One of my best teachers about magick was my Baptist deacon grandfather.

Tags: teacher & grandfather & the Gardener & Louisiana & farmer & Arizona & salty & desert & garden & delicious & discipline & meditation & change & land & reaffirmation & humanity & friends & Granpa & visit & listen & quiet & joy & share & hope & passion & binding & Earth

❝As I said before, apparently the motivation for hexing Kavanaugh has moved from justice to attack.

This will have consequences, regardless of who did what where and when.❞

— NeoWayland

Tags: maxims & hex & justice & attack & consequences & ugh-politics & Story is Not the Journey

I've spent weeks researching, writing, and rewriting.

Tags: lexicon & ugh-politics & sexuality & somatic sexuality & gender dysphoria & child abuse & sexual orientation & label & choice & consent & gender role & religious & magickal thinking

Me, I compare an on-the-fly online ritual to building one custom motorcycle in twenty different places with 459 mechanics and parts from thirteen manufacturers.

Tags: ugh-politics & tarot

Religions are not created by the Divine.

Religions are created by people claiming to speak for the Divine.

Tags: religion & Divine & man made rules & E.E. "Doc" Smith & Golden Rule & universe & responsible & secret of life & anthropic principle & Babylon Five & perspective

❝I don't think paganism is a movement. I think it's a life.❞

— NeoWayland

Tags: ugh-politics & maxims & consenting adults & Christians & taint mine & control & define & something less & something else & I will not serve

Someone is pulling your strings. You'd be a fool to accept that.

Tags: damnatio memoriae & nude & painting & mortality & strings & Fool & puppet & Mark Twain & thinking & question & H.L. Mencken & Isaac Bonewits & Roman & SCA & Moria Greyland & swastika & walk between the worlds & neopaganism & Christianity & puritanism & thou shalt not dissent & ugh-politics

❝There was a time, a little more than a year, when I was very anti-Christian. Some of my relatives didn't help. But I didn't like the person that I was becoming.

There's an old idea, like calls to like. In the New Age vernacular, if you put positive energy out into the universe you get positive energy back.

But it's simpler than that. People cherish their passions. If you wrap yourself in hate and envy and despite, that will color your thoughts. That will be what rules you. That is what you will hold tightest in your secret heart. And that is what you will be. You won't have passion or power for anything else.❞

— NeoWayland

Tags: Christian & like calls to like & positive & cherish your passion & hate & envy & despite & thoughts & secret heart & power & passion

I've always had my suspicions about that.

Tags: Doreen Valiente & bookstore & pagan

I do not believe that a government agency should be trusted with caring for the environment.

Tags: cross posted & ecology & environmentalism & ugh-politics & power with vs power over & Somebody Else's Problem & Douglas Adams & Silent Spring & Superfund

❝It is the difference between the Story and the Journey. One is told while the other is lived. The only two purposes of the story are to honor the memory of those who have gone before and to teach you to recognize where the path begins for your own journey. The rituals are not the faith. The map is not the territory. The words are not the thing. You can only be responsible for your journey alone because it is your journey and no one else's.❞

— NeoWayland, Some thoughts from my WebTree path

Tags: maxims & Story is Not the Journey & ritual & faith & map & territory & words & things & responsible

Politics has tainted paganism in my mind and I am working to re-establish the separation.

Tags: ugh-politics & experienced & revealed & paganism & frisson & truths & taint & faith & truth & World & Divine

I wonder. If a symbol can be "tainted" no matter what it was used for previously, what does it take to "purify" the symbol?

Tags: swastika & victimhood & Hogan's Heroes & The Blues Brothers & The Great Dictator & Melodysheep & laughter & Charlie Chaplin & symbols & SCA & virtue & vice & people of the book & shame & ugh-politics & Golden Rule & Christian & neo-Nazi

Putting up one of my old chants

Tags: chants & internet debates & pagan groups

I could handle the backhanded compliments and schoolboy taunts.

Tags: internet debates & compliments & taunts

A song that helped me recently

Tags: lyrics & Rick Springfield & sky & gods

❝I call myself pagan because I don't have a better term. I'm polytheistic and pantheistic. On alternate Thursdays and every third Tuesday I might admit to an animism bent as well. On the 13th of the month, I'll tell you (truthfully) that the label isn't really all that important, only the manifestation.❞
     — NeoWayland

Tags: maxims & pagan & polytheistic & pantheistic & animism & label

The air is still humid from last night's never-storm. No rain, but plenty of lightning and thunder around midnight.

Tags: never-storm & lightning storms

There's something very renewing about greeting the sun at dawn dressed in nothing but a pendant.

Tags: lyrics & Circles & Alan Bell & Windmills & Gwen Zak & Ann Cass & Isaac Bonewits & summer & harvest & pagan & daily rituals & sun & Moon & pendants & roof & clouds & stars & world & universe & secret of life & hermit

I was coming off a long time of being militantly solitary and I relished the fellowship I finally allowed myself.

Tags: morality & patriotism & honor & Old Breed & Bill Whittle & you are not alone & virtue & Albert Jay Nock

If we're not recognizing and honoring the cycles, what are we doing?

Tags: companion & patio & night sky & Public Pagan & cycles & Earth & sky & high desert & lawn & neighbors & waterfall shower & Moon & choice & trust

It's actually part of my Summergate celebration.

Tags: Arbor Day & trees & Summergate & wheel of the year & solar year & Fire Festivals

Power with versus power over

Tags: power with vs power over & Starhawk & recognizing & what already exists & what you bring & sacrifice & change benefits everyone & initiate change & secret of life & honesty & 4PM

❝The "Witch Winter Solstice Ritual" in Nylon is populist pap. It's a lot like having Easter using only Cadbury eggs and never once mentioning a resurrection or what it might mean.❞

Tags: Raymond Buckland & balance & the Gardener & grandfather & Unicorn Brigade & witch & witchcraft & coyotes & playgan & rabbits & Arizona & popular culture & solstice

You have to begin by learning. Intuition relies on knowledge and experience.

Tags: magickal thinking & intuition & inspriation & reasoning & knowledge & experience

According to popular culture, magick is about breaking the rules and molding reality.

Nope.

Tags: companion planting & balance & Nature & Three Sisters & squash & maize & beans & farm & garden & experts & masters & supernatural & science is process & complication & mastery & Aleister Crowley

No matter what the inspiration, you still have to come down off the mountain. Living in the Here & Now helps make you human.

Tags: Wild Hunt Blog & experts & masters & Celtic & living faith & classic & Celtic Reconstructionism & Here&Now & triad & faith & Story & connections & Divine & link & dynamic tension & balance & Ro3

More and more I think I was wise to separate my pagan blogging from my political blogging.

Tags: Divine & polytheistic & pantheistic & animism & godmask & gods & the magick & worthy & Christian & Gnostic

You take a plot of land. Now you can grow flowers or vegetables or both. You choose.

Tags: ugh-politics & garden & allies not servants & Mom

That’s what those trees are for.

Tags: Arbor Day & trees & ravens & Summergate & the Gardener & mom & grandfather & solar year & wheel of the year

This one’s a lusty lass, and not just because she’s nude and very pregnant.

Tags: Divine & Gaia & Powers & lusty lasses & human right & victimhood & picture & flimsy girl-child & thundering sky-god & strength & lust & fierce & rail maiden & nudity & naked & Protector & Champion & pregnant & statuary

“My friends have always been the best of me.”

— Doctor Who, “The Wedding of River Song”

Tags: Corporate Clone & mask & neighbors & Talespinner & TV & Doctor Who

If it was what you expected, why do you call it change?

Tags: 3rd Yearnings & corrupt & youth of America & Dramatica Pro & writers & psychology & fantasy worlds & meddle & pagas & commitment & tattoo & costume & frustration & fingers burned & bruises & scrapes & satisfaction & accomplishment

I don't bow unless I respect

Tags: 3rd Yearnings & Blessed & Methodist & family & talking not begging & KMF & classic & iron rule & Bishop Golden & Divinity & allies not servants & offering my loyality & honor & godmask & Elder Relatives & fear vs. love

I answer my email indirectly

Tags: 3rd Yearnings & 3% & Ro3 & today & fellow-feeling & golden rule & silver rule & iron rule & platinum rule & active listening & pertinent magick & classic & t

When things are messy, actions and answers aren't clear cut. That is when you need faith in yourself.

Tags: blessings & bless list & ethics & price & honor & classic & 3rd Yearnings

Working my way through my "to read" shelf

Tags: 3rd Yearnings & elements of thinking & Daniel H. Pink & design & Celtic art & revival & Apple & artistic & technical & iMac & Story & narrative medicine & thought & meditation & writing

I played hooky and climbed up on the roof, just so I could enjoy the moon peeking through the trees on the greenbelt in my desert.

Tags: Moon & bright moon & night & horizon & roof & greenbelt & desert

Thoughts before the sabbat

Tags: 3rd Yearnings & sabbats & Sabbath & healing working & tomato basil loaf & sunflower-cornbread & brown sugar & recipies & cornbread & cast iron skillet & grandmother & grandfather & uncles & cousins & cracklin' corn bread & johnny cake recipe & sunflower seeds & apple cider vinegar & fresh blueberries & birds