New Chapter with the Avalonian Tradition

כ״ג בכסלו תשע"א
Shamash 26

I'm really excited to begin this new chapter in my life. Readers of my blogs may see some design changes (starting today) as I reclaim and flesh out my ancient pagan Celtic heritage in a more deliberate and focused manner than I have in the past.

Witchcraft has brought spiritual healing into my tattered life over the past several years, and now the specific Goddess focused Avalonian Tradition of Witchcraft will bring healing out even more fully. While I recognize the parallel importance of a Divine Masculine path, the path of the Divine Feminine is the way for me. Blessed be my Ancestors for bringing me to this day.

The Sacred Land's Green Mantle

כ׳ בכסלו תשע"א
Shamash 23

Commentary on Vayeshev from Garden of the Dark Moon Jubilee - The Sacred Land's Green Mantle.

How to Pronounce Myfanwy in Welsh

כ׳ בכסלו תשע"א
Shamash 23

Myfanwy pronunciation: Listen and hear how to pronounce my Noble Name "Myfanwy" in Welsh forvo.com/word/myfanwy/ .

Seventh Grandchild On The Way

י״ט בכסלו תשע"א
Shamash 22

My seventh grandchild is on the way! My youngest son and his long time girlfriend are expecting their first.

Goddess bless this child with all goodness, that s/he be born healthy, happy and enveloped in love.

So mote it be! אמן

The Magic of Numbers

י״ז בכסלו תשע"א
Shamash 20

I feel my good work is vindicated now (after this nursing facility fired me this past August 2nd for refusing to discipline one of my union restorative staff without written policy support) after I worked so hard to drive their total Medicare-A reimbursements up 40.2% during the first full quarter of my employment there. Now, and I quote - "After a series of months in the black, finances at the Champaign County Nursing Home have taken a turn for the worse ..."

I just came across this - the News-Gazette reported 10/18/2010 (a month ago):

URBANA – After a series of months in the black, finances at the Champaign County Nursing Home have taken a turn for the worse.

But the facility is still about $100,000 ahead for the year, the county nursing home board of directors learned Monday night.

August and September turned out to be tough months for the county-operated facility, with a loss of about $24,000 in August and another $15,000 in September, according to nursing home director Andrew Buffenbarger. That came after three consecutive months with net income of $66,191 to $91,766.

August originally was in the black until officials discovered that not enough money was being deducted for retirement expenses. All of the mid-year correction of about $47,000 was taken in August, resulting in a loss for the month of $24,000. The loss in September was attributed mostly to pharmacy costs and higher than expected staffing costs.

Their census is down too, making it even worse.

Just the facts.

Certificate of Business Ownership

י״ו בכסלו תשע"א
Shamash 19

I finished up the process and received my Certificate of Business Ownership for WITCHCRAFTS by Liorah Lleucu today from the County. For only a few bucks, I've also purchased some promotion spots on Etsy for my shoppe over the weekend and on Cyber Monday. I hope it pays off. I have bills to pay.

I am really hoping to get some new cool candles listed before the promotion begins too. I wish my supplies would hurry up and arrive - I've got some really neat plans for some awesome candle designs!

Lilith

י״ג בכסלו תשע"א
Shamash 16

Commentary on Vayishlach from Garden of the Dark Moon Jubilee - Lilith.

Good Tax News

י״א בכסלו תשע"א
Shamash 14

My stress level has just plummeted. I just finished talking to a very nice lady agent at the Illinois Dept. of Revenue and found out I only have to collect and pay sales taxes on sales shipped to customers living in Illinois! That makes things so much easier. My tax bill is also going to be so much cheaper than I thought as I have had only a handful of Illinois customers at most for all of 2009 and 2010 to date! The rest of my sales receipts (the vast majority) can be deducted via the interstate commerce deduction allowance. I'll probably owe less than $5 in sales tax when it get it all figured.

Yay!

I've also ordered Deduct It! Lower Your Small Business Taxes for use when figuring my income taxes for 2010.

Brain Time-Out

י״א בכסלו תשע"א
Shamash 14

I'm trying to figure out how to pay my sales taxes and I definitely need to take a brain break right now. They didn't send me any preprinted ST-1 forms so I could file for the early months of 2009 since I can't file those online. One of those quarters I had only $9.50 in total sales - doesn't seem hardly worth filing for, but alas I must pay my 59 cents or so for that quarter, so they should have sent me some forms to file with since they don't have the forms available online and the option to file for those quarters electronically isn't available either! They want people to pay their taxes, right? So, why do they not give you all the stuff you need to do it right off the bat? I need them to verify my sales tax rate is correct too. They should have provided me with this information I think.

I'll work on this some more tomorrow when I can contact someone for answers and forms. I'm finished with it for tonight.

Magical Operation

י״א בכסלו תשע"א
Shamash 14

Last night I dreamt a dream with three sets of threes.

Set 1. Three Liquors.

I was in a fancy restaurant with a bar along one wall. For some reason, I was asked to and did point out three bottles of liquor from among many I was shown that were especially magical. One among the three I chose was especially especially magical, and I designated it as such. The three liquors I chose were classy liquors although I don't know now specifically which ones I picked out and designated as especially magical. In the background, someone was trying to make trouble for me there, so I left and escaped the trouble in my black car which someone was trying to steal.

Arriving at another nice restaurant, I got out of my car and walked into its foyer. It was shabbat and people were crowding into the restaurant around me for dinner. On a shelf overhead, someone requested that a reserved box of three especially magical liquors be brought out to celebrate shabbat. The three special liquors in the special reserved box were the ones I had just chosen in the first restaurant, the very very magical one among them especially caught my eye.

Set 2. Three People.

There were three people standing on the Temple Mount Stonehenge Land - the Land was elevated upon a mystical hill - two men and me, a woman. There was no Temple building or standing stones there on the Land, it was just the Land upon we stood. We were going to do a magical operation whereby cosmic energy would be directed.

Set 3. Three Circles.

Each one of the three of us standing on the Temple Mount Stonehenge Land walked a circle like an orbit around some empty central point. I walked an orbit between the orbits walked by the men. I walked my orbit widdershins. They walked their orbits in the direction opposite mine. This was the way the magical operation was implemented.

Ancestral Ladder

ו' בכסלו תשע"א
Shamash 9

Commentary on Vayetzei from Garden of the Dark Moon Jubilee - Ancestral Ladder.

The Red Meal

כ״ט בחשון תשע"א
Shamash 2

Commentary on Toldot from Garden of the Dark Moon Jubilee - The Red Meal.

Voice of the Land

כ״ט בחשון תשע"א
Shamash 2

This evening begins astrological Samhain. Last evening and today is Shabbat Samhain. In observance of this shabbat sabbat, a sabbat shabbaton of the witchy kind, I ritually created a passage key link between this world and the Otherworld Mystery of Fate using the name of my ancestor and grandmother Evelyn (who has merged with the Power within the Land) to call upon the Goddess of the Old Ways (known in the ancient Celtic mysteries as Kolyo). The ritual itself, though undisclosed here, was exquisitely simple but perfectly focused.

Then, I dreamt a myriad of dreams last night and this morning. Of the many journeys I traveled in my dreams, this dream I disclose ...

The molten innards of the Land were rising to the surface. Under my feet, everywhere I walked, the bright orange of rising lava could be seen under the dissolving membrane of earth which covered it. The world as I knew it was dissolving.

I saw people falling into rivers and seas of molten earth as it rose to the surface. The surface under my feet was warming, and no matter where I went, civilization was being swallowed up in an ocean of lava. I was trying to find some place safe to walk upon, some place that would be spared being consumed by the rising liquid fire. Humankind, like in the mythologic flood of Noah's time, was being swallowed up. There was seemingly no way to escape it.

Suddenly, in my mind it was spoken and made known to me, the only place to which I could flee to find refuge from the consuming fire of the Innards of the Earth, the only Land on the planet which would be spared, the only place where human beings would continue to exist, was in ... "the Colorado mountains."

Then, as I was hurriedly moving from area to area of quickly dissolving Land (as soon as I stepped off any area, it fully collapsed into the emerging ocean of molten earth), I saw it - the remnant of humanity, with me among it, living safely in the Colorado mountains. Then, I woke up from this particular dream.

The Colorado mountains? What can this mean?

The mountains of koloraydoh - 'Kolyo Raidho' are the 'mountains of Kolorado.'

In honor of my Ancestors, uniting Celtic tradition ...

Kolyo is the Divine Name of the Great Mother of All - Ubiquitous, Omnipresent, Immortal and Eternal. In Indo-European Paganism and Celtic tradition, Kolyo is She who drives the Divine Drama and gives birth to the Gods and Goddesses. The Supreme Spinning Goddess, She is the First Timeless Source who regenerates All. A Being and Power older than Time itself, Kolyo spins the threads of Fate.

... and Germanic tradition ...

Raidho is the rune of Divine Law, of the Old Ways, of travel and movement, of the journey of the Soul and Spirit throughout the tapestry of time and timelessness. It is the path upon which Being walks, and all my paths lead to Kolyo Raidho, the Witch who contains both upstairs (in the Overworld) and downstairs (in the Underworld).

... and Jewish tradition.

In parallel, the 'mountains' of kolorado are the three Goddess letters 'y' (yud, י), 'i' (yod, י) and 'h' (hei, ה) in the Divine Name 'Kolyo Raidho.' These three letters (ייה) permute to form the Divine Name Yihye (יהי, meaning 'to be', 'to become', 'exist', 'happen') of Jewish tradition (where my own existent physicality forms the final ה of the Name Yihyeh (יהיה, the Divine Feminine Tetragrammaton) also meaning 'to be', 'to become', 'exist', 'happen'.

The remaining letters of the Divine Name Kolyo Raidho transliterated into magical Hebrew letters (קולו and ראידו) have the gematriot of 142 and 211, respectively. The value 142 has a digit sum of 7, the number of shabbat, the sacred time of this magical communion. The value 211 is the value of the word הדבר meaning 'to speak', 'to overcome obstacles', 'happenings', 'leader' and the 'mystical sayings' of the ten commandments spoken from the mountain of Sinai. Alternatively and equally, the value 211 is the value of the word דברה meaning 'She speaks.'

Through Goddess the Land speaks. In Goddess the Torah's sayings are sourced, for ultimately, they are Her words.

Safety for me exists in and all my paths lead to the Old Ways of Goddess.

Vindicated!

כ״ז בחשון תשע"א
Phasma Priscus 29

More good news in follow-up to my entry Upright and Just, where I considered the ethical issue I am having with a witch who is trying to claim I infringed upon her copyright by making and selling a drippy black pentacled pillar candle in my Etsy shoppe WITCHCRAFTS by Liorah Lleucu.

Well, I turned her in to Etsy after she sent me a certified letter advancing her threat to sue me for copyright infringement if I didn't stop selling my candle. With copyright law clearly on my side (I in no way infringed upon any copyright as she is trying to claim), and given that she is the owner of candle company with legal counsel available to her, her legally unfounded claim makes her threat to sue me abuse of the legal system to conduct a campaign of slander and harassment. She also has been harassing me via email, and apparently has been slandering me and trying to stir up trouble for me using Etsy forums.

With the claim and the evidence presented to Etsy, Etsy found that:

1. No copyright law had been violated.
2. That having been told not to contact me any further, any further contact this witch may try to have with me is a violation of Etsy policy and I am to let them know if it occurs, in which case, she may be banned from doing business on Etsy.
3. That she is not to slander me or my shoppe any more using the Etsy forums.
   

I am vindicated! Yay!

More News On WITCHCRAFTS Start-Up

כ״ז בחשון תשע"א
Phasma Priscus 29

Hey, hey! I received my Illinois Business Authorization and Certificate of Registration today for WITCHCRAFTS by Liorah Lleucu! I have an official business tax ID number now. I think this also means that I can now buy my craft supplies wholesale too! It's expensive to make craft items when you can't get wholesale supplies. Now, if I only had the money to buy some wholesale supplies .... in time, in time. I have patience, even if I am very excited to get started.

So cool!

My New Small Business News

כ״ז בחשון תשע"א
Phasma Priscus 29

In follow-up to last week's entry Transitioning From Hobby To Business,where I registered WITCHCRAFTS by Liorah Lleucu with the state, this past Monday I took the next step and registered with the County, filing an Assumed Name Certificate Intention. Tomorrow, the local newspaper begins running my Assumed Name Publication Notice in the legal section of the newspaper.

I'm now waiting for tax filing information from the state to get my business taxes in order.

Next on my list ... to find out about business tax deductions and how to deduct my start-up costs and other expenditures, and how to put together a small business-wise bookkeeping system.

The box under my desk with all my receipts and other documents still waits for some organization ... but, at least I'm on my way.