practice or deity structure that was unhealthy instead of the feminine nature of divinity? Christians hold to the idea of it's okay to call God in the masculine, even after that scripture and do not use this reference in scripture to stop it, which implies to me that it is not about gender but the practice. Secondly there is the Scarlet women / whore of Babylon motif... which is interesting too... but still, in the same book there are references to gads of male figures who are just as evil if not worse and they are not using this to remove the male references. Islam is very good about keeping the gender away from the name Allah... with the very name historically meaning YES / NO. This includes not referring to God in any anthropomorphic images whatsoever.

Moving into a different direction, we find a removal of the feminine from the creation story. The name Elohim is a plural gendered word in a language that has no he/she/it to speak of. You figure out the gender of what you are referring to based upon the ending and root of the word... Therefore, sort of like most female names in our culture end in the sound EE or AA (Mary, Kayla), you can tell the name gender based upon the root and ending... Bob is a boy name... Bobbie is a boy and a girl name, Bobby could be boy or girl. The name referring to the deity that created the earth and humanity is both Male and female between it's root and ending combination. And it's plural... not singular. Many Christians say that is because Jesus was up there too, as a personality or that the angels are there and God is referring to the whole of the heavenly bodies. Ok... but then you are referring to the hosts of creation with THE HOLY NAME OF GOD and we are back to the same conversation of God having a feminine face, a feminine quality and that being upheld in scripture.

Then you have female prophetess' and Judges!

Secondly... moving into monotheism in general. I am a dyed in the wool monotheist. Monotheist meaning that there just isn't more than one thing out there. I don't think that there are separate god and goddess entities out there. I do think that there are angels. I really don't have a stake on the name either, just like I can call God, Jehovah Raffa (Our banner) or Elohim (Creators) or Emmanuel (God with us). Each is something that I understand.... or how about Ya Shaffi, Ya Kaffi (the healer and the remedy)? And within Christianity, they take this a step farther by putting in father/son/holy spirit as being separate but the same. Functional monotheism, faces of the same presence. If you can have father / son / holy spirit as three entities into one and it doesn't violate monotheism, you can have a feminine face of god and a masculine face of god as functionally one and it doesn't remove the monotheism.

I negotiated my first real business lease today. At least, most of the way. I haven't signed paperwork, but I did my homework, I asked good questions and between Troy and I, I think we managed to get ourself into a good location. We are waiting for a deposit to go through, we have to get a financial overview to the property management company and then I think we will be ok! :) I can't wait.

This level of interacting in my hometown as a professional is totally engaging. I like the idea of being where I am at and I like doing what I do. It's hard on my body right now as it is having kittens when it gets sick, I really go down... and also, it's hard when I don't have someone at home taking care of my home. My puppies get strange when I am gone and my house goes uncleaned for awhile.

Then there is the life path section. This is the part of me that is figuring out what I want aside from my job. I have been given the option to just focus on that and not have to work, and this, while a dream for most people, looks a lot like hell to me. The truth is, I don't know who I am apart from what I do.

this is something that leads me to do things perhaps I wouldn't otherwise just to show "who I am." LOL so does that mean I'm not that thing? Hah!

Anyway, it's late... I've rambled on this topic now for a few weeks and I am not going to solve it tonight in an LJ post.

So, I got the notice for the next fairy congress upcoming... here is a photo of some of the cuties there!

NEWS RELEASE

For Immediate Release: January 7, 2009

Contact: Holli S. Emore, 888.503.4131, <mailto:chs@cherryhillseminary.org>
CHS@cherryhillseminary.org

Cherry Hill Seminary To Grant Master’s Degrees

COLUMBIA, SC — Cherry Hill Seminary is pleased to announce that the South
Carolina Commission on Higher Education has notified the school of the
religious exemption which allows the Seminary to grant master’s degrees.
Beginning in September 2009 Cherry Hill Seminary will offer the following
Master’s degrees.

* Master of Divinity (72 hours). Basic professional ministry degree,
balancing Pagan academics, personal spiritual development, and Pagan
ministerial practice. Most professional religious positions, such as
chaplaincy, certain types of counseling, and other ministerial activities
require a Master of Divinity degree.

* Master of Pagan Pastoral Care and Counseling (60 hours). Specialty
degree, (pastoral care, religion and psychotherapy, or Pagan marriage and
family) offers reflection, study and supervised practice which prepare the
graduate to pursue various aspects of Pastoral Care and Counseling.

* Master of Pagan Ministry (48 hours). Preparation for specialized
ministry in such areas as education, media, the arts or other practices,
combines Pagan academics with practical and/or pastoral experience with
diverse Pagan populations.

* Master of Pagan Studies (48 hours) Pagan academics degree, focusing
on study and research in any one curriculum concentration major.

"As Paganism becomes an increasingly recognized and influential religion, we
are delighted to be able to offer higher education for those who would serve
as clergy professionals, whether as scholars, mentors, counselors, teachers,
artists, organizers, leaders, chaplains and/or advocates in local, regional,
national and international settings," said the Academic Dean, Cynthia Jane
Collins, M.Div., M.S. "A challenge we face is to integrate academic
excellence, practical supervised training, individual responsibility and
personal and community spiritual development from a Pagan perspective. We
seek to enhance and expand our depth and breadth while finding ways to serve
others, Pagans and non-Pagans alike. "

Originally founded in Vermont in 1997, and now based in South Carolina,
Cherry Hill Seminary provides the only graduate program of Pagan seminary
studies in the world. The distance education program holds twice-yearly
intensive retreats, with all regular classes being held online. Faculty
include such notables as Michael York, Ph.D., founder of the first Pagan
graduate studies program in the world (at Bath Spa University, England),
Grove Harris, M.Div., former managing director of the Harvard Religious
Pluralism Project, now program director for the Parliament of the World’s
Religions, and Dr. David Oringderff, founder of Sacred Well Congregation,
sponsor of the well-known Wiccan circle at Fort Hood, Texas.

"We now enter a crucial period in our development," said Kirk Thomas, Cherry
Hill Seminary Board of Directors President. "Our next hurdle is to meet the
requirements for accreditation, a process which normally takes several
years." Thomas, current Vice-Archdruid for Ár nDraíocht Féin: A Druid
Fellowship (ADF), noted that Cherry Hill students tend to be mature adults
with considerable life experience, who often already possess graduate
degrees and professional credentials in such fields as social work,
counseling, or psychology.

By spring, Cherry Hill Seminary will announce an invitation to apply for
admission to the master’s programs, including transition information for
existing certificate program students who wish to pursue a master’s degree.
The rollout will include information about a new Department of Pagan
Community Education for Lifelong Learning (PCELL), an enhanced replacement
of the current certificate program.

"Recent studies such as the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey by the Pew Forum
on Religion & Public Life clearly indicate the rapid growth of Pagan
practice throughout the country and beyond," said Holli Emore, Executive
Director for Cherry Hill Seminary. "With that growth comes the acute need
for individuals who are adequately prepared to provide Pagan ministerial
services, counseling, chaplaincy, and community leadership. As the modern
Pagan movement comes of age, it is important to set standards of excellence
for ministry. Cherry Hill Seminary is at the forefront of setting those
standards."

Cherry Hill Seminary is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, incorporated in
the state of South Carolina, providing education in Pagan ministry and
studies to students throughout the U.S., Canada, the U.K., and other
English-speaking areas. For more information, visit www.cherryhillseminary,
or contact Holli Emore at 888.503.4131, CHS@cherryhillseminary.org.

http://m.apnews.com/ap/db_7783/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=WsGaWCBY

It looks like the Federal regulators are implementing rules and regulations on the credit card companies which will make it so that billing policies come back to a reasonable practice. Up until now, credit card companies could change your interest rate without notice and then say, "if you don't like it, please pay your card off and close the account." This would seriously trap people who have high balances and no access funds to pay it off.

Secondly, right now, credit card companies may not give you time to pay your balance before accruing interest, or run the cycle closer so that you a cycle that is less than 21 days.

And lastly,about a third of credit card companies run what is called two cycle billing. This practice is essentially looking at the last 2 months balance for your average daily balance instead of just the last month. This can become very costly if you paid off your loan amount this month but the not the month before because you are being charged interest on a balance that you already paid off.

Check it out! It's all coming as of 2010!! Credit card companies: Just know this is all just fine for you because in 2012 everyone knows that the planet is going to shut down.

*NOT!*

Dart working the wind machine!

A nattily-dressed penguin is having trouble with his sports car and takes it to a mechanic. The mechanic is busy and so he tells the penguin that he will check it out as soon as he can get to it.

The penguin notices a Baskin-Robbins across the street, so he decides to just wait there while his car is fixed. He goes into the ice cream shop and he walks up to the counter and asks for a vanilla ice cream cone (penguins love ice cream). He is handed his cone and the penguin digs in exuberantly. In his haste to consume the tasty treat, he gets ice cream all over his chin and even manages to get some on the lapels of his sports coat.

The penguin notices that he's got ice cream all over, and gets a napkin and starts cleaning up the mess when just then the mechanic comes in and tells the penguin that he will need a couple of hours to fix the problem, as he hands the penguin a written estimate for the work on his car.

The guy behind the counter, who is taking all of this in, looks down at the estimate and asks the penguin, "What - did you blow a seal, or something?"

The penguin, still wiping the ice cream from his chin and lapels, replies embarrassingly, "Naw, man, it's just ice cream!"

You and I are essentially infinite choice-makers.

In every moment of our existence, we are in that field of all possibilities where we have access to an infinity of choices.

Deepak Chopra

I have updated my friends list. please don't take it personally if I removed your journal off my list. I just don't have time to go through and keep everyone here.

You all have interesting lives, but at this point, I am looking to quiet my life a bit more.

Blessings on your journey

It's Sunday and we are off removing the fall decorations from my house and putting up wintertide / yule decorations. We are moving the TV into another spot which is giving us a lot more window space to enjoy the outdoors. This is where the christmas tree will go for the season and then the space is all mine!

This year I opted not to fight christmas coming and embrace it as best as I can. Usually I am frustrated with how early it came. This year, it is what it is and I plan to bloom where I am planted.

The changes inside for me are wicked this year. First, I have formally left Wicca as a religion. This time has been very good for me, Wicca helped me connect with my power in a way that Christianity wasn't able to do for me. I don't think that I will ever go back into Christianity, but I am standing in a place closer to monasticism. I feel more universally inclined and want to engage that dynamic more fully. If I believe universally, I want to support that rather than one sect.

I have been very loyal to my craft and to my covens and now I feel like I have to be loyal to me and where my conscience really is. I plan to continue with my SOL studies because they are not faith based and I believe in that work. I am going to continue with my Sufi studies because they are in the same vein as my personal faith even though I don't see myself as relating to Islam directly or Muhammad as a prophet. However, the idea of God being just that, neither male nor female, The Yes / No aspect of the universe. This makes sense. My practice is towards opening up more and hopefully this will widen my awareness and increase my compassion and openness to God and to humanity.

I am working on the healing space upstairs to make it into a functional space for me to meditate.

Anyway, I have to run to help Jason and Shon move the TV! Blessed Winter to you all!

So my work had a masquerade party... here were some of the pics that were sent to me by wisepiscean from the event!

First folks... Lord Avarice... the hottest slice of nobility this side of the river...



Next we have Gandalf's illegitmate half brother... Pete:



Early childhood images of how Cinderella became poly. Hell, who wouldn't escorted by these two handsome princes.



What happens when Mephistopheles, a demon hunter, a star trek commander and Chili Palmer.... we'll just say that deals were made...



That's my courtesan in the blue, and the mercenary that I used to track her down after she ran off. Lord Avarice paid me dearly for her return.



She was looking for Mephistopheles... but he was off looking for the courtesan.


Did we mention the fire department showed up?


Why Pirates dig fancy ladies:



Why fancy ladies dig pirates:


Why are all these people showing up in firemen costumes?!


I can't WAIT until the christmas party. And this time, we do bubbly!