Mid October catch up

Today marks a full week without rain. This hasn't happened since sometime in July. Tonight should be a night of dancing under the Full Moon, but the center of the circle is a mud pit, and footing is hazardous in daylight, without a shift in reality. I hope the Devas (or Wights, or Spiritus Loci, they do seem amused by my attempts to give name and classification to them), will accept a more snake-like movement, with my feet planted, and allow the circle to whirl about me.

I've been waking to the sound of crows. Well, alright, I've been waking to the sound of the alarm clock, but I quickly become aware of the sound of crows. Mid day, and afternoon, they are gone and their sound is replaced by the calls of hawks. All though, I hear the chirping of chipmunks, they are chattier than all the birds put together, not even silencing in the presence of the hawks. And then, come dusk, the crows return.

Weeding the lavender, one is rewarded for patience and slow care. Weeding the roses, one is punished for impatience and lack of total attention. There is a parable and a lesson, here. And I will finish figuring it out, once I finish removing the thorns from my hands and arms and staunch the blood...

Columbia

Columbia, Matron of our Nations Capitol, and by extension, of our Nation. Goddess of Freedom.

Lady, do Thou look after Thy people, so that we may all worship (or not) as we see fit!

(and I am infinitely pleased that her altar is atop a book case.)

Crucible

DH and I finally were able to attend Crucible this year. (Crucible is a convention, for lack of another term, put together by Arthur Moyer and the Omnimancers) We enjoyed ourselves and I was able to take away some useful, if sometimes unintended by the presenters, knowledge.

1. Damn, you people really expect me to keep up with my blogging!

2. DH and I really are older, and more societally established than many (most?) people who attend such events.

3. I finally got to meet some people "in real life" that I have been corresponding with for a while, in some case, years. So pleased to finally sit down with Sara, Jason F., Jeff Mach Kenaz Filan and his wife Kathy, and R.O. And, of course, meeting new people is lovely.

4. I am really sorry that I missed meeting Jow and Deb. We were confused as to whether there was a gathering/party after the last session Saturday night, just as we were about the "closing brunch" at the hotel. And being that we didn't attend the sex magic panel discussion, and there is something about staying overnight in a decent hotel...but I am still sorry that we missed you guys.

5. I learned (or relearned), that while I don't know more than I thought I knew, my body of knowledge is larger, compared to others, than I realized. Not that I necessarily know or have experienced more than everyone, or anyone else on any of the given subjects, but until convinced otherwise, my assumption is that everyone knows more about everything than I do. Lovely to find out that it isn't always true.

6. Jason Miller could probably give a presentation that consisted solely of reading a phone book and make it interesting and entertaining. So when his subject matter is interesting, as his lecture on Malefica was, well, I am just sorry for those of you who missed it. But, FYI, Jason, some of us wear all black because it makes the silver in our hair look better. (feel free to insert smiley face.)

7. It was during the Malefica talk that I gained the most useful insight of the day. Some of you have complained that I rarely explain how I do magic, sticking only to the broadest outlines and the arts and crafts explanations. I've never felt comfortable going into detail on the blog, now I know exactly why I don't.

8. I did feel for R.O. during his talk on “Applied Hermetics: Conjuring a Better Tomorrow." So many of us were with him and watched him work his way through this project over the last few years, that his comment of it feeling like he was presenting to his aunts and uncles made perfect sense to me. He needs a new audience so he can shine properly. It will be well worth your time.

9. The fact that I admit publicly that I am a food snob will surprise people. Given the opportunity, I am also a wine snob, although that did not come up this past weekend. True, the way I phrased it in Jason's hearing sounded horrendous but I can admit, it comes from privilege. Too few calories are NOT a problem in my life (see note #2), so why should I eat anything that is less than excellent? I'd rather not eat food I don't enjoy, just because it is served to me unasked for. Really, starving children anywhere are not better off for my cleaning my plate.

Context, Context

Teach to the test. Memorize, memorize, memorize your dates, lists and correspondences. Diagram your grammar and cosmologies. Are we talking high school or magic?

Here is a question: 2+2=4

True, or false?

The answer? It depends.

Take the question out of the realm of the purely arithmetical and see what happens.

2 (cats) + 2 (pieces of fish) = 2 (cats). Or maybe even 1 (cat), if one is bigger and faster than the other. * In that context, 2+2= 2 and/or 1

Another question: 10-1=???

Give the question some context.

10 (mice) - 1(mouse, because it was eaten by a cat**) = 0 (mice-the others will run away when the first one is caught by the cat.)

There is a very large difference between education and training and our society has largely lost sight of the difference. Both are important, but which one is more important is dependent on what you intend to be. Keep your lists and charts handy, but remember that they are representative of something, and it is your job to figure out what that is. Sometimes, you might even find that you will then need to rearrange your chart or list. That doesn't mean that you are wrong. It does mean that you are looking at that chart or list from a different context from the one who handed it to you. (We do not live in a world of archetypes)

Don't solely take the word of experts.

Do your own work.

Have fun.

*Thank you to the Sunday New York Times for this example

**The educator quoted by the NY Times had a thing for examples with cats involved.

So...

Do the problems with buying and building bookcases come under the heading of Mercury retrograde, or just Saturn in general?

Midsummer, Lammas, First Harvest...

The Importance of Proper Titles

It seems to me that much of the advice given until the heading of "Life Hacking" was formerly available to readers of Redbook, or Woman's Day, or to the students of home economics classes, back in the days of strict gender separation. It may be that much of the remaining information was available in men's magazines of the 1940's and 1950's, or shop class. I don't really know. But here is a little "life hack" or household helpful hint, now available to all generations and genders.

One of the lovely things about summer is the easy availability of local, in season fruit. One of the less lovely results is that often, the fruit attracts fruit flies into your kitchen. Rather than buying traps that will need replacing, here is an easy (and nice smelling) fruit fly trap.

1 small shallow bowl
a small amount of a fruit based vinegar. (cider vinegar works well, I use raspberry vinegar)
a drop of dishwashing liquid to break the surface tension of the
vinegar.

Pour the vinegar into the bowl, you don't need very
much. Add the drop of dishwashing liquid. Leave near the fresh
fruit, or where you are finding the fruit flies.

*I'll bet with this blogpost title, you thought I was going to be writing about covens or magical orders or such. The point was that something titled "life hack" was far more likely to be read by an audience of the male gender than something titled "household helpful hints." And much more likely to be publicly crowed over as something new and remarkable.