The Ramblings and Wanderings

Archive for November, 2009

We couldn’t save Baloo today

No matter how hard we tired

In the world of dog rescue

Sometimes, it just happens that way

Baloo the big fluffy white dog

Was condemned to death

For biting a cop

Who climbed in through a window

His old lady, Baloo had to defend

Both the cop and the dog

Were just doing their job

Baloo was saved by a rescue

And was sent to a foster Mom

But the foster Mom had issues

A big fluffy white dog

For her, was just too much

A nervous dog sent

To a nervous vet

By a nervous foster Mom

To the program she wouldn’t commit

And so again, Baloo bit

Now dear reader, understand please

There no such thing as a bad dog

We made this breed, this species

We created the dog

We are their gods

And when we treat them horribly

Neglect and abuse and don’t socialize too

That is how a dog gets ruined

Now Baloo is doing time

For humanities’ crime

And there’s nothing we can do

We thought hard and long

We worried and discussed

Tears were cried as we bowed our heads

But there was nothing to be done

By the time you read this today

Dear sweet Baloo

The big fluffy white dog

Will be dead

Where exactly do other women learn about things such as decorative pillow shams, vs useable pillow cases?

Or the difference between dishes that are just pretty and are not placed in a dishwasher or microwaves vs practical dishes?

Where do women learn about clothes that match and how to judge other women for having socks that don’t match?

Is there a class my mother failed to take me to where we are supposed to learn how to tell if something is an antique or if it will clash with the drapes?

I am tired of feeling like a failure as a woman (and often being treated as such) because these things go right over my head. Is there a crash course I can take to catch up?

Some kind of tomboy recovery center where I can learn all about carpets and stain removal …

I read blogs like Mrs. B’s and feel like a big fat loser. Am I alone in this?

Am I the only woman who practcies domestic magick fixing the toilet or replacing the radiator hose in the car and not making perfect little curtains for the kitchen?

“This is what happens when you dabble! You can’t practice the Craft while you are looking down your nose at it.” ~ The Aunts from Practical Magic

So why do I have to do all this required reading and research? Isn’t that work? Its so time consuming and the books are hard to read! Why can’t we simply practice solely based upon our instincts and natural talents?

Instinct is only one part of the equation.

Imagine that your spiritual practice was a house. Now, try to build that without blueprints, without a plan, without the knowledge of how to properly the use a nail-gun and electric drill. You could probably build yourself and nice little shanty but it’s probably not going to keep you very warm come winter time. It is also certainly not the four bedroom post and beam home you had hoped for either.

It’s all about balance. It is alright if your spiritual path leans more on the instinctive side than the research side, or vice versa. After all you should build a house you’d actually want to live in. However leaving out one or the other entirely is just plain irresponsible.

An adult doesn’t go into a job interview without having some experience at that job, or without at least doing a little research first, or else they wouldn’t get hired. So a Witch shouldn’t be summoning spirits, ancestors and gods without having a clue as to what they are dealing with and how.

I know a number of Witches and Pagans who practice almost totally based on instinct and natural talent alone. It’s wonderful to be blessed with strong instincts and natural talent, if you have it. However these instincts only Witches will, more often than not, report frightening and bad experiences or a lack of anything “special” happening at all. Why you may ask? This is because instinct and talent is the starting point, not the be-all and end-all.

They go walking into ritual and situations they are not properly prepared for and wind up doing more harm than good. If instinct and talent were all that was required than these instincts only Witches would not be having such bad experiences in the first place.

Working based on instinct and talent is supposed to come after years of research, practice and trial and error. Practicing a beautiful and fulfilling non-scripted ritual is your reward for years of practicing with a script in hand until you don’t need one anymore.

Starting at the 101 level without a script, with out doing your research, is taking a shortcut. It is lazy, immature and irresponsible. It will never be as enlightening and fulfilling as a ritual, rite or Craft that you earned the hard way. There is no such thing as “good enough” in a spiritual practice, especially when that “good enough” means you did next to nothing at all. A spiritual Path is not supposed to be easy and the gods don’t like lazy people.

The gods, spirits and ancestors do not reward people who do not do the work to earn their respect. If you want to develop a relationship with the Otherworld and the Spirits of the Land you have to earn it. You cannot simply show up with your hand out expecting a prize, for no work, like a spoiled child.

This is Witchcraft & Paganism, not a revealed religion. You cannot just show up, sit down, open one book and expect heaven to be handed to you for no reason other than that you are a good person. Declaring “I am here and I am good” may work for monotheism, at least on the surface, because they are on a conquest kick and want as many people to join as possible. Yahweh and Allah just aren’t all that picky, its enough that you are willing to show up and feel guilty for the bad things you do and then try to coerce other people to join too.

Our gods expect a little more from you than that. After all, they put you here and they made you good (at least that’s how you started out as a newborn anyway) so showing up and saying “I’m here and I’m a good person” fails to impress them. Our gods used to be worshipped by people who would sacrifice their very best goat to them and now you expect them to hand the Mysteries over to you because you showed up with Enya playing on your MP3 player? For shame!

You cannot expect your ancestors, people who fought battles with swords, who pushed horse drawn plows, who would walk many miles to the yearly feast grounds, to give you long lost lore for nothing. What we must look like to them, we who are so spoiled and pampered that we whine and complain when the processional to the ritual is longer than 3 city blocks. How can you ask for their aid, protection or knowledge when you are willing to do little more than pour half a bottle of cheap whiskey out to them once in a while? The processional for the Eleusian Mysteries in ancient times took a whole day.

Now I know I am being a bit hard on you here. I do so because I care and also because I myself have learned these lessons the hard way. I was once a young aspiring Hedgewitch who covered herself with too-potent, homebrewed, flying ointment only to have a truly terrifying, mind shattering, life changing experience. The kind I would not wish on my greatest enemy. So I speak from experience here, not a high horse.

Allow me to give you another example from my own experience. I have a staff that I now call my “fluffy staff” made many years ago when I was younger and impatient it is covered with poorly researched runes and ogam, silly markings and glued on crystal beads. Truly it looks like a cheap prop for a small community’s stage production of Harry Potter. I grimace every time I look at it now and vow that one day I will sand it down and start again.

In the meantime however I have spent the last six years slowly creating a most wonderful and beautiful stang. Made of juniper wood from an uncles back yard and seasoned for three years. It has been carefully laid in the sunlight and moonlight, placed in the winds of the great Canadian Rockies, the Kootenays, the wind off the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. Carefully carved, each stroke with the knife researched, planned and mediated upon. Lovingly hand sanded over an entire winter until my hand ached. I have loved this piece of wood for the better part of a decade now; I know every millimetre of it better than I know my own body. All I have to do it touch it to enter into a light trance state and it has not yet been blessed.

This stang is nearing completion and will be finished in its seventh year of creation; it will be one of my proudest achievements as a Witch. And it will be a tool far more potent and powerful than anything even an Elder could whip up in only a week’s time. I know all this work and worry, waiting, plotting, planning and research is worth it. I know that when I come into the presence of the gods with this tool in my hand, they will see plainly my dedication to the Craft and approve.

I have learned to earn my right to call myself Pagan, Witch, Priestess and Shaman.  How about you?

“Properly prepared I must always be” ~ part of the 2nd degree oath as written by Gerald Gardner.

by Ani Difranco

*

You think I wouldn’t have him

Unless I could have him by the balls

You think I just dish it out

You don’t think I take it at all

You think I am stronger

You think I walk taller than the rest

You think I’m usually wearing the pants

Just ’cause I rarely wear a dress

Well…

When you look at me

You see my purpose,

See my pride

You think I just saddle up my anger

And ride, ride , ride

You think I stand so firm

You think I sit so high on my trusty steed

Let me tell you

I’m usually face down on the ground

Whenever there’s a stampede

I’m no heroine

At least, not last time I checked

I’m too easy to roll over

I’m too easy to wreck

I just write about

What I should have done

I just sing

What I wish I could say

And hope somewhere

Some woman hears my music

And it helps her through her day

‘Cause some guy designed

These shoes I use to walk around

Some big man’s business turns a profit

Every time I lay my money down

Some guy designed the room I’m standing in

that was once built with his own tools

Who says I like right angles?

These are not my laws

There are not my rules

I’m no heroine

I still answer to the other half of the race

I don’t fool myself

Like I fooled you

I don’t have the power

you know, we just don’t run this place

I am working on a blog post about our trip across Canada but am dealing with a good strong case of procrastination, the need to do more important things (like finding a job) and dealing with a time zone change.

I’m thinking you can enter your Mother-phase of life before actually being a wife or mother. On account of this damned nesting instinct causing me real existential crisis.

I wish there had been Montessori type schools when I was a kid.

I have a new computer and I have to teach it Pagan words like Samhain and Hedgewitch … blah!

I have a new computer! It is faster, stronger, better.

The reason we have the style or theme for the Hedge with the hill and the water is because I can’t find one that’s better. Someday I will find one I like more and put up a banner that has a hedgerow on it. Which would probably make more sense.

The main website may not have a hedgerow on it, but there are thresholds on it. Can you count them?

I like being the underdog and I like championing them too. I don’t want to be popular or well respected.

I have a hard time doing math in my head but can usually spout pretty decent poetry off the top of my head.

I have a poor sense of time.

I have a fear of failure. (yeah yeah everyone does)

I can totally take being ridiculed at the time its happening but then break down and cry later.

I cry very easily.

I love kids, dogs, cats, animals and trees. Not human adults so much though.

I am watching the house and kids of the couple I am renting from. I cannot believe how awesome their kids are. If I have kids I hope they are half as good.

Something went wonky with my word program while typing the last thing and I don’t know how to fix it lol

I am more emotionally tough and sensitive than you might think.

Change is hard.

I submitted to Pendraig Publishing the other day and am now checking my email every hour. D’oh.

Imagination rocks.

My familiar is getting old, it makes me sad.

I spend more hours working on the website than you think.

Since driving across Canada, I feel even more Canadian. How could I live anywhere else?

I have been veyr busy getting the main Hedge site and forum updated and have had no time to write proper blog posts! I hope to get a few new ones up soon.

In the meantime …

I am adding the Hedge Blog feature to the main Hedge as a few folks voted that they wanted on in the poll. If you want you own Hedge Blog, please Pm or email me with the name you want for it and I wil get it ready for you. Then go to the member menu, click Add to my Blog and write away. There is a menu in the article submission form for Section (choose Member Journals) and then category (choose your Blog name)

If you already have a blog, with wordpress or blogger for example, and you want it embedded in the Hedge (like mine is) just let me know.
I am working on updating everyone’s permissions so you can submit articles. If its not working for you, try loging out and then login back in again, as you have to do this after you permission are reset for them to come into affect.

Myself and our Mod staff can approve artciles (we won’t edit them,  just spell check and make sure you’re not spam)

If anyone wants to be a moderator and make my life eaiser, please let me know.

If you are adding an article, ritual, poem etc etc and find that there just isn’t a right category to put them in, just choose the one that is closest and then add a request at the top of the text in the article and will will get that fixed up or you.

If you are adding a weblink and don’t find the right category, just let me know.

You can add categories to the gallery though!