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Media Monday…I Mean Tuesday. Whatever. A Dedication of Sorts.

There was a bit of a drama on the internet last week. Most of you would have missed it. Some might not have. I don’t want to go into too many details here because…well, it’s all over now.

This dedication goes out to Aubs at http://satsekhem.wordpress.com/.

You can’t please everyone…you gotta please yourself. Yeah, this is for you Aubs, and you know why…;-) Keep on rockin’, girl…keep on rockin’.

For the rest of us, well, it’s a bit of a corny song. But still…something for us all to remember. And luckily, it’s one of those songs that’s easy to remember. I’m going to use it as a bit of a mantra from now on…

Great Minds Discussion: Let’s Talk Initiations

This is the first question submitted by one of our very own commenters! YAY!

At the suggestions of Nyktypolos at http://nyktypolos.wordpress.com/, we’re going to delve into the wacky (or not so wacky) world of Initiations.

This has the potential to be a hot-button topic, but it seems pretty tame compared to the Godspouse discussion we just had, so I’m betting y’all aren’t going to devolve into a bunch of name-pointing and finger-calling. Or whatever.

The question is…are you initiated? Self-dedicated? Dedicated? None of the above? What is the story behind it? Did it “change” you? Did you feel it was an intense religious experience or did it come off kind of hokey? Are you glad you did it? Do you wish you did? Do you have more than one initiation? Why? Do they conflict, or have you made your peace with having more than one “Master?”

Or…do you think it’s all bunk, that initiations of the spirit or experience are every bit as good/better than having someone whose initiation is suspect to begin with conducting some sort of dubious ceremony?

One more time, for the record. No name calling. No finger-pointing. No war-mongering…oh, wait that doesn’t apply…no opinionnazis, no snark, no sarcasm. Except for me. Kidding. We’re family here so keep the conversation civil. Agree or disagree, but do it all politely!

That being said, as always…talk amongst yourselves…

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Great Minds Discussion: Godspouses. Pretend it’s Tuesday, Ok?

The theme for this week is that my schedule is all mangled because of the stupid cold. Bah. So in line with my theme, I’m asking you all to pretend it’s Tuesday which is when I normally post these questions for the forum. It’s the magical world of make-believe here in the Cave!

Today’s topic is a bit weightier. But I think we can handle it. We’re adults, and so far have shown a politeness and consideration which goes above and beyond any other forum I have ever visited. I’m so proud of us! In that light, I’m pushing it a little farther. After all, it’s not really a discussion without a little controversy…

I’ll be honest. I, myself, have trouble with some of the blogs I’ve read with people who claim to be Godspouses. I say claim to be…not because I doubt all of them, but because I have to honestly say I do doubt some. The claims sometimes seem so…outlandish. Even considering what I go through on a daily basis.

I try not to judge. Honestly. Because the other parts of me are arguing that 1. it could all be true…gods know I don’t knoweverything and 2. If it’s not “true” in that sense, it is true to them because for whatever reason they psychologically need (or are tortured by) this “relationship.”

The truth of the matter though, is that this is something I simply don’t understand. Many of us don’t understand.

Many religions involve some sort of spiritual marriage. The most common one I am aware of is, naturally, voodoo. Other religions come to mind as well..after all, Christian Nuns are considered to be married to Christ.

I would very much like those of you who consider yourselves Godspouses to come forward. Help me (and the readers here) to understand what exactly this all means. How far does it go? Is it a sexual relationship? Does it prevent you being involved in real life? Is there historical evidence of this practice in the culture your God/Goddess comes from, or is this new territory? What are the expectations/duties you are expected to perform? Is this a relationship as  you would be considered normal in the boundaries of human marriage, is it more of a slave/master relationship, or more of a priest/ess and god/dess relationship?

And for those of usnotinvolved in this practice…do you know people (on the internet or in RL) who practice this? Do you completely believe it? What, if any, are your doubts/suspicions about this practice? Do you even care…or do you just steer clear of anyone making such claims?

We need to have a good discussion on this. Clear the air. I think there are an awful lot of misunderstandings…on both sides of this fence. I know I would benefit from frank and open discussion…within the safe bounds of controlled discussion. Because we will have no flames, trolls, or hostility here, right? This is discussion to promote understanding, to break down barriers, to find commonalities between all of us incredibly different practitioners of…well, whatever it is we practice. (After all, most of us are the Unnamed…people without a label…or a “tradition” that will claim us.)

 

One more time. No finger-pointing, name-calling, hostilities. No flames, trolls, opinionazis or otherwise obnoxious behavior. No one opinion is completely right. No one opinion is completely wrong. Speak your mind freely, but mind your manners! No extra points for anyone openly causing mischief or grief. In fact, it’s a one-way ticket outta here. And I’m assuming we’re all well past Jr. High now too, so no popularity contests or pissing contests, ok?

That being said, talk amongst yourselves…

Let’s Pretend it’s Thursday: Talkin’ about Snakes…

On Monday the 14th of May, I posted a link to a song, “The Snake.” I had fully intended to post my reasons for picking that song on the following Thursday. But life, as it often does, had other plans for me. First I was waylaid by a massive amount of pain…and then a head cold. I still have the bloody head cold. I’m going to blunder my way through this anyway. Why? Because I want to. And yes, I am that stubborn. So forgive me if this doesn’t live up to my “usual” eloquence. (haha) My head is still fuggy from this stupid cold.

Anywhoo…

Most people when they hear the song “The Snake,” they assume it’s about women and men, and how women will often take in what I refer to as “stray dogs.” We get so enraptured with the idea of reclaiming the lost, healing the sick, saving the sinner…and then whammy! The unthinkable happens. Or what we should have expected happens. One out of a hundred stories of a woman or a man taking in someone, redeeming them, and having a successful relationship might work. Maybe. Still in general…men are attracted to bitches and women to assholes, there’s no denying that. (Obviously, not all of us are like this, but it is pretty pervasive at least in the culture here in the U.S.)

But that’s not what I wanted to address. No, I wanted to talk about a different kind of snake. Calling them snakes actually is an injustice to snakes…so I apologize. I actually love snakes so I don’t mean to offend them in any way. This was the metaphor the song used though…

The “snakes” I wanted to talk about were of a more spiritual nature.

First, the human element of snakes.

I have had dealings with this on a very personal level, on a moderately personal level, and on a very annoyed impersonal level. We all know them; we know they’re out there. We sometimes suspect people but rarely can do anything at all about it. Sometimes we are, truly, taken in.

They’re the fakers.

From those who have been “mounted” by a Spirit to those who simply claim to speak for them…

They have a range of motivations. Some of whom I actually even feel sorry for. It’s often a cry for attention, a need to be important, a desperate desire to be included, a self-hatred so deep that they only feel comfortable with themselves when they are someone else. I often feel pity for them, because they are really broken human beings trying to play on my emotions by pretending to be someone they are not or by pretending to know something they don’t.

And on occasion I have been taken in. I’ve believed what was said to me. I’ve fallen for their “wisdom” or at the very least worried that they might actually be relaying important information for me. Perhaps they knew better than I did, after all. Perhaps they were closer to whichever Spirit that I was.

Or perhaps not. And it’s the not knowing, the desire not to judge another person’s beliefs, that gets me in trouble every single time.

That’s the human side of the deception.

The other side is the Spiritual side of deception. When the Spirits themselves can not be trusted.

You all know me by now, and you know I’ve written on more than one occasion about working with my Spirits. I’ve mentioned my Ancestors. I’ve mentioned my Muertos. Yes, I know…Muerto simply means dead. It’s a word I admittedly picked up from Mousie. I use it to demonstrate a difference between those dead who are mine by birth, my Ancestors, and those dead who have adopted me along the way, the Muertos. The Muertos are not related to me in any way that I can determine…and sometimes I understand why they’re with me, sometimes not. But they are.

I’m sure that it sounds like we’re just having a dandy time. That I trust my Peeps implicitly. That my Ancestors are all peachy, happy, lovely, wonderful family members who love me unconditionally. That my Muertos are adopted family who fit in with everyone else…and we all are one big happy family.

It wasn’t that easy, honestly.

As far as human (or recently human) Spirits go, they are generally the same in death they are in life. There are exceptions, of course. There is the occasional Spirit who can clearly see the error of their ways. They will be more inclined to help prevent other people from making the mistakes they made. Those aren’t common, though. There is the occasional angry spirit, the spirit that must be cooled before handling…

And occasionally there have been Spirits that needed to be sent very, very far away from me. Even Spirits who need to be controlled. I haven’t gotten to this place in my practice yet, but there is one that I’ve threatened on occasion. Because he’s mischievous. Not evil, just mischievous. Fun in the right circumstances, but extremely annoying in the wrong ones.

There are steps I’ve had to take to protect myself. Like determining which of them could be trusted as a spokesperson so that I get truthful responses. Otherwise, the Troublemaker comes forward and messes with me. I have had to banish Spirits that were worse than the Troublemaker. There are others that I am simply not comfortable with…yet…and I need to get to know them, to find out what they expect of me before we can develop a relationship or…if I have to, banish them as well.

…and that’s just the human…or recently human…Spirits.

There’s also another world…of the never human Spirits. Angels, demons, what-have-you. I don’t like the terminology simply because of the imagery it invokes for me. I was raised Christian after all, and there is a knee-jerk reaction to the words “angel” and “demon.” That can’t be helped. Other words are no better, because to me they provoke images of pure good or pure evil.

Good and evil are such subjective terms. They really don’t apply at all in the realm of non-human entities. They don’t have that much usefulness to me in reality, either. *shrug* What is good to one is evil to the other.

To most of these entities, we are as ants on the sidewalk and they are simply walking past. Evil? Not really. They pay us no attention what-so-ever. Of course, every now and then there’s one that’s more like a nine-year-old with a magnifying glass and we are ants on the sidewalk and…

But evil? To us, surely. To others of it’s kind, possibly. Some of us get morally outraged when we see a child burning ants with a magnifying glass. Others will giggle, encourage him, and sometimes even help them figure out the best angle. After all, they’re just ants, right? They have no feelings…not like we do.

We don’t know the motivations of these entities any more than we know the motivations of our gods. Encountering one is fairly rare. But it does happen. It has happened. It will undoubtedly happen again some day.

And yes, it is veryeasy to be taken in. By all of them; human, previously-human, and never human. It’s possible to be manipulated and used in many, many, exciting and exotic ways. You may even think it’s all your idea, or that it was all for your best interests.

You may be the one taken in.

We who work with the unseen realms need to be careful. Listen to the gut instincts that tells us when something isn’t quite right. Compare information from other sources. Read everything you can. Use divination that you can trust. Find an outside reader that you can trust. Listen to what is being told to you. If it’s too good to be true…check the facts, don’t fall for it. Wait for confirmation. If it sounds too bad to be true…the same rules apply.

It is better to be slightly skeptical than to be a victim.

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Great Minds Discussion: Magically Expired?

Okay, so we’re a pretty diverse group of people reading/writing/commenting on this blog. Some of us work with deities, some of us don’t. Some of us are Wiccan, some of us aren’t. Some of us work with spells, some of us don’t.

In the interest of appealing to as many of us as possible, it’s about time we touch on the subject of magic, doncha think?

Mousie & I were talking the other day (if you haven’t noticed, an awful lot of these posts will have this sentence in them somewhere. Most of my ideas either come from or are molded by conversations I have with Mousie!). She’d been to a fancy-schmancy “occult” store (as opposed to metaphysical or botanica…they each have their own “flavor” of merchandise). There were items the store was selling; they called themamulets (I think we’re going to save the amulet/charm/talisman/gris-gris/mojo bag/medicine bag debate for another time . We’ll probably get to it, though). These amulets were made by one of the workers at the store. She was informed that they would last a year and given a list of do/dont’s that went with the item in question.

Huh.

So the first question…

Does spellwork have an expiration date? If you cast a spell today for…whatever, do you have to reinforce that spell in another year/month/week/whatever? Or once it’s done, it’s done? Does the expiration date only apply for one form of work and not another…for instance, many of us reinforce any wards on personal space/vehicles regularly, often yearly. Is that necessary, or does it just make you feel better? Are the rules different with items that are charged…say amulets and jewelry and such?

The second question is…if one person made it (or in some cases it’s made by slave labor in Taiwan. You never know) and energy has been properly exchanged (in the case of purchasing something, the money has exchanged hands), does that mean the original rules still apply? After all, it’s yours now, right? If you’ve been instructed to never let another person see it, but it’s yours and you want to hang it off your rearview mirror, is there a problem with that? And if, in the case of an item like the above-mentioned amulet, you take it home and consecrate/bless/charge/bespooken it according to your own Traditions and recipes, do the prior laws still apply at all? And would that invalidate any prior-existent expiration date?

And the third question. You cast a spell…say for money. And it doesn’t work. Or it doesn’t seem to. Do you have a set time-frame that  you wait before attempting again? Or do you assume that’s it, it’s some gods will, it’s just not going to happen and give up? Or…do you wait patiently, knowing that what seeds you’ve planted will eventually grow, but might take longer than you’d anticipated? Is there a certain element you work into your spell work to ensure that things happen when you need to, not when whatever lines up…? Or do you throw your hands in the air, bury your head in a pillow, cry yourself to sleep and give up entirely? Has that happened (you’ve given up) and just when you’d given up all hope, has the spell work unexpectedly produced results?

I’ll probably think of more as soon as this is posted, but it’s plenty for us all to chew on at the moment!

 

Okay, you guys are incredibly groovy and you know the rules. No snark, no sneak attacks, no opinionazis, no below-the belt insults, no above-the belt insults. Just lots of wonderful discuss among many great minds. Question, respond, question…you know how this works by now! Play nice!

…okay, talk amongst yourselves…

 

 

Versatile, Moi?

Well, apparently so. And to be completely fair, I have been nominated a couple of times for the Versatile Blogger award and somehow have managed to duck the proverbial bullet each and every time.

Dayle at http://ishallbeatoad.wordpress.com/ nominated me in January, as did Kenzie… http://kenziekay.wordpress.com/ and now my new friend Polyphanes has nominated me as well…http://digitalambler.wordpress.com/

Third time’s the charm, right?

So here it is, the Versatile Blogger Award!

Now, there’s always a catch with these things. In this case, I believe that I am supposed to share seven things about myself. Optimally, things about me that you might not know or have read from this blog. Huh. Well, I have a tendency to expose more of myself than is perhaps wise, but here goes…

1. I have known my husband since I was 6 years old. He was my brother’s best friend in kindergarten. No, we were not high school sweethearts. We didn’t actually start dating until he’d gotten back from the army. I think I was around 24 by then.

2. I can be a picky eater, but it mostly has to do with texture. For instance…mushrooms. Hate mushrooms. I will eat mushroom gravy, cream of mushroom soup, etc., but I will not eat the mushrooms themselves. Too slimy. I hate bananas but love banana bread. Don’t even ask me to touch dark meat chicken, it ain’t happening.

3. Since the diabetes diagnosis, I have been a VERY good girl and no longer eat fast food however…I can consume an unholy, embarrassing amount of Long John Silvers. If there were a contest, I would win, hands down. If there were one close to me, I probably would have kept them open single-handedly. I’m not proud of this; it is just true. It has, thankfully, been at least 2 years since it’s crossed my lips. Otherwise, I’m sure the diabetes would be out of control by now…oh, and I even enjoy it cold. I know. Weird.

4. Due to a strange genetic trait I can hold a pen between my bottom lip and chin. Stupid human tricks, here I come.

5. I took ice skating lessons for 7 years or so. Quit when I learned how to do an axle (and btw, in our school you couldn’t “do” something unless you could do it 10 times. Consecutively). I figured that was about as good as I was ever going to get. I was at the end of middle school and heading into high school and hit a particularly practical part of my life. No point in paying for something and working at something that was going to be futile anyway.

6. I took piano lessons for about the same amount of time. I really wanted to learn drums. I still wish I had taken drums. But mom bought the piano…so I was damn well going to learn how to play it, right?

7. I got my first real job at fourteen. In a dry cleaner. No, it wasn’t even close to legal. *shrug* Like I said, I was curiously practical about that time in my life…not materialistic but…well, grounded in real life. I got way too serious way too soon…meh.

So that’s that.

For the next part of this blog award, I’m supposed to nominate FIFTEEN people. FIFTEEN? Seriously?

*sigh*

Honestly, most everyone I read regularly has received this award already. Heck, three people have nominated me. So. If you haven’t been nominated & wanna be, drop me a note at the end of this blog and I will gladly nominate you. Yep, that’s right. Nominate yourselves. It’ll save me from trying to figure out who’s done it already and who hasn’t!!!

Media Monday: The Snake

No, this is not the version of this song I was first introduced to. The version of this song I learned first was horribly, terribly, unforgivably 80s; a rendition by a band known as The Belle Stars. *sigh* If you really love the 80s or you’re in the mood for a giggle, go ahead. YouTube it. I dare you…

The first time I realized the song was a remake was a few years later as I was watching the TV show “Northern Exposure.” One of the characters sang it. To my credit, I then realized that the show’s producers were not likely fans of The Belle Stars…so it was probably a remake.

When I was looking up the song on YouTube, I found this version…which I think fits the mood of the lyrics very well…and even the mood of what I was thinking when I chose it for this week’s media Monday. Because although the song has some very obvious implications of a sexual nature, I think in Spiritual matters we occasionally are taken in by Snakes…and probably should have known what was going to happen.

On the way to work one morning
Down the path along side the lake
A tender-hearted woman
Found a poor half-frozen snake

His pretty colored skin
Had been all frosted with the dew
“Poor thing” she cried, “I’ll take you in
And I’ll take care of you.”

Take me in tender woman
Take me in for heaven’s sake
Take me in tender woman
Sighed the Snake

She wrapped him up all cozy
In a comforter of silk
And laid him by the fireside
With some honey and some milk

She hurried home from work that night
And as soon as she arrived
She found that pretty snake she’d taken in had been revived.

Take me in tender woman
Take me in for heaven’s sake
Take me in tender woman
Sighed the Snake

She clutched him to her bosom
“You’re so beautiful” she cried
“But if I hadn’t brought you in by now you might have died.”

Well she stroked his pretty skin again
And kissed him really tight,
Instead of saying thanks,
the snake gave her a vicious bite.

Take me in tender woman
Take me in for heaven’s sake
Take me in tender woman
Sighed the Snake

“I saved you!” cried the woman
“And you’ve bitten me but why?”
“You know your bite is poisonous
And now I’m gonna die.”

“Ha shut up, silly woman.”
Said that reptile with a grin.
“You knew darn well I was a snake before you took me in.”

Take me in tender woman
Take me in for heaven’s sake
Take me in tender woman
Sighed the Snake

Take me in tender woman
Sighed the Snake
Take me in tender woman
Sighed the Snake.