Today I got into a "debate" with a friend over a facebook status. When I brought up the book The Golden Bough, her reply was that the book had been discredited.
We've heard that before with other books based on Italian pre christian Traditions, including Leland's books. Vergil's Aeneid is also largely discredited for being not much more than political propaganda. I admit I've taken that position too. However, while thinking about these writers and their process, particularly Vergil's, I had to wonder: Why was he traveling so much? Vergil died en route to home with a draft of the Aeneid manuscript. Why was he traveling? He was collecting the stories of the people. The battle involving the Etruscans might have reflected the action of the time (much the way 1980s hairstyles were apparently the rage in 1800s midwest usa as per Little House on the Prarie), but there was more to it then filling in ancient opponents and cheering yay for the founding of Rome.
Leland collected stories of the people.
Frazer collected stories of the people. In Twelve volumes! I haven't read all twelve volumes, only abridged versions.Have you read any version of it, or have you skipped it because it was "discredited."
While I don't agree with Frazer's idea that polytheism "evolves" into monotheism, I don't cast doubt on his field work.
Who is doing the discrediting? Outsiders? Those who don't believe because they don't have first hand experience? While, as my friend recommended, Hutton's Stations of the Sun might "disprove" evidence of pre christian easter celebrations, he was only looking at northern europe. He didn't peek at The Mediterranean. He neglected Ovid's casual recording of the spring festivals in which temples of Venus were overflowing with women lamenting the loss of Adonis. He didn't go near Mesopotamia (even tho the bible does!) and the records of women who wailed over the loss of Tammuz, or the translations of the hymns sung at rituals before europe was born.
Are there any modern Frazer detractors? Or do they rest upon the detractors of 125 years ago? Perhaps I should have told her about the book Roman Religion and the Cult of Diana at Aricia. Here we have a modern scholar, working on the same site that inspired Frazer's work, defending the man with his insights and his findings.
On page 149 we find examples of why his work was "discredited:"
References to the Aeneid as fact rather than fantasy
References to other writers, ie: Servius, whose sources cannot be verified.
Wissowa, a contemporary of Frazer, disagreed but never actually said why.
From the intro:
It is now almost a reflex to disparage Frazer's work. Recently there have appeared a few brave souls prepared to argue that this disparagement has been both unfair and unscholarly.... Even as he was writing the last volume of the Golden Bough, the unfavorable academic view of him was hardening. Frazer became "a kind of evil spirit whose influence must be kept away by constant ritual utterances: in face by what is sometimes called apotropaic magic." Frazer had a command of ancient literature and culture that we can only envy. His great virtues were these: He thought Latin writers might know more about their religion than we do, and he had an overriding sense that religion- even Roman religion- had its own internal logic, and that trying to understand that logic was a necessary part of the study of ancient religion as a cultural phenomenon.
The author doesn't necessarily agree with all of Frazer's theories, and thanks to modern archaeology and the accessibility of information (yay internet!) plus another hundred years of investigation by others, he has more to work with. I've blogged abotu this book before. It's a good read but it's expensive, so try to get it from your local university! I don't agree with everything this author (or Frazer for that matter) says either. But it's still something solid to spark your magical recollections.
Yay for archaeology: Golden Bough found in Italy ;)
I've been posting all year about rereading the Aeneid. I think I need to start it again with this new perspective. ;)
Showing posts with label Leland. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Leland. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Sunday, August 21, 2011
"I'm not a Wiccan"
I have heard this phrase a dozen times in the past week, and not from my own mouth, but unsolicited from others.
I work with Wiccans and study with Wiccans and celebrate with them too. However, I am not Wiccan. I also practice yoga, celebrate puja, use henna, and on occasion wear a sari but that does not make me Hindu either. However, a friend tried to tell me that I must be Wiccan because I joined up with a coven. (She didn't say I must be Hindu because I celebrate puja.) This friend is also often mistaken for a Wiccan and argues that she is not. Curious, that.
*edited content was removed from here. The original post is saved in a file*
Whatever the origins of the word "wicca," it has come to be a substitute for the word "Witch" when dealing with the muggles. It is used as a shield from the baggage and drama associated with "Witchcraft." However, amongst our own (and by "our own" I mean Pagans), I see a rising tide of defensiveness. Those of us who are not Wiccan are speaking up more often. I made a mention today about Wiccans and the person I was talking to thought I meant that they were a Wiccan. They got defensive really quickly. This actually happened many times today. It was volunteered out of nowhere as if the universe was spurring me to finally post this post. The tone of the talk implied that Wiccans aren't "serious" or are bound by the rede and therefore won't do the dirty work when it has to be done. Again, not true about all Wiccans, but those are the exception it seems. The McWiccans are giving actual practitioners of Wicca a bad name.
Honestly, I'm glad to know others get defensive as well. Nice to know it's not just me ;) Speaking of getting defensive and about Wicca, let's turn to one of my favorite topics: Wiccans who poo-poo Leland.
On page 66 of Gypsy sorcery and fortune telling by Leland, he notes:
"As the English word, Witch, Angle-Saxon Wicca, comes from a root implying wisdom, so the pure Slavonian word, vjestica, Bulgarian, vjescirica, meant originally the one knowing or well informed, and it has preserved the same power in allied languages, as Veaa (new Slovenish), knowledge, Vedavica, a fortune-teller by cards, Viedma (Russian), a Witch and Vedwin fatidicus."He goes on and on about the different words used in different countries. This was published in 1889. Should we onlty call Ango-Saxon Witches "Wiccans?" is it as specific as the word "Strega" is to Italian? Leland continues:
"But it enrages the Witches so much to be called by this word that when they hear that anyone has used it they come to his house by night and tear him into four pieces which they cast afar into the four quarters of the earth... so intolerable is their wrath"It wasn't my point to dissect the word "Wicca" or to threaten dismemberment should anyone call me that. My peeve here is that the same people who cite Leland's work as evidence of the validity of this word are the same people who argue that Aradia, and the information he gathered on Witchcraft in Italy is bunk. You can't have it both ways!
OK, the soapbox is put away. For now. I've posed a question on our Facebook Page, please feel free to answer it here in comments or on the page itself:
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Blah blah blah blah blah (aka Word to your Great Mother)
I posted a rant a while back about the 5-fold Kiss. The crux of the rant is that the language is sexist ("breast formed in beauty" for a woman vs "formed in strength" for a man). Janet Farrar pointed out that Doreen Valiente wrote it. My first thought was that I was right, someone who never thought of a woman's breasts as anything but "beautiful" wrote the language. Next thought: She wrote it in a time when women were thought of as sluts for wearing pants and smoking cigarettes and were expected to be at home with the children and not have a career. I don't know how correct the second thought is, but if she was writing in the late 1950s - early 1960's, I might be in the ballpark. To differentiate between "beauty" and "strength" like that is sexism plain and simple. Tonight I was treated to a wonderful rant by Deborah Lipp who was responding to a Huffington Post article about a survey reporting 50% of men saying they would leave their wife if she gained weight:
Since repetition is invocation, when is it ok to change the words? It's ok when you understand and have experienced the concept behind it. Intention, I believe, is more important than the words used. Yes, words have vibration and energy, but your voice, which gives birth to those words, is the source of that energy. The voice demands, the voice supplicates. The word is the body of the intent, but the tone is the mind and the voice is the soul. If you can embody the spirit of the intention in a different word, if different words will get you there, go ahead. However, if you're just starting out, or have never done a certain spell or rite, do it as written, even if the words written bother you, and do it with an open mind and heart. This will give you the information you need to make it your own. I titled this post "blah blah blah blah" because I believe you can do an effective ritual or spell just with the word "Blah" because it's all about how you intone it.
There are spells and incantations and rites which require precise words to access their power. Grimoires do because you're tapping in to a specific stream of energy and the words are keys to that energy. Novenas mostly do, if you want them to work quickly, and for the same reason. You can also create your own novena prayer to an entity/saint but when you do that you're almost starting from scratch with building a relationship. That's perfectly valid, but perhaps not as quick as another set of words or recognized method. As with anything, you have to find the balance. Don't go throwing out the spell book because you've written everything from scratch yourself!
We should honor those who have helped to revive The Craft including Doreen Valiente who is falsely credited with writing The Charge of the Goddess. She just turned the information Leland received from Italian Witch Maddalena into a poem. She changed the words. What? Uh huh. She took something that actually had been handed down and changed the words! So if anyone takes issue with my changing her words to better fit the current zeitgeist, I will point you to the original Italian Charge of the Goddess and her english alterations!
I started this post in regard to a comment from Jannet Farrar, so let's conclude with one from Stewart Farrar. He wrote the forward for Mario Pazzaglini's Aradia or the Gospel of Witches A New Translation (which corrects Leland's translations of the Italian from the original papers):
So there we have Stewart Farrar not only acknowledging the origins of The Charge, we have him lauding the survival of La Vecchia in Italy. It survived for thousands of years, from the Etruscans through the 1890's when Leland wrote about it, but didn't manage to make it through those that last 65 years before Gardner came along and used material from it? Or the 60 years since? I have a nice bridge in Brooklyn to sell you...
I started out with a mature rebuttal to an emotional rant, and found myself in the middle of new emotional rant. Two for the price of one. Perhaps it's more appropriate to say I'm up on my favorite soap box (I didn't copy and paste the quote, I typed it while reading it out of my Pazzaglini book. That's dedication!) So let's bring this back around to the start with another quote from Stewart Farrar's forward in the Pazzaglini book:
"In the patriarchy, we women are the "sex class;" we are the object, not the subject, of desire. No matter how aware or how feminist a person is, we've still internalized the values of the patriarchy, and that means both men and women care about women maintaining our appearance (and therefore our value as sex objects) but neither men nor women care as much about men maintaining their appearance (because they are the consumers of, not the objects of, sexuality).So when do we say "these words no longer reflect our values" and move on to language which fits the current zeitgeist, or at least the one we want? Why is it that when someone objects to certain language used the response is "it's only words" and therefore shouldn't matter? Well, if it's "only words" then why are they clinging so hard to the old words? Most no longer use animal sacrifice. Most only use a symbolic Great Rite. If those things are taboo, why can't sexism be taboo too? Is it because sexism is still rampant in society at large? Are you defining or restricting your Pagan practice according to the judeo-christian mores of your family? Heh, the later is something Gavin Bone mentioned at the Trance workshop.
Quick quiz: In your mind's eye, illustrate the word "sexy." Most of the time, even a straight woman is going to see a sexy woman, not a sexy man. Because women are the "sexy" thing, men are the "aroused" thing.
The patriarchy: You're soaking in it."
Since repetition is invocation, when is it ok to change the words? It's ok when you understand and have experienced the concept behind it. Intention, I believe, is more important than the words used. Yes, words have vibration and energy, but your voice, which gives birth to those words, is the source of that energy. The voice demands, the voice supplicates. The word is the body of the intent, but the tone is the mind and the voice is the soul. If you can embody the spirit of the intention in a different word, if different words will get you there, go ahead. However, if you're just starting out, or have never done a certain spell or rite, do it as written, even if the words written bother you, and do it with an open mind and heart. This will give you the information you need to make it your own. I titled this post "blah blah blah blah" because I believe you can do an effective ritual or spell just with the word "Blah" because it's all about how you intone it.
There are spells and incantations and rites which require precise words to access their power. Grimoires do because you're tapping in to a specific stream of energy and the words are keys to that energy. Novenas mostly do, if you want them to work quickly, and for the same reason. You can also create your own novena prayer to an entity/saint but when you do that you're almost starting from scratch with building a relationship. That's perfectly valid, but perhaps not as quick as another set of words or recognized method. As with anything, you have to find the balance. Don't go throwing out the spell book because you've written everything from scratch yourself!
We should honor those who have helped to revive The Craft including Doreen Valiente who is falsely credited with writing The Charge of the Goddess. She just turned the information Leland received from Italian Witch Maddalena into a poem. She changed the words. What? Uh huh. She took something that actually had been handed down and changed the words! So if anyone takes issue with my changing her words to better fit the current zeitgeist, I will point you to the original Italian Charge of the Goddess and her english alterations!
I started this post in regard to a comment from Jannet Farrar, so let's conclude with one from Stewart Farrar. He wrote the forward for Mario Pazzaglini's Aradia or the Gospel of Witches A New Translation (which corrects Leland's translations of the Italian from the original papers):
"The Book of Shadows, which every Gardnerian copies out by hand, was alleged to have been thus passed down over the centuries; but although it certainly includes ancient traditional material, only the most naive would deny that in its present form it was compiled by Gardner himself. Proof that it is a recent compilation can be drawn from the fact that it includes at least one passage from Aleister Crowley's Gnostic Mass, a slightly altered Kipling poem, some identifiable Masonic phraseology, and elements from Aradia, Gospel of Witches.
The most clear example of this is the Charge, a beautiful and moving declamation by the High Priestess as representative of the Goddess, which is used by every Gardnerian and Gardnerian-derived coven, and which begins: "Whenever you are in need of anything, once in the month, and better it be when the moon is full, then ye shall assemble in some secret place, and adore the spirit of me, who am Queen of all Witches..."
This, and about the first third of the Charge, is almost a literal translation of the passage... in chapter 1 of Aradia...
Leland's gifted research into a "dying" tradition has made a significant contribution to a living and growing one... the particular forms he discovered were part local, part universal. They expressed something that is as old as humanity itself. Something, in his own words, of "a kind of vitality and of independence which indicated great power." Otherwise they would not have survived the Etruscan, Roman and Christian times. If some of their seeds have taken healthy root in British and American soil, it is because they find an echo there, merging naturally with the native stream because that stream ultimately has the same source.
So a Witch in London or New York or Yorkshire or Idaho can use without strangeness the words which Maddalena learned from her Tuscan forebears: "Whenever ye have need of any thing, once in the month and better it be when the moon is full..."
So there we have Stewart Farrar not only acknowledging the origins of The Charge, we have him lauding the survival of La Vecchia in Italy. It survived for thousands of years, from the Etruscans through the 1890's when Leland wrote about it, but didn't manage to make it through those that last 65 years before Gardner came along and used material from it? Or the 60 years since? I have a nice bridge in Brooklyn to sell you...
I started out with a mature rebuttal to an emotional rant, and found myself in the middle of new emotional rant. Two for the price of one. Perhaps it's more appropriate to say I'm up on my favorite soap box (I didn't copy and paste the quote, I typed it while reading it out of my Pazzaglini book. That's dedication!) So let's bring this back around to the start with another quote from Stewart Farrar's forward in the Pazzaglini book:
"[No coven] but the most unimaginative (and therefore most sterile) confine themselves to the Book of Shadows as though it were holy writ."Word.
Monday, June 20, 2011
Lucifero
Luce, light
Lucciola, lightning bug
Lucifero, light bearer
Lucina, an epithet of Diana
Light. The Day Star. The Sun. Apollo. Apollo = Lucifero. No, not "teh ebil devil" of the Christians. This is another case of a new regime literally demonizing the Gods of the old ways. Please pardon the stream of consciousness ramble; We did the labyrinth dedication today and there was a LOT of libation happening through the evening. The dedication was wonderful. I have the most wonderful, magickal people in my life and I thank them for helping me make this happen. Apollo became a big part of the operation in a way I hadn't anticipated and that, along with some synchronicity and here we are tonight, with me ranting about TheMan turning the epithet of our beautiful Light Bringer into something nasty. Forget taking back "warlock." I want to reclaim Lucifer as Sun God without it being about the satanists.
From Statius, a Roman poet:
I'm a Leland fan, despite his faults, and am including this bit of Italian creation lore from Aradia:
Lucciola, lightning bug
Lucifero, light bearer
Lucina, an epithet of Diana
Light. The Day Star. The Sun. Apollo. Apollo = Lucifero. No, not "teh ebil devil" of the Christians. This is another case of a new regime literally demonizing the Gods of the old ways. Please pardon the stream of consciousness ramble; We did the labyrinth dedication today and there was a LOT of libation happening through the evening. The dedication was wonderful. I have the most wonderful, magickal people in my life and I thank them for helping me make this happen. Apollo became a big part of the operation in a way I hadn't anticipated and that, along with some synchronicity and here we are tonight, with me ranting about TheMan turning the epithet of our beautiful Light Bringer into something nasty. Forget taking back "warlock." I want to reclaim Lucifer as Sun God without it being about the satanists.
From Statius, a Roman poet:
"And now Aurora rising from her Mygdonian couch had driven the cold darkness on from high in the heavens, shaking out her dewy hair, her face blushing red at the pursuing sun – from him roseate Lucifer averts his fires lingering in the clouds and with reluctant horse leaves the heavens no longer his, until the blazing father make full his orb and forbid even his sister her beams"From the Italian wiki:
Lucifero in Witchcraft
Dianus or Lucifer is a god of Stregheria , brother, son and consort of the goddess Diana , Lord of Light and the Morning.
Lucifero is the ancient name of a god Roman identified with the greek "Eosforo" (torch of Eos, or Aurora), and the Morning Star. Only later became associated with Satan .
Dianus Lucifer is also known as Dis (Kern) in the aspect of the god of death and the afterlife, and how Lupercus appearance of "Son of Promise," a bearer of hope and light.
He has three aspects:
The Horned Lord of wild forests and god of fertility and sensuality, and life and death.
The Caped: Lord of the head (of cattle) and plants. Rex Nemorensis: Kings and Lord of the harvest of animals, similar to the Greenman of the Celts The Elder: God of wisdom and guardian of the shrines.
In the cult of Stregheria Dianus Lucifer is the god intimately tied to the ancient mysteries of the Etruscan god Tinia , and the greek-roman as Pan , Dionysus and Apollo.
I'm a Leland fan, despite his faults, and am including this bit of Italian creation lore from Aradia:
Diana was the first created before all creation; in her were all things; out of herself, the first darkness, she divided herself; into darkness and light she was divided. Lucifer, her brother and son, herself and her other half, was the light.Oh you know there will be more on this another time! In the meanwhile, feel free to get this awesome cameo for me! Or at least join me in my admiration ;)
Thursday, June 9, 2011
A Day of Firsts
First things first (haha and no the jokes don't get better from here): I want to be a responsible blogger and give credit where it's due, so I'm slowly, during daylight hours, going over past blog posts to make sure they are credited and cited properly. If you happen to see a photo in need of a credit or an excerpt in need of a link, please let me know! I usually write these posts late at night, well after I should have been sleeping, and I want to keep on top of things. Now, onto the funtastic day of firsts!
Congrats to Confessions of a Pagan Soccer Mom for placing 1st in the Top 25 Faith Blogs by Moms contest! And thanks for launching me into 29th place! 12 of the top 25 blogs are Pagan and 17 out of the top 30 are too! Wow. Thanks also to Circle of Moms for organizing this. I have so many wonderful blogs to read now and more people have found their way here!
Tonight I was really touched by a note I received from a reader. She said the blog made her feel connected. Yay! I appreciate that so very much- it's the best compliment anyone could give me. Being a Strega amongst Wiccans is being a minority within a minority. It can be very frustrating at times; No matter how much we love our Wiccan, or other Pagan friends and compatriots, there is something lacking when you're not amongst your own, when you have to change something to fit in, even tho it's supposed to be a safe place. Because so much of Italian Witchcraft is based in Family, we can feel disconnected in a fundamental way. It can make you feel off kilter- like you're on a boat but haven't gotten your sea legs yet. I think anyone with a strong family connection feels this when they've been away from the family fold for too long.
Today we sat down and watched Star Wars with our son for the first time. He's rather sensitive to conflict (there are some nick jr episodes he won't watch because there's too much drama), so we didn't know how he'd like Star Wars. He likes the Star Wars toys he's been given in the past (especially any Lego version lol) The only scene that bothered him was the one where they're stuck in the garbage compacter. That was the one that bugged me as a kid too. Throughout the whole movie, much of the violence is abstract, almost cartoon-like: it happens to alien looking things or something explodes with fireworks type effects. In that compactor we have an unseen water monster who grabs the hero we identify with and tries to drown him. Then people almost get crushed! Yikes. That's the most realistic scene in the movie, emotionally speaking. Come to think of it, that scene still bothers me! He and I have talked about "The Force" in the past, about how everything is connected by energy and how to use it... it was fun to see him relate to that in a new way and to discuss why Darth Vader was "bad" even though he used the same energy that Obi Wan did. It's all about how and why you use it. We also talked about Han Solo being a "gray" or "shady" character who had been selfish until he found friends. Yes, we watched the one where Han shoots first! What kind of crappy bounty hunter could Greedo have been to miss at point blank range? Pft. Han shoots First! Overall, he liked it and wants to watch it again. Except for that garbage scene. Can't blame him!
Another first: This is the book I helped to write. I think 8 or 9 of my pieces were published in this book, now preserved at the NYPL. Squee! Can't wait to get down there and hold it! Happily, I've been able to read it already and have finally gotten the chance to see what my cohorts did that night!
I've started a post on my Fairy garden, and it, like so many others, has lead to deeper research on the Foletti. However! Since I have chiseled about this previously, I will now do a quickie on my Fairy Garden!
When I talk about Fairies, I don't mean a bunch of tiny smurf-like creatures. Whenever "they" want to make something seem unimportant, "they" diminutize it. Did I make up that word? I digress... The garden is more of what someone might call a "memorial garden" but it's not to honor someone who has passed, it's a space for us to honor the Spirits of the Land who are very much with us. There is a copper beech tree in the middle of the space. I've placed a small stone bench on either side of it. Because of the tree and the others nearby, there is very little sunlight in this space. I have forget-me-nots, a fern, and a few hooks upon which to hang baskets of impatiens. A friend recently offered periwinkle too! I'm not really going for "magickal" plants here, nor is this section my Italian Garden (you know... tomatoes, zucchini, eggplant, rosemary, rue...). This is a place to connect, to leave offerings, to sit and spend time and give love and energy. I'm trying to care for it, make it pretty, and starting to be more consistent about the offerings I leave and the time I spend. It's a place to be still and to listen. It's much different than the area with the labyrinth- that one is all about movement, especially since it's by the road. That is a walking meditation. The Fairy Garden is one of stillness. I leave offerings of shinies, of food, of wine, and tending the space is an offering of time, showing my willingness to work on our connection. I don't know what it means that I found a broken blue egg on the ground just before the wood which delineates the space. I left it on one of the benches thinking The Spirits would know what to do with it, and now it's gone without a trace. I suppose they did know.
I'll leave you tonight with this excerpt from Leland's Aradia:
The Children Of Diana, Or How The Fairies Were Born
All things were made by Diana, the great spirits of the stars, men in their time and place, the giants which were of old, and the dwarfs who dwell in the rocks, and once a month worship her with cakes.
There was once a young man who was poor, without parents, yet he was good. One night he sat in a lonely place, yet it was very beautiful, and there he saw a thousand fairies, shining white, dancing in the light of the full moon.
"Gladly would I be like you, O fairies!" said the youth, "free from care, needing no food. But what are you?"
"We are moon rays, the children of Diana," replied one
We are children of the Moon.
We are born of shining light;
When the Moon shoots forth a ray,
Then it takes a fairy's form.
"And you are one of us because you were born when the Moon, our mother Diana, was full;
yes, our brother, kin to us, belonging to our band.
"And if you are hungry and poor and will have money in your pocket, then think upon the Moon, on Diana, unto whom you were born; then repeat these words -
"'Moon, Moon, beautiful Moon!
Fairer far than any star;
Moon, O Moon, if it may be,
Bring good fortune unto me!'
"And then, if you have money in thy pocket, you will have it doubled.
"For the children who are born in a full moon are sons or daughters of the Moon,
especially when they are born of a Sunday when there is a high tide.
"Full moon, high sea,
Great man shalt thou be!"
Congrats to Confessions of a Pagan Soccer Mom for placing 1st in the Top 25 Faith Blogs by Moms contest! And thanks for launching me into 29th place! 12 of the top 25 blogs are Pagan and 17 out of the top 30 are too! Wow. Thanks also to Circle of Moms for organizing this. I have so many wonderful blogs to read now and more people have found their way here!
Tonight I was really touched by a note I received from a reader. She said the blog made her feel connected. Yay! I appreciate that so very much- it's the best compliment anyone could give me. Being a Strega amongst Wiccans is being a minority within a minority. It can be very frustrating at times; No matter how much we love our Wiccan, or other Pagan friends and compatriots, there is something lacking when you're not amongst your own, when you have to change something to fit in, even tho it's supposed to be a safe place. Because so much of Italian Witchcraft is based in Family, we can feel disconnected in a fundamental way. It can make you feel off kilter- like you're on a boat but haven't gotten your sea legs yet. I think anyone with a strong family connection feels this when they've been away from the family fold for too long.
Today we sat down and watched Star Wars with our son for the first time. He's rather sensitive to conflict (there are some nick jr episodes he won't watch because there's too much drama), so we didn't know how he'd like Star Wars. He likes the Star Wars toys he's been given in the past (especially any Lego version lol) The only scene that bothered him was the one where they're stuck in the garbage compacter. That was the one that bugged me as a kid too. Throughout the whole movie, much of the violence is abstract, almost cartoon-like: it happens to alien looking things or something explodes with fireworks type effects. In that compactor we have an unseen water monster who grabs the hero we identify with and tries to drown him. Then people almost get crushed! Yikes. That's the most realistic scene in the movie, emotionally speaking. Come to think of it, that scene still bothers me! He and I have talked about "The Force" in the past, about how everything is connected by energy and how to use it... it was fun to see him relate to that in a new way and to discuss why Darth Vader was "bad" even though he used the same energy that Obi Wan did. It's all about how and why you use it. We also talked about Han Solo being a "gray" or "shady" character who had been selfish until he found friends. Yes, we watched the one where Han shoots first! What kind of crappy bounty hunter could Greedo have been to miss at point blank range? Pft. Han shoots First! Overall, he liked it and wants to watch it again. Except for that garbage scene. Can't blame him!
I've started a post on my Fairy garden, and it, like so many others, has lead to deeper research on the Foletti. However! Since I have chiseled about this previously, I will now do a quickie on my Fairy Garden!
When I talk about Fairies, I don't mean a bunch of tiny smurf-like creatures. Whenever "they" want to make something seem unimportant, "they" diminutize it. Did I make up that word? I digress... The garden is more of what someone might call a "memorial garden" but it's not to honor someone who has passed, it's a space for us to honor the Spirits of the Land who are very much with us. There is a copper beech tree in the middle of the space. I've placed a small stone bench on either side of it. Because of the tree and the others nearby, there is very little sunlight in this space. I have forget-me-nots, a fern, and a few hooks upon which to hang baskets of impatiens. A friend recently offered periwinkle too! I'm not really going for "magickal" plants here, nor is this section my Italian Garden (you know... tomatoes, zucchini, eggplant, rosemary, rue...). This is a place to connect, to leave offerings, to sit and spend time and give love and energy. I'm trying to care for it, make it pretty, and starting to be more consistent about the offerings I leave and the time I spend. It's a place to be still and to listen. It's much different than the area with the labyrinth- that one is all about movement, especially since it's by the road. That is a walking meditation. The Fairy Garden is one of stillness. I leave offerings of shinies, of food, of wine, and tending the space is an offering of time, showing my willingness to work on our connection. I don't know what it means that I found a broken blue egg on the ground just before the wood which delineates the space. I left it on one of the benches thinking The Spirits would know what to do with it, and now it's gone without a trace. I suppose they did know.
I'll leave you tonight with this excerpt from Leland's Aradia:
The Children Of Diana, Or How The Fairies Were Born
All things were made by Diana, the great spirits of the stars, men in their time and place, the giants which were of old, and the dwarfs who dwell in the rocks, and once a month worship her with cakes.
There was once a young man who was poor, without parents, yet he was good. One night he sat in a lonely place, yet it was very beautiful, and there he saw a thousand fairies, shining white, dancing in the light of the full moon.
"Gladly would I be like you, O fairies!" said the youth, "free from care, needing no food. But what are you?"
"We are moon rays, the children of Diana," replied one
We are children of the Moon.
We are born of shining light;
When the Moon shoots forth a ray,
Then it takes a fairy's form.
"And you are one of us because you were born when the Moon, our mother Diana, was full;
yes, our brother, kin to us, belonging to our band.
"And if you are hungry and poor and will have money in your pocket, then think upon the Moon, on Diana, unto whom you were born; then repeat these words -
"'Moon, Moon, beautiful Moon!
Fairer far than any star;
Moon, O Moon, if it may be,
Bring good fortune unto me!'
"And then, if you have money in thy pocket, you will have it doubled.
"For the children who are born in a full moon are sons or daughters of the Moon,
especially when they are born of a Sunday when there is a high tide.
"Full moon, high sea,
Great man shalt thou be!"
Sunday, January 16, 2011
When life gives you lemons...
Cheer! They're awesome in so many ways. Besides the typical lemonade, lemons are:
Aromatheraputic mood elevator
Disinfectant
Antibacterial
Bleaching agent
Bug repellent
Negative energy absorber
Perfect thing to use for a hexing or blessing.
There are conflicting reports about when lemons were introduced to Sicily. There are reports of lemons around 300 CE, so say the scholars of such things on the internet. There are mosaics of lemons even earlier. Greece had lemons in the way way back, therefore Magna Graeca had it. Sicily was part of Magna Graeca. There are lemons on mosaics in pompeii. But I digress! On to the business of the night:
The lemon spell
Leland, a main source of this, seems to mix spells. You can find it in the early pages of Aradia. Here's my do-it-yourself version: At midnight, take your lemon and pierce it with happy things: colored pins in modern times, no black ones. Back in the day? Fragrant herbs? Piece of coral? Gem? Charge the lemon in your favorite way with your intent. In this case, it's for the blessing of whomever the intended is. The version in Aradia has an invocation of Diana, where it's Her power doing the work. You can do whatever you're comfortable with, but I do like asking Her Blessing.
If you use something for blessing, you can use it for the opposite. Instead of the above lovely things added, there would be rusty nails, dirt, black pins, bugs, and salt to name a few things. The ethics of hexing is another topic for another day.
This was a quickie post, but I will return to my cranktastic self tomorrow! \o/
Aromatheraputic mood elevator
Disinfectant
Antibacterial
Bleaching agent
Bug repellent
Negative energy absorber
Perfect thing to use for a hexing or blessing.
There are conflicting reports about when lemons were introduced to Sicily. There are reports of lemons around 300 CE, so say the scholars of such things on the internet. There are mosaics of lemons even earlier. Greece had lemons in the way way back, therefore Magna Graeca had it. Sicily was part of Magna Graeca. There are lemons on mosaics in pompeii. But I digress! On to the business of the night:
The lemon spell
Leland, a main source of this, seems to mix spells. You can find it in the early pages of Aradia. Here's my do-it-yourself version: At midnight, take your lemon and pierce it with happy things: colored pins in modern times, no black ones. Back in the day? Fragrant herbs? Piece of coral? Gem? Charge the lemon in your favorite way with your intent. In this case, it's for the blessing of whomever the intended is. The version in Aradia has an invocation of Diana, where it's Her power doing the work. You can do whatever you're comfortable with, but I do like asking Her Blessing.
If you use something for blessing, you can use it for the opposite. Instead of the above lovely things added, there would be rusty nails, dirt, black pins, bugs, and salt to name a few things. The ethics of hexing is another topic for another day.
This was a quickie post, but I will return to my cranktastic self tomorrow! \o/
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