Monday, May 31, 2010

Odd Behavior For Humanitarian Aid Workers

י״ט בסיון תש"ע
Mab 20

For the record in follow up to an earlier post - "Passengers" aboard "humanitarian aid" ship (intentionally trying to run a blockage to avoid inspection allowed by international law and trying to enter a war zone without inspection) attack soldiers attempting to board the vessel to inspect it - throwing one soldier overboard, attacking others with weapons, and beating another with a crowbar (second BBC World News video below). Wow, I've never seen this kind of behavior from "humanitarian aid" charity workers before.





Hat-tip for videos - Mystical Paths.

With Beauty Underneath The Stars

י״ח בסיון תש"ע
Mab 19

Exquisite music!

Goddess Rising

י״ח בסיון תש"ע
Mab 19

In response to today's events in the Middle East, one of my male pagan Facebook (former) friends banned me as a friend because I refused to let his rabid anti-Israel emotional tirade go unchallenged by cool reasoned consideration of the whole picture. Well okay, may his out of control Israel-hatred spiral down into his very gut and eat him up from the inside out, for clearly he's forgotten that when it comes to warrior goddesses, there are no warrior gods who can equal them in valor, cunning strategy, ferocity or any other skill of warfare. She is the Dark Mother, and no male god equals Her and no male god is given authority to stand in Her stead.

Foxnews reports - "Carmon, the Israeli deputy ambassador, said the flotilla turned down repeated requests from Israeli troops to stand down for inspection in accordance with international laws."

What exactly was the problem with allowing inspection according to international laws if indeed all the ship was carrying was humanitarian aid?

And why was this flotilla stopped when five flotillas before it were not stopped?

Saturday, May 29, 2010

Ancient Pagan Altar Unearthed In Israel

ט״ז בסיון תש"ע
Mab 17

Mati Milstein in Ashqelon, Israel
for National Geographic News
Published May 28, 2010

Ancient Pagan Altar Unearthed in Israel

A 2,000-year-old altar where wealthy pagans worshiped has been unearthed in an Israeli cemetery, archaeologists say.

The 24-inch-high (60-centimeter-high) granite structure—adorned with carvings of three bull heads, ribbons, and laurel wreaths—was found May 17 during salvage excavations for a new hospital emergency room in the southern city of Ashqelon (see map).

One of the oldest port cities in the Holy Land, Ashqelon may have been inhabited as early as the Neolithic period, which began around 9,500 B.C.

The cemetery where the altar was found served Ashqelon's general pagan population, said Israel, who added that altars were "found everywhere, in cemeteries, in town squares, and also in temples."

Read full article here. Also see ...

Mati Milstein in Zippori National Park, Israel
for National Geographic News
August 15, 2008

Ancient Pagan Temple Unearthed in Israel

Ruins of a pagan temple from the second century A.D. have been unearthed in the heart of a Jewish capital that existed during Israel's Roman period.

In its heyday, the temple sat within a walled courtyard abutting the most centrally-located homes in the ancient city of Zippori, about halfway between Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) and the Mediterranean.

Although pagan artifacts have been found in Zippori before, the temple represents the first significant structural evidence of a pagan settlement in the capital.

"We have textual accounts from the second century indicating the presence of a pagan population in Zippori," said Zeev Weiss, lead archaeologist of the Noam Shudofsky Zippori Expedition at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Based on the new find, "it is clear [the pagans] had the influence and the ability to erect this temple in the center of the city."

Read full article here.

The Fifth Element, The Elixir Of Life

ט״ז בסיון תש"ע
Mab 17

Commentary on Beha'alotcha from Garden of the Dark Moon Jubilee - The Fifth Element, The Elixir of Life.

Friday, May 28, 2010

A Perfect Morning

ט״ו בסיון תש"ע
Mab 16

Today I experienced a perfect morning.

Bright and sunny with the happy songs of little birds floating through a very quiet breeze, the air smelled fresh and deliciously new, like when I was a little girl. My head was crystal clear and unusually sharp. Colors were vibrant, sounds were alive, sights were caressing. The soft smells of early summer danced lightly past my nose [inhaling deeply].

Washing my face, brushing my teeth and combing my hair, I threw on a comfortable black witch skirt and old white tee shirt. My toes with their bold red toenails laughed with delight as I slid on my black bejeweled summer flats. Barefaced and ready, I went to the post office to mail some blackthorn berries to Canada. The Universe kept smiling at me.

At the post office, even though I don't know the woman behind the counter, she felt so comfortably familiar to me. Her words in my ear had the flavor of a best friend. In fact, the whole trip to the post office made me feel like I was living in a colorful version of Mayberry. I just fell in love with my hometown. It feels so good to be alive.

Just wow.

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

The Origin Of The Sea

י״ב בסיון תש"ע
Mab 13

Last night I dreamt.

I walked to the bottom of the earth to the origin of sea. At the origin of the sea, there was no water, only dry ground. Nothing lived here - it was an empty place.

As I began walking up the earth, following the sea's line of evolution, a drop of water fell here and there onto the dry ground. Soon, the drops multiplied, turning the sea's line of evolution from a path spotted with an increasing amount of water drops into a small outflowing stream.

Then, the stream grew larger into a small sea. At this point, I was still walking easily in the sea as if it was a stream, even though it was actually a deep ocean.

As the sea grew larger, it flowed out mightily with great force. It had no living creatures in it yet.

As the force of the sea's flow grew, and as I came closer to the Place where human civilization and creatures existed (I could intuit their presence now over the far horizon), suddenly I became aware of a protective wall (like a tunnel inside the sea) safely separating me from direct contact with the roaring flowing force of the sea as it flowed out past me into existence. I noticed the wall on my left had a clear paned window running the length of the tunnel as I walked through which I could look and see the the sea as the waters of it sped past. At this point, no creature could survive in it - the force of its flow was too great. There were still no creatures in the sea.

I woke up.

The power in its flow was so incredibly amazing - I wish I could put into words the experience of it.

Sunday, May 23, 2010

The Woman In The River

י' בסיון תש"ע
Mab 11

Last night, I dreamt.

I was the matriarch of my household. I had no husband and provided for my family.

Our house stood at the top of a hill which stood by a river with a bridge crossing it. It had rained heavily, but wasn't raining in the dream though the sky had the color of a rainy day in it. The river was engorged with water which flooded over the bridge crossing it. The river flowed from the north to the south. I was standing southernly facing the north, facing the river as it flowed toward my vision.

I watched as one car with a lone male driver dared enter onto the flooded bridge, moving from the bank on my right in the east (as I faced the river flowing from north to south). The car with the lone driver in it made it across and wasn't swept off the bridge.

I watched as the same car and emboldened driver, now with a woman passenger in it, tried to drive back across the river from the west bank to the east bank. He drove the car sideways and with haste, speeding and sliding over the flooded bridge. Initially, he made it across - but when the car's wheels touched the wet soil of the high eastern embankment, the car slid backwards, flipping over and falling back into the flooded water of the river. The car started to sink with the woman belted to the passenger seat inside, with the passenger window closed, and with the passenger door locked. The man escaped through the car window on his side which was open.

He swam and made it to the river's shore, thinking that the woman was also swimming to safety, but she wasn't. She was trapped inside the car which had now sunk completely underwater. He rallied his friends who were watching from the eastern bank and they dove into the river to try and save the woman trapped in the car. They couldn't. They couldn't find the car nor the woman inside it in the depths of the murky water of the flooded river. She drowned. The man and his friends eventually climbed out of the water for the last time, without the woman.

I woke up, watching from my place on the hill over it.

Standing Our Ground

י' בסיון תש"ע
Mab 11

... this One's for the girls.

Through The Hands Of Goddess

י' בסיון תש"ע
Mab 11

... freed from the vice grip of God.

Saturday, May 22, 2010

Skin Of The Magical Tachash

ט' בסיון תש"ע
Mab 10

Commentary on Naso from Garden of the Dark Moon Jubilee - Skin of the Magical Tachash.

Dreams And Visions On The Divine Feminine Power Of Resistance

ט' בסיון תש"ע
Mab 10

Last night I dreamt.

I was visiting a small town to the east of me in the midwest. The small town was not any which inhabits my real life. The entire town consisted of magical practitioners. There was a murdering group loose in the town, but the townspeople suspected among themselves that there was a single murderer and that it was me, because I was not a native of the town. Even though I knew that there was a renegade group as opposed a single individual who was doing the murders, I couldn't identify the individuals who comprised the group. The town was investigating me. I was investigating members of the town. The group of murderers was alert to the murder investigations, and that I had them on my radar. They hid and laid low.

As the investigations proceeded, it became clear that the town was in trouble. The land upon which it stood and to the south of it was shifting due to activity in the earth's core and mantle. A huge wall of molten earth and lava rose up in the south like a tsunami wave. But, as it approached the town, when it saw me, the face of its surface cooled and crusted, forming a wall of crusted earth with molten lava dammed up behind it. For now, the town was safe. I knew that if I left the town at this point in time, the cooled crusty face of the dammed lava wall would melt enabling the wall of molten earth and fiery lava to pour down upon the town.

I began waking up. As I was waking, I saw the land making up the west coast of the United States collapse into the bowels of the earth. Then, the sea poured in and covered over where the land had been.

As I was opening my eyes, words spoke through my mind saying, "your path is diverted." In my mind, I knew that the path of my life, unseen by me, had been leading me toward moving or traveling to the west coast, but now that path had been diverted. My life path is not heading me toward the west coast any longer.

Related entry - Yabok and the Power of Witchcraft

Thursday, May 20, 2010

A Blessing For The Sisterhood

ח' בסיון תש"ע
Mab 9

I received this blessing from a friend, and while I don't do chain letters, I do wish to extend the blessing to all of my spiritual sisters in this journey of life. So, I am posting and dedicating the essence of the blessing contained within the chain letter to all my friends.

May today there be peace within. May you trust that you are exactly where you are meant to be. May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith in yourself and others. May you use the gifts that you have received and pass on the love that has been given to you. May you be content with yourself just the way you are. Let this knowledge settle into your bones and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love. It is there for each and every one of us.

So mote it be. אמן.

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Yabok And The Power Of Witchcraft

ב' בסיון תש"ע
Mab 3

Commentary on Bamidbar from Garden of the Dark Moon Jubilee - Yabok and the Power of Witchcraft.

Sunday, May 09, 2010

Sisters Of The Wind

כ״ה באייר תש"ע
Annwyn 26

This morning as I lay half awake in my bed after an interesting dream, the sudden vision of a wormhole in spacetime opening up to my vision became perceived. It wasn't a tenuous or tumultuous wormhole at all either, but a peacefully stable permanent wormhole reaching out through the fabric of deep existence, connecting me into a vast network of wormholes. Like my own personal umbilical cord to the Great Endless Goddess whose body forms Reality, my own personal path within the Reality of the Divine Feminine cleared perceptively before me. I am truly joined together with my sisters in a Sisterhood of Witches. We are the Universe.



Lyrics from Laura Power's track Sisters of the Wind [from Beyond The Pale, Legends of the Goddess II CD]

Sweet abandon
Goddess of air
Tangled starlight
Trails from her hair
In the silence of time forgotten
Before the garden of man
Riding currents with all creation
She plays out God's hand

Wings of fortune
Beckon the dawn
Cross fields of heather
They circle the moors
Somewhere over the mists of morning
Beyond the mountains of sky
They'll pass right through your dreams
With a whispering sigh

They fly graceful and bold
The four winds of heaven
Rise shining like gold
Their world knows no end
Forever sisters of the wind

And willow
Alder and ash
Groves of glory
Bow as they pass
East and west of the mystic crossroads
North and south of the sea
They'll find and guide you along
If you believe

They fly graceful and bold
The four winds of heaven
Rise shining like gold
Their world knows no end
Forever sisters of the wind

Saturday, May 08, 2010

The Healing Feeling Of Wholeness

כ״ד באייר תש"ע
Annwyn 25

A new friend of mine asked me to elaborate on a statement written earlier today in my entry, A Year To Reveal All Good - "deep clinical depression (which discovering Witchcraft relieved in me - thank Goddess!)"

As I explained in my response to Cakes4thequeen, I'm not sure I know how to analyze it, but to say that it happened. My depression was psychologically severe. I had alienated many people during the course of it. For me, depression wasn't just a case of being sad, but a very real emotional disability.

The clinical depression really came upon me in full force in the mid 1990's and got progressively worse as I began to actively practice Kabbalah, the magical-mystical form of Judaism. The way I see it now is that the depression was directly related to the evolution of my spiritual pathworking - the Dark Goddess moving in me, in fact. I also think that the severity of my depression was proportionate in some manner to depth and intensity of my spiritual practice, even though in hindsight I see that the Kabbalistic practice alone without the integral incorporation of Witchcraft into it was imbalanced in me as a woman. Active spiritual pathworking naturally magnifies any areas of psycho-spiritual imbalance. I am a Witch, and the Witch in me will not, can not, be denied.

Finding Witchcraft, acknowledging the Dark Goddess in me, and evolving my own Divine Feminine reality brought critical balance into my life. In natural consequence to the balance Witchcraft brought me, my depression naturally got better and finally, gave way to joy. There is nothing quite like feeling whole - it heals.

A Year To Reveal All Good

כ״ד באייר תש"ע
Annwyn 25

Commentary on Behar-Bechukotai from Garden of the Dark Moon Jubilee - A Year To Reveal All Good.

Monday, May 03, 2010

Ingwaz Force Forthsends Blessing

י"ט באייר תש"ע
Annwyn 20

In follow up to my shabbat sabbat Beltane entry (Blessing of the Cursed), this evening I drew a rune of divination just to see what the Universe has to say on the matter. The rune I drew was Ingwaz.

As I've written before on Ingwaz (Power To Do It):

Edred Thorsson (Runelore) writes, 'The Ingwaz-force is that which is released to give the plentiful year." It is a rune of peace, prosperity, cosmic nourishment, deep-level gestation and new power. In it are new ideas and solutions. Through it, people reach their potential, and homes and hearth are protected.

With perfect synchronicity, on the heels of my shabbat sabbat Beltane entry, Ingwaz comes to say that protected blessing is about to be released from the Divine storehouse into my reality.

Saturday, May 01, 2010

Witch Dance

י״ז באייר תש"ע
Annwyn 18
Shabbat Sabbat Beltane, 32 Days of the Omer

My poem, originally published on my old Geocities website (Walking on Fire), republished since on my poetry blog, Awenydd. Reposted now for Beltane.

Witch Dance

a tapestry
a seamless epiphany

of deep shadows
dancing naked with the night

chaos thirsts
ordering the mystery tale

as serpents sing
and scorpions weave music

here, where Lilith laughs
to the sound of brilliance

Beltane Fire Dance

י״ז באייר תש"ע
Annwyn 18
Shabbat Sabbat Beltane, 32 Days of the Omer

Beltane Fire Dance (Huron)
HD, Loreena McKennitt

Blessing Of The Cursed

י״ז באייר תש"ע
Annwyn 18
Shabbat Sabbat Beltane, 32 Days of the Omer

Commentary on Emor from Garden of the Dark Moon Jubilee - Blessing of the Cursed.

Dare to be true to yourself.