Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in sarahswampwitch's LiveJournal:

[ << Previous 20 ]

Friday, May 1st, 2009
7:26 pm	RIP 4:20-The-Head-bumpy cat One of my cats (actually Willow's cat) died of cancer today. 4:20 came into our lives as a kitten when Willow and I were still living on the farm and Willow snuck her home so her Dad wouldn't kill her for getting a kitten. 4:20 was quite the cat: dignified but goofy, loving but her affection was always on her terms; independent and fearless but able to hide under the washing machine for weeks in fear when we first moved here.... 4:20 loved Willow, eating milk and ice cream on a spoon, "her" kitten Fatty who she raised and mentored, sleeping in the sun; watching birds out the window; and head butting while purring. We are really gonna miss her.... (8 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, February 1st, 2009
12:22 am	This Journal is set to friends only This Journal is now set to friends only... My house, my rules. If you want me to add you to my flist, please leave a comment here. Note: Ya gotta have a livejournal account in order for me to add you... so if ya wanna be added, also leave your livejournal name. Thanks! (23 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, January 15th, 2009
6:47 am	The Mentalist whoopdy-doop It's 22 below zero here and we had no power for 4 hours during the night. It turned into a sleepless night spent trying to get all the dogs and cats under the covers so they would be toasty warm as the house got colder and colder and colder. YIKES! But it's all good now, since the power is back on, the house is back to 62 degrees of warmth, and the dogs and cats are out from under the covers. Anyway: all over the interwebs I have seen all sorts of emails calling upon everyone to protest to CBS the 1/13 episode of The Mentalist.... WHOOP WHOOP - If you don't want to read my musings about contacting CBS to whine about this show.... don't continue on.... BUT Oy. Oy. Oy. I sometimes think that we ought to replace the name "Pagan" with something like "Religion-filled-with-people-who-have-jerky-knees-and-who-like-to-complain-about-semi-frivolous-things." ________ ________ ________ 1. I watch the show The Mentalist every week. It's about a pretty damn hot guy who debunks psychics, solves murders, and proves how smart and weird he is every week. So, how exactly, would a portrayal of Witchcraft as anything other than superstitious gobly-gook surprise anyone? It would be totally out of character for the lead guy (did I mention that the guy is pretty damn hot?) to suddenly say, "Damn, I now believe in magic." I mean, doing that would be totally out of character for him and then the show would have no purpose. 2. It's F I C T I O N. Since when do we expect a realistic portrayal of anything to be offered up in a fictional story? 3. Seeing a fictional Neo-Wiccan who is damaged psychologically is not a stretch. My local fucking "Pagan community" is filled with Neo-Wiccans (and Asatruers, and Pagans, and Satanists, and Witches, etc etc etc) who are damaged psychologically. In fact, I'M damaged psychologically.... so ummm, why exactly should we be whining to CBS when their fictional show has a psychologically damaged Wiccan on it? 4. Part of the outcry that I have seen about the show is that the "Wiccan" chick put a death spell on someone for killing her cat. Now then, putting a death spell on a guy who killed your pet cat might not be something that nice-and-shiny Neo-Wiccans would do, but under the **right circumstances** and **against the right person** I perhaps would do something like that. Well, not a "SECRET WICCAN KILLING SPELL" but something that would involve boils, shriveled penises, nasty diarrhea and an unhappy ending for the person. 5. Might it be better to protest something like poverty? Hunger? The crappy economy? Genocide? Genital mutilation? Animal Abuse? Or even legitimate cases of religious persecution? 6. I don't care if the general public believes that magic is a delusion and that this show helps reinforce that idea. The general public is filled with idiots... so why should it matter to me what they think about magic? I know what works and what doesn't work in the magic department.. and my own opinion on that is all that matters to me. 7. Perhaps the only bright side in this is that this whole thing with the Mentalist will give people who are still whining about the movie "The Craft" something new to whine about. 8. It's fine if folks want to protest this.... but don't expect me to do so for all the above reasons. Current Music: Rancid (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, January 10th, 2009
12:26 am	Proud mother of a Roller Derby Bitch I just got home from watching my lovely daughter Willow skate in her first ever roller derby game. It was AWESOME! Loud rock and roll. Pierced and tattooed girls on skates. Falls and tumbles. A couple of hundred screaming fans. Awesome-ness. Willow's team (Harbor City Roller Dames) is in it's infancy, so girls from the two teams from the Twin Cities came up here to Duluth to skate too, and so there were enough skaters to make up two teams so they could actually have a real bout. I must admit to being a bit worried about Willow... or ummm Detta Walker which is her derby name. She is a very slight girl and with all the blocking and falling and crashing, I'm always worried that she will get hurt. Makes me a bit more sympathetic to my own mother who came to horse shows when I was growing up and watched me crash over jumps more than once. She used to sit in the stands and worry. Oh my gods, am I becoming my mother? Shoot me the fuck NOW. Current Mood: high Current Music: Gogol Bordello (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, December 11th, 2008
6:11 pm	I ARE ZEE POWERFUL SNOWGODESS!!!!!! So I work as a service manager at a major insurance company. Yesterday I had to call a broker from some town in Mississippi to discuss a medical claim. She told me in her very lovely southern d r a w l that I have quite an accent and wanted to know where I am from. I said, "Duluth, Minnesota." and she said, "Oh lordy lordy, do you have snow up there? I've never seen real snow." So I proceeded to tell her all about sledding and skiing and driving around in the white stuff and said as a parting good-bye, "I'll send you some of our snow, OK?" The broker called me this morning and said, "You are really good. We got inches and inches of snow here and its the first snow I've ever seen... so how did you do that, anyway?" We had such a good laugh about the snow and how I sent it to her.... and I never once said, "IT IS BECUZ I ARE ZEE POWERFUL SNOWGODESS OF ZEE UNIVERS!" Although I really wanted to tell her that just for fun. Current Mood: amused Current Music: Transiberian orchestra (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, September 6th, 2008
6:30 am	This is the story of a dog... ( Click here ) (9 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, July 3rd, 2008
7:25 am	Blond Bimbos on TV I was at a function the other day where there were about 6 other Pagans present, and they began talking about the Kathy Lee "incident". They were outraged and writing letters and protesting and calling for a boycott. They asked me to "join them" and I'm going to paraphrase the ensuing conversation below: I said, "While I agree that what Kathy Lee said was stupid, I'm considering the source of both the comment and the medium that it was made in. I have no respect for Kathy Lee and little respect for the mainstream entertainment business, who are the folks who bring you the Today show even if it is wrapped up and presented as "news" and who brought you Charmed and The Craft and all the other unrealistic portrayals of Witchcraft that you all hate so much. At the end of the day, this is not a battle I choose to fight so ummmm, I'm not writing letters and joining you in your protest." They said, "Oh my gods but remember Hitler and the Jews." I was like, "Come on now. Some blond bimbo on TV saying stoopid things was no doubt a not very nice thing for her to do, but does Kathy Lee saying what she said merit a comparison to Hitler? Or is Godwin's Law even prevalent in the Pagan community?" They said, "We don't care and we want an apology" I said, "Kathy Lee already gave an apology, which was as silly and vapid as she is, but still, she did say she was sorry." They said, "She did?" I said, "Yes. Perhaps while protesting you should also do some research as to the facts of what you are protesting...." They said, "We don't care, we are still writing letters and protesting. Pagans who don't protest this thing are not good Pagans because they are putting their heads in the sand." I said, "Heads in the sand, eh? Just because I am curious... Did you also write letters and protest when Kathy Lee's clothing line was found to be being made by children in foreign sweat shops?" They said, "Ummmm...." I said, "Really. Did you?" And one of them looked at me and said, "I heard about it but didn't do anything. It wasn't a Pagan problem, but this is, and so I am protesting." And the rest of them said in essence that they too did nothing since sweats shops are not a "Pagan issue", but are willing to protest Kathy Lee saying words on TV because it affects them directly and is a "Pagan issue". At that point, I had to leave the table, because it irked me so badly that people could think that a problem that did not involve a bimbo saying stoopid vapid things about Paganism was therefore not a Pagan issue. I was about to say something bluntly not-so-nice to the other people there... so I left instead. Anyway, the above story illustrates why some of us, especially those of us who are old and crotchety, worry about the energies being put out over the Kathy Lee incident. I mean, Pagans who want to should protest this slight to Pagans if they choose to. It's fine... BUT deep down, I wish all the energy that is being directed at Kathy Lee for saying five or six words on TV could be channeled into other things, like stopping wars and saving the environment and doing other things.... "Pagan Power" is a strong thing, after all. So anyway, I'm not picking this as a battle for me to fight. I've got bigger fish to fry, even though many folks might not think of the fish I fry as Pagan Issues. By the way, I would never in a million years say that *all* Pagans chose to not think that large global issues are "Pagan Issues" and sit around and do nothing about things other than Kathy Lee. I know this because I think stopping foreign sweatshops and stopping the war and saving the planet and rescuing homeless dogs and conserving energy and helping the poor and all sorts of other things are Pagan Issues and I do many things to try to right the wrongs of the world. I'm a Pagan and I fight lots of battles and I know lots of other Pagan folks who do too. Current Mood: quixotic Current Music: Daisy the Chihuahua snoring (11 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, April 1st, 2007
11:12 am	"To Sleep, Perchance to Dream" I JUST made an observation this morning about sleeping while watching TV. I realize that this should have been a one of those no-brainer "duh moments" but it wasn't. You see, I sleep at night with the TV set going. I don't do it so that I can wake up and not have to turn it on or anything remotely like that... instead I do it to drown out the noise of "outside". When I moved to the city from the swamps, I brought along all my dogs, all of whom were what I would call Swamp-Smart. In other words, their job when we lived in the swamps was to keep varmints out of the garden and the bam, to warn us if any human/s trespassed on the property and to let us know if any major dangers to our livestock lurked, like cougars, bears, timber wolves etc etc etc. They of course had to do this 24/7 and to do it while making sure that they dodged eagle and owls and hawks (itsy bitsy yappy dogs make nice dinners for raptors) and wolves and coyotes and bear and cougars and bobcats and wolverines and what not. I think that the swamp-dog lifestyle sort of gave them a kind of doggy PTSD, where they are relaxed but never, ya know, really r e l a x e d. Their state of doggy alertness has not wavered in the almost seven tears that they have been city dogs and the addition of city dogs into their ranks have also not stopped them from barking at doors closing a block away, kids playing ball five house down, sirens going off a mile way and so on and so on. They remain hyper on vigil, alerting me to people walking on the sidewalk a block away and the lady next door calling her kids for dinner and oh gawds so many things.... and frankly it is annoying. Especially at 2:00 a.m. or 3:14 a.m. or 5:05 a.m. or whenever at night. I handle this by leaving the TV set on all the time. At night when I am sleeping, I normally turn the TV either to one of the music channels or stick it on Animal Planet (they love watching Pet Star for some odd reason), but at night I sometimes forget to turn the channel and it stays on cable all night long.. which is where I have started to notice a bad trend from my dreaming at night. For example, the other night I dreamed that I was in a land filled with bright colors and strange cartoony people who talked odd... when I woke up with a splitting headache I realized that the Cartoon channel had been on all night. The next night I dreamed that Willow all of a sudden sprouted angel wings and told me that she was half angel and wanted to know how I could have forgotten that I had sex with her father, since he too had huge-ass angels wings.. and sure enough when I looked that the TV guide later that day I discovered that the movie "Prophecy" had been on the channel that was playing on the TV during the night. But the kicker was when I woke up after a nap this morning and had dreamed that I had joined something called The Army Of Christ and was running around in a jungle wearing fatigues and carrying an UZI and shooting at the FBI. When I woke up, scared shitless by the way, Jerry Falwell was on TV ranting about some old Christian conspiracy thing... Jerry Falwell was the clincher for me. I now am going to make sure that only music or puppies doing tricks is playing on the TV when I sleep. I no longer want dreams about cartoon people or angels or Christians carrying UZIs. Dreaming should be fun, not exhausting and annoying. (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, March 24th, 2007
8:56 am	To tolerate or to accept? To be tolerated or to be accepted? Those are the questions. Recently I've seen a couple of interesting conversations on-line about tolerance and acceptance. What follows are my musings on the subject...( Click here to for my musings ) Current Mood: awake Current Music: Dogs snoring, cats snoring, snow melting (13 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, March 11th, 2007
10:38 am	The Truth About St Patrick, What's up with the snakes and druids? Soon it will be St Patrick's Day and Irish folks will be wearing shamrocks and drinking green beer and having parades and talking to leprechauns..... ;-P I keep seeing notices on Pagan lists and on Pagan forums that say that we should all boycott St.Patrick's Day. ( Click here to find out what I think about snakes and druids and St Patrick ) Current Mood: calm Current Music: The Pogues Hells' Ditch (23 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, February 2nd, 2007
9:19 am	Happy Groundhog Day everyone! I don't 'do' the Sabbats, but in my own weird little ode to Groundhog Day, every year on Feb 2nd, I send out my smallest foofoo dog at dawn to see if a shadow appears or not. This year my smallest non-puppy foofoo dog is Kippe-toes (my special needs Chihuahua). Here she is in all her glory: Anyway, this morning at dawn, I dressed Kippe-toes up in a sweater and sent her out the back door into my yard. She jumped out the door and stopped dead, refusing to go farther out into the below zero colder-than-a-witches-tit weather. I then had to go outside in my fuzzy bear slippers and PJs and carry Kippe to the center of the yard and set her down in the snow. While she shivered and peed, I did notice that her shadow was visible. Damn, it's gonna be another six weeks of winter up here in Duluth. Oh wait, six weeks of winter would be a GOOD thing since up here normally winter lasts till May. Heh! Current Mood: cold Current Music: sweet silence (9 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, January 23rd, 2007
10:34 am	Kali and Fluffdom Someone posted on a yahoogroup about the odd fascination that fluffies seem to have with deities like Kali. I've actually given this some thought and here is my latest ponderings on the subject: Kali and Fluffdom I have a theory, that is more or less serious, that concerns fluffies who "work with" deities like Kali. After reading Terry Pratchett, I have now decided that mankind 'wills' gods into existence. If a person for example, needs a god to deal with his or her underwear, ZAP! Fuitoftheloom, the God Of Underwear will pop into existence, ready to be worshipped. If someone's toilet is plugged up, ZING! Plunger the Goddess of Stopped Up Toilets will come forth and help with the clog. And so and so on. The biggest "proof" that I have for this theory being the RIGHT&TRUE THEORY(tm) about How-Gods-Are-Formed is because of my own experiences with fluffies who "Invoke" Kali and the Morrighan and other deities that really should not deal with fluffiness kindly. I mean, I kept asking myself why, if Wade really did "work with" the Morrighan, is he still alive? If Lady PoontangWolf[1] really invoked Kali, why is her head still attached to her body? So here's an example that 'proves' my theory: when Lady PoontangWolf and her super 'hawt' BF LordI'vePlayedTooManyRPGs got together and tossed around rose petals and called upon Kali because she's so motherly and all, Kali (the real one) was not really called. They didn't call Kali because they instead called upon THEIR nice and gentle version of Kali. So what happened? A new goddess, nice and kind and motherly, but ya know, still kinda Kali-like was called. Since no such goddess exists, a new one called MailbuSparkleKali sprung to goddess-hood and came down and frolicked in the rose petals with Lady PoontangWolf and LordI'vePlayedTooManyRPGs. I mean, really, this is about the only way that I can figure out why all bunnies who use inappropriate gods and goddess don't end up on spits. Instead if calling up the originals, they call up new nice and kind and gentle and fluffy deities. Unless, of course goddesses like Kali just ignore the foolishly fluffy and then my RIGHT&TRUE THEORY(tm) about How-Gods-Are-Formed goes into the Piltdown Man pile. I must say that I find the theory that deities ignore fluff to be possible, but disappointing. I'd much rather that Kali and the rest of the gods quit ignoring fluffies and instead started to kick some fluffy ass. GO KALI GO KALI GO KALI GO! 1. There was a young lady up here who introduced herself as "Lady PoontangWolf" and got all offended when everyone present roared with laughter. I later found out that she had no idea of what the word 'Poontang' meant. She had heard the word and since she was all high about the goddess Kali at the time, had decided that the word 'Poontang' was an exotic Hindu word ::rolls eyes:: and so stuck it in her name... Someone eventually took pity on her and explained what 'Poontang' actually means and she ended up changing her name to something else, which was too bad because I actually enjoyed snarfing pop up my nose every time I heard her use the name of "Lady PoontangWolf". Heh! (12 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, December 30th, 2006
11:46 am	Have Cell Phone camera.. will travel So I've been taking some photos with my cell phone again because I am too lazy to use the pentex.... ( Click to photos of my skulls, my new puppies and my Solstice lights ) Current Mood: cheerful Current Music: The Pouges "Lorelei" (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, December 1st, 2006
8:18 pm	It's photo time.... So I've been taking some photos.... ( Click to see some black cat and Dead Horse Day photos ) Current Mood: cheerful Current Music: The Pouges (9 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, November 16th, 2006
9:21 am	Headstones headstones headstones.... Just some musings on the pentacle and the battle to get it approved as a Wiccan symbol... Recently there have been many articles on the fight that is being waged by Wiccans to get the VA to approve the pentacle as a religious symbol for Wicca and to add it to the list of symbols that the VA will put on headstones of veterans. I have really mixed feelings on the whole subject. On one hand, I want the Wiccans to prevail and I support them in their quest. If a Wiccan dies and they are a veteran, they damn well should be able to have a pentacle on their grave if they want one, or their family wants one. It's good that the whole issue of the Pentacle on headstones is getting serious attention by the media and it's good that big constitutional rights organizations are getting involved. On the other hand, I think the Pagan Community in general is perhaps missing the ummmm bigger boat. I say this because I am one of those grumpy people who thinks that the government just should not be in the business of deciding what is an 'acceptable' religious symbol -- nor should they be paying for headstones that have religious symbols on them.... I'm at the point where I just keep thinking, "I don't want the government spending MY tax dollars on ANY religious symbols on headstones. I don't care if they are Christian symbols or Wiccan symbols or whatever. Religion and government have no business being together. Period. If folks want a Christian cross on their headstones, then they can buy a headstone with a cross on it and have it put up at the grave. If they want the symbol of the Serbian Orthodox Church on their headstone they can buy their own headstone and put it up. AND if they are Wiccan and want a pentacle they can buy their own headstone and put it up too. And I'd want this to apply to ALL religions." I also keep hoping against hope that just once, when the government does something really dumb and mixes religion with government, that instead of Pagans all screaming, "If the Christians get something we demand that we get it too", that instead they would take the high ground and say, "We don't need to have what the Christians have, because we know that they should not have what they have in the first place.... so instead of demanding that we get the same thing, let's instead work to keep religion and government out of the same bed". I mean, do two wrongs make a right? If the government is spending my money on Christian crosses and they are forced to also pay for pentacles for Wiccans, does this make it all right that they spend money on religion? If there is a huge pentacle on the side of the courthouse, then is it OK? If the big-ass pentacle is next to a big-ass cross, is it then fine to have both things on the courthouse wall? If the Wiccan Rede is on the wall at the public school does that make the Ten Commandments OK to have there too? Just because the government is wrong, does them doing more wrong make it right? I'd have to ask: what about having NO religious symbols at all on things paid for or connected to OUR government? That's what I'd like to see, because damn it, I want religion OUT of government and I want government OUT of religion. Bottom line for me: I'm all for Wiccans getting a fair shake and it's obvious that the VA is playing tiddly-winks rather than approving the pentacle... but doesn't the fact that the VA is playing unfairly with the Wiccan religion just scream out as an example of the dangers of mixing religion and government? That the smarter way to get rid of the discrimination by the government towards Wiccans is not to force them to approve the pentacle, but rather to force them to abide by the constitution that says that government and religion should be kept separate and to force them to get out of the business of approving and paying for ANY religious symbols? Am I the only person in the world who sees this? Current Mood: cranky Current Music: Rancid's Out Come the Wolves (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, October 23rd, 2006
12:30 pm	Happy Dead Horse Day everyone! So what's Dead Horse Day, you might ask? Dead Horse day is my family's quirky annual celebration of death... and it's today, October 23rd. Dead Horse Day does celebrate the death of a real-live ... or would that be real-dead horse? The horse's name was Mikado. He was a 16.2 hand Trakehner stallion, foaled on March 6, 1964 in Germany, approved as a breeding stallion as a three year old after going through the Trakehner Verband's very exacting Stallion Testing, he was imported in 1966 to the USA and was one of the first warmblooded breeding stallions brought into this country. We (my brother and I) bought him in 1975 for an insane amount of money, and I ended up as his sole owner in 1978. I owned him until his death. He was a wonderful horse, very gentlemanly in a proud way, and produced many winning Dressage and event horse, and even a couple of approved breeding stallions. My family has been celebrating October 23rd as our day of death since 1983, which was when Mikado died of old age, in his stall on my farm out in the swamps of northern Minnesota. We began on that day to celebrate and honor those that have passed before us, including all our critters each year. On Dead Horse Day we do a "Critter and Human Dumb Supper" to honor Mikado and all our other beloved critters who are now gone, do ancestor rituals, gather Graveyard Dirt, eat and toast and feast, burn fire in some form all night long, drink too much Mead, and just in revel in being alive. Even though I've had my autumn decorations and Halloween lights up in the house and the yard for a few weeks now, I leave setting up my Death Altar, with its skulls and bones, until sundown on the 23rd --- an altar that gets left up now until Yule. By the way, I certainly don't expect others to celebrate my family's Dead Horse Day... unless they want to. However, I do encourage other folks to be creative about celebrating days that have meanings for them personally. I think that celebrating the Sabbats works for some people, but in my family, celebrating Death on October 23rd means much more to me than would celebrating Samhain on October 31st, because the 23rd actually means something to me personally. This is also why I celebrate the seasons when they come rather than on the Sabbat dates; why I toast the Solstices and the Equinoxes as Days of The Light's Balance/Days of the Light's Imbalance rather than as Sabbats; why I dance to the harvests when I actually DO the harvest instead of when the Celts did their harvest; and why I do hold Foxfire Night on whatever night that the first Northern Lights first dance in the skies overhead. R.I.P. Mikado (1964 - 1983) Mikado as a Three year old in Germany Trakehner Association Studbook entry on Mikado Me riding Mikado way back in 1975, at Lothlorien Stables, which were my stables at that time The last photo taken of Mikado, April of 1983, in his stall at Grey Havens Farm, my farm in the swamps of northern Minnesota Note: Mikado is buried on my ex-farm, under an apple tree, right next to my beloved cocker spaniel Yoshi, near Oliver my son's beloved cat, and near Mikado's son Pelinore who died in 2006. Mikado's spirit is still sometimes seen in the pastures and barn at the farm. By the way, just because people always ask me... I skip Samhain unless someone is hosting a big Samhain party with cool costumes and lots of Mead, then I will go and have a good time. As for Halloween, I hand out candy to trick-or-treaters who love coming into my yard and seeing the lights and the skulls and the bones and the chicken-feet-mobiles and all the other decorations. I actually think that Halloween is a wonderful secular holiday that has deeper meanings, if a person looks past the candy and the rest of the glitz. This is because I think on some level Halloween allows people to face their fear of the dark and of death and of transformation. Therefore, I always encourage non-Witchy people to celebrate Halloween with gusto. Besides which, I get a kick out of all the wee ones dressed as Witches . Wee Witches always get extra candy at my house during trick-or-treating. For more information on Trakehners: http://www.trakehner-verband.de/ http://www.americantrakehner.com/The%20Breed/history.htm For information on Mikado: http://americantrakehner.com/Stallions Current Mood: peaceful (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, July 12th, 2006
2:40 pm	The essay called "Losing My / Your Religion" There is an essay by Patricia Telesco called "Losing My / Your Religion" that is posted on the Witchvox (http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=usny&c=words&id=10827) . The link to this essay has been making the rounds of Pagan/Witchy email lists, in fact, it hit my list ( http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WitchesThree ) a day or so ago. I read the essay and the issues raised by the essay make me really wish I weren't a Gemini, because I can see so many facets of the issues that it makes my head spin to try to organize my thoughts into some coherent order. ;-) Anyway, here are some of the things that I am thinking, not in any particular order: 1. Trish said:  "The current trend toward even more separatism in our community, returning to the comfort of our broom closets, and the lack of energy toward truly establishing ourselves as a viable, recognized religious group qualifies." I say: A Pagan community is really not a necessity for me to be who I am as a Witch and a Pagan. My relationship with the universe is going to continue on as it should no matter what anyone else does or doesn't do. I don't need to be in or out of the closet, and I don't need others to gather with me to make me feel "more" Pagan or "more" Witchy than I already do.  I don't consider my above stance as me supporting 'separatism' at ll. Instead I think that it is an honest appraisal of my own pathway and my own place in the universe. 2. Trish said:  "I think we're in danger of losing our religion to apathy, to a budget crisis, to weariness, to stubborn egos, and to the conservative trend in this country that is neatly chipping away at the Church-State barrier." I say: Whining about the fact that the church-state barrier is in danger isn't going to get the job done... nor will organizing Pagans into Pagan-Only-communities. Do those who call themselves Pagans and Witches (etc) wanna see that the freedoms of religion are granted to us and EVERYONE else? Then those folks should join the ACLU or the AU or a similar organization. Hmmmm, has anyone else noticed that the BEST organizations that work the hardest to guarantee those protections are NOT Pagan? Instead they are made up of folks from ALL religions that want the constitution to remain in tact, and THAT is what makes them strong. I think personally that an organization that is Interfaith is going to be much stronger than is one made up only of Pagans. Why? Because freedom of religion isn't a PAGAN issue. It is instead an issue that affects EVERYONE, regardless of faith or lack thereof.  3. Trish said: "Perhaps Neo-Paganism was never meant to be a recognized religion."  I say: Neo-Paganism isn't **a** religion. It is an umbrella term for lots and lots of different religions and spiritual pathways. Talking about Neo-Paganism like it is one big glump just gives me the willies. I want no part of a borg-like glump, thanks anyway. That being said, what exactly is a "recognized religion"? Recognized by who? Paganism and Witchcraft are already protected by the laws and constitution of the USA, and ummm, technically the US government is NOT supposed to be in the habit of granting validity (beyond taxation status) to religions of any kind by "recognizing" them. Frankly, the many religions that may fall under the neo-Pagan umbrella don't really need one singular stamp of government 'recognition', because there IS the constitution, there have already been court cases that affirm that some forms of "Paganism" are "legal religions", and the IRS happily gives many Pagan groups 'church' status.. so ummm what more does anyone want? Speaking for myself, I don't need the government to do any more than it already has to allow me my religious freedoms..... I just want the government to stay out of my way. 4. Trish said:  "Do we want clergy and teachers dedicated to our growth and community building? Then we need to support them!" I say: Quick someone write me out a check. I've got a mortgage payment due this week and am sick of working for a living. Gods know that I am just too damn important to flip burgers (or do the books for a bike shop) for a living..... ::rolls eyes:: 5. Trish said:   "It breaks my heart because I /want/ to serve, but my priority has to be hearthside, ethically and morally." I say: Hmmm, I have no such heart breaking issues because my spirituality IS about serving my hearthside as my first priority. Why? Because my spirituality is about my family first and foremost. I teach 'outsiders' when I have time, and I don't bemoan the fact that this is the way it is, because my spiritual loyalty is to my kin. 6. Trish said:  "Second, it's estimated that some 70 percent of our community practices as a solitary. What does that say in terms of our ability to present a unified front?" I say: When you have books and schools that tell everyone that Paganism is an anything goes, no rules, no hierarchy, no structure, no dogma kind of thing, and the masses believe it and decide that they don't need organization, then why is a surprise that 70% practice as solitaires? If you want to blame someone for solitary practice, kick Scott Cunningham in the ass, along with Buckland and the many of the other folks who have taught that solitary practice is fine. Frankly, I like being a solitary as well as being part of a tight family-based group. Being a solitary, by the way, does not preclude me or anyone else from joining together for the common good, and I am perfectly willing to present a "unified front" in the event of something coming up that needs a unified front. I would think that most intelligent folks who practice as solitaries would feel the same way. 7. Trish said:  "Silly me, here I thought religion was supposed to bring people together, not push them apart!" I say: My "religion" really doesn't need much more than me and the universe, so ummm, other people are not really part of the necessities for me to have my beliefs and do my practices. Bringing other people together is not really part of my religion at all, although I guess in some metaphysical way if I am a better person due to my spirituality, then I am going to be better as a member of the human race, as long as no one expects me to join hands with folks who are bugfuckingnuts and sing multiple verses of Kumbaya with them. 8. Trish said:  "We're in serious danger of losing our religion to the everyday hustle and bustle, to societal expectations, to the 90 percent who gripe (while only 10 percent DO) , and to an internal culture that wants drive-through enlightenment (with fries to go, please) without any need to work at it, commit,  step out or step up." I say: I agree with some of this. I bemoan the fact that so many folks want 'easy' religion that is Fluffy (my definition). And as for the comment on 10% working while 90%gripe: this seems to sadly be true. I have organized local events, but have discovered that doing so is hard on the pocketbook and hard on the psyche. When one steps out into the greater community and organizes public events, a big bulls-eye gets painted on your back and all the gripers and lazyasses and psycho-nutters sit on the sidelines and take pot shots at you while they whine and snivel and volunteer to help and then back out and leave you hanging..... ::sigh:: Is it any wonder that Elders and hard working Pagans who used to organize community events are going back into the shadows? Who needs the aggravation from putting up with all the hastle? 9. Trish said:  " Maybe we can continue to practice quietly alone or in small groups and quietly go about our ways with none being the wiser. But I suspect that most people reading this don't want to nail the broom closet door shut." I say: I'm not sure why going into "Quiet Mode" means nailing the broom closet door shut.... I've stopped doing much publicly but I am still "out". I'm just much more careful about what I do, not from fear of being lynched for being a Witch, but more because I just don't have the energy to put up with all the shit that seems to go along with public Paganism. I'm not back in the closet, I just don't care as much about things outside of me and my family and my friends. I need my energy to fulfill my spiritual obligations to myself, my students, my family and my kin. 10. Trish said:  "Can we save our religion from being relegated to some historical footnote as a fad?" I say: Why does this matter? Does what the public thinks of "our" religion really matter? Isn't religion supposed to be about INWARD fulfillment rather than OUTWARD recognition? Frankly I think that the whole "OMGSTHEPUBLICMUSTLEARNTOLOVEUSORWEAREDOOMED" thing is silly. 11. Trish said:  "how important is your faith? How much are you willing to do personally, locally and globally to see that faith thrive?" I say: I hesitate to call my beliefs my faith, but I will here to play along <eg>. Sooo, MY faith is MY faith. It IS thriving. Within me and around me. I don't need other folk to jump on my bandwagon in order for it to thrive, because it is MY faith. Ir IS important to ME and that is really the bottom line of how I look at the 'priorities of importance'. 12. Just a general note about how I feel about the "thing" known as "Pagan Community": I'm not a hermit. I enjoy socializing with nice people of all different religions and backgrounds and such. I also like getting together with other Pagans and other Witches. I enjoy the socializing, the camaraderie and since I like people-watching, I enjoy looking at all the weird duds that so many Pagans seem to wear these days <eg>. If I had my way, and was richer than shit, I'd buy a big bus, pack up al the foofoo dogs and the cats, give Willow the keys to my house (as long as she kicks her twitchy-assed BF Dave out first <heh!), and then I would drive all over the globe finding each of you guys, my on-line friends. I'd enjoy meeting you, giving you each a big hug, and then hanging out with you and having a great time. I more than likely wouldn't do ritual with many or even some of you, because I think doing ritual together requires some sort of cosmic 'perfect fit' type of thing, but that wouldn't stop me from dragging you all out to my CrazyWitchyBus to drink mead with me out of my drinking-horn, to listen to some good music and to shoot the shit.  I'd love to spend some swell time just basking in the glow of fellowship with all of you guys. Seriously.   But really, if all of you guys, along with the greater Pagan Community, all were to go "POOF" and disappear, lost forever, I'd still be Sarah: a Pagan and a Witch. Current Mood: determined Current Music: Old AFI (not the new emo shit) (11 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, June 23rd, 2006
8:43 pm	Oops.... I forgot a photo..... Oops..... I forgot a photo..... I took this photo this spring of a hoot owl that came into my tiny teeny little back-yard in the city. It was nice enough to sit on my fence while I took photos of it. By the way, the fact that I had an owl in my yard did not mean that: a. The owl is my totem animal b. someone in my house was gonna die All having an owl in my back-yard meant was that I fed the pigeons all winter in my back-yard and the owl wanted a pigeon dinner, hence it came to visit. I have mixed feelings about the owl's visit because that evening I found a pile of pigeon feathers next to my garage. I feel badly for the pigeon but happy for the owl. Current Mood: embarrassed Current Music: Neil Young (8 Comments |Comment on this)
8:04 pm	My new old camera kicks ass I learned to shoot film using a Pentex that my ex brought back from Viet Nam in the late 60s. I cried when he got the camera in the divorce, even though it was his (heh!). So I bought one just like it last fall from someone who bought it on ebay.... and I am ecstatic. It has no auto-focus so I can play around with light and textures and angles and effects.. wheeeeeee! Anyhow, here are some recent pics. From the solstice this past December: The front of my house The dogs in the back yard And some from this summer: Willow sleeping with Tanuki (no flash, photo taken at midnight) Willow's puupy Nacc on the staircase (Nacc is one of my pups, 7/8 Pom, 1/8 Chihuahua) Arlo the puppy (Nacc's brother who is about half as big as she is) Gilead and Chase Kippe the 'special needs' Chihuahua puppy Current Mood: productive Current Music: Led Zeppelin (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, May 20th, 2006
6:36 pm	Why am I not surprised at what my ideal pet is? Your Ideal Pet is a Little Dog You're both high strung, hyper, and cute. You're one of the few people who can get away with carrying your little dog in a little bag. What's Your Ideal Pet? Current Mood: satisfied Current Music: Rancid (Comment on this)