The Ramblings and Wanderings

Archive for the ‘Everything Else’ Category

I have an ethical question for you all:

Is a person obligated to care for an aging parent who had been abusive and/or neglectful to them, and what if they continue to be at least verbally abusive?

At lunch with my older brother he had made a comment that he was willing to take as much care of Dad as he took care of him as a child, which is next to nothing. Late child support payments, visiting once in a blue moon, cutting him loose for 5 years when he got into trouble as a teen.

It got me thinking, my mother needs help because her hands are crippled with arthritis, the hands that used to pull my hair and hit me and throw things at me. The very woman who used to stand there and do nothing while her hubby beat me or walked about the house naked playing with his cock in a manic depressive haze…

So many in my generation have dead beat dads and mothers who allowed step fathers to abuse us etc. Are we still responsible for their care when they failed to care for us?

And what of step-parents? Many of us now have 3 or 4 parents. If you are a couple that may mean between both of you, you may have as many as 8 elderly parents to care for, to pay for. Must we care for ALL of them, while trying to put our own kids through college and pay our bills etc?

And what about financially irresponsible parents? My folks are poster children for the cause of the economic collapse, never saving up, racking up credit cards, drowning in debt, no money saved up to put us through college etc etc. Now I have to put all my hard earned money and saving into their care? Must I pay off their debts?

Where does respect for our elders and our responsibility for our parents start and end? And at what cost must we care for them?

Okay so usually I keep my animal rescue life separate from my Pagan Blogging here at The Hedge. But since I had already posted about Maia’s life and death as well as about the death of one of the ladies who had taken the babes to her kennel to be fostered…

I’m sure some of you would like an update.

Here are a couple of pics of the little guys. They now have opened their eyes and have started weaning very well, we thought we might lose one of the boys but he is coming around.

Now that they are weaning, we can take them back from their tired foster Momma (Thank you Monkey Girl) So I will be taking them home in the middle of the week. I will keep you guys posted on how they do, and we will be needing homes for them in about a month BTW…

And this was sweet Maia

Things

Trees are good for you.

Everyone is the hero of the story in his or her own mind.

Chances are, no one is out to get you.

A spiritual path wouldn’t be worth it if it were easy.

There are many approaches to everything.

Please yourself first, but not exclusively.

The sort of people who set up a yurt on the beach and spend a summer cleaning up oil spills, without pay, are amongst the least respected in our society. No good, longhaired, tree-hugging, hippy, eco-terrorists!

If there is a way off this crazy merry-go-round only Buddha knows it.

You can tell the difference between a curse and a run of bad luck, but I couldn’t explain it.

Education does not equate intelligence.

The majority of white people will be pagan again someday, but not any time soon.

Thou art God (really).

But don’t get full of yourself now; most of the entities in the universe can kick your ass.

There is a trend to claim to be god owned in pagan culture right now, this is not something you should lie about kids. The gods are real and not all cupcakes and bunny rabbits.

No one has any patience any more, especially in the city.

Paganism has always been somewhat different in the sticks than in the towns. It always will be that way.

Head Six is the Devil.

A mother should be proud her son grew up to join the Sea Shepherd Society, but will rather wish he became a small time lawyer for petty crooks.

Some day we will again have stunning marble temples built to our gods. Only in the future temples will be built of reclaimed marble and other recycled materials, also they will have green roofs and run on solar, wind, or hydro power.

School (as in the modern school system in our part of the world) is not for everyone and everyone is not for school, but everybody ought to give it their best shot and go as far as they can.

I don’t care how much money you make, how big your house is, I don’t care if you’re hard working or a lazy bum, I don’t care if you are wise or ignorant, I don’t care if you’re a “real” Witch or not.

What I care about is whether or not the world is a better place for having you in it.

Play to your strengths, and remember not everyone has the same talents and abilities as you; they must play to their own strengths.

There are as many different kinds of intelligence as there are people on this earth.

Your personality is only a small part of you.

There is a trend  to be using flying ointments and such as shortcuts in pagan culture right now, this is not something you should play with kids. This is something that should be taken seriously and researched first. Please.

In order to Be Yourself, you must first Know Yourself.

The first step to knowing yourself is coming to the understanding that you (and everything else) are always changing.

How do you want to BE always changing?

Grow

Love

There is more than one way to gain knowledge and experience in this world.

Ability, knowledge, experience, understanding, and wisdom; all fingers and a thumb upon a palm called enlightenment.

What is the wrist? Where is the arm?

There is a difference between infatuation and love.

Wouldn’t bliss get boring after a while?

Once having achieved nirvana, would you want a nice greasy cheeseburger?

Nothing separates you from nature or the divine except for your belief that you are.

It seems to me that people complicate spirituality needlessly. I’m not sure exactly why?

There are no do-overs.

You cannot play this game without screwing up sometimes.

I write with more humor in mind than people think/read.

I broke my keyboard.

Two ladies, sisters and both breeders who lived closed to each other, had taken on Maia’s pups. Good friends of my Mom and kind enough to help care for the babes and bring them to their momma dogs.

Sadly, two days ago the hubby of one of the ladies came home to find her passed away on the couch. We still do not know what the cause was but it was probably her heart. Her sister is of course devastated. She was only 56, and had spent her adult life breeding healthy dogs and taking on foster dogs and abused horses.
She was, like many people who take on such causes, the kind of person who would not buy the medication she needed for herself in order to afford medication for an animal that had been abused at the hands of another human being. She was the kind of person who would miss a doctor appointment rather than make a litter of pups miss a feeding.

She was, like many of the best people I have ever met, yet another girl born onto a farm, pulled out of high school by the family (still a common practice amongst farm families) and never finished, married young, had kids young, and then dedicated her life to helping those who cannot help themselves.

Its true, only the good die young.

People who spend their lives in selfish pursuits collecting more toys and bigger homes and walking all over the rest of the world get to live long lives in luxury.
People like my Mom’s friend spend their lives barley getting by, being looked down upon by people and die young in poor health.

Its a fucking tragedy.

I’m almost 30 and still haven’t had my wisdom teeth removed because it would cost thousands of dollars (requires surgery) and I spend that money on abused animals.

People who would never sacrifice themselves for another look down their noses at people like my Mom and Marge and me, call people like us stupid hill-billies, reeking of dog and horse. Good for nothing because we don’t have educations, or big houses, or make lots of money, or wear fashionable clothes, or have Martha Stewart housekeeping skills.

Fuck the world. I’d rather smell like a horse than smell like money.

Anyways…

So I will be going to pick up the pups earlier than planned, but their eyes are opening so they can start weaning soon.

I’m going to go have a cry now.

Love this site. I realised to day that I have a submission for them, a replica Seahenge I came across walking along the beach of lake Okanagan, British Columbia (I should mention that this lake has a famous lake monster, the Ogopgo)

It must have been made during Halloween/Samhain as I found it the day after.

And I was walking with a real life Druid at the time!

I hope they accept it.

From Clonehenge:

“This blog is meant to form a searchable list of Stonehenge replicas from the megalithic follies of the 1800′s to the present. We include some notable examples of small homemade replicas along with the larger more permanent structures (and anything in between). We invite readers to inform us of modern henges we may have missed. Comments about what motivates people to build Stonehenge replicas are also welcome!”

“The henge form is able to manipulate the volition centers of the brain in a way that fools the victim into believing that in fact he or she thought of and executed the construction of his own free will.”

The Song of Spells

145.
Those songs I know, which nor sons of men
nor queen in a king’s court knows;
the first is Help which will bring thee help
in all woes and in sorrow and strife.
146.
A second I know, which the son of men
must sing, who would heal the sick.
147.
A third I know: if sore need should come
of a spell to stay my foes;
when I sing that song, which shall blunt their swords,
nor their weapons nor staves can wound.
148.
A fourth I know: if men make fast
in chains the joints of my limbs,
when I sing that song which shall set me free,
spring the fetters from hands and feet.
149.
A fifth I know: when I see, by foes shot,
speeding a shaft through the host,
flies it never so strongly I still can stay it,
if I get but a glimpse of its flight.
150.
A sixth I know: when some thane would harm me
in runes on a moist tree’s root,
on his head alone shall light the ills
of the curse that he called upon mine.
151.
A seventh I know: if I see a hall
high o’er the bench-mates blazing,
flame it ne’er so fiercely I still can save it, –
I know how to sing that song.
152.
An eighth I know: which all can sing
for their weal if they learn it well;
where hate shall wax ‘mid the warrior sons,
I can calm it soon with that song.
153.
A ninth I know: when need befalls me
to save my vessel afloat,
I hush the wind on the stormy wave,
and soothe all the sea to rest.
154.
A tenth I know: when at night the witches
ride and sport in the air,
such spells I weave that they wander home
out of skins and wits bewildered.
155.
An eleventh I know: if haply I lead
my old comrades out to war,
I sing ‘neath the shields, and they fare forth mightily
safe into battle,
safe out of battle,
and safe return from the strife.
156.
A twelfth I know: if I see in a tree
a corpse from a halter hanging,
such spells I write, and paint in runes,
that the being descends and speaks.
157.
A thirteenth I know: if the new-born son
of a warrior I sprinkle with water,
that youth will not fail when he fares to war,
never slain shall he bow before sword.
158.
A fourteenth I know: if I needs must number
the Powers to the people of men,
I know all the nature of gods and of elves
which none can know untaught.
159.
A fifteenth I know, which Folk-stirrer sang,
the dwarf, at the gates of Dawn;
he sang strength to the gods, and skill to the elves,
and wisdom to Odin who utters.
160.
A sixteenth I know: when all sweetness and love
I would win from some artful wench,
her heart I turn, and the whole mind change
of that fair-armed lady I love.
161.
A seventeenth I know: so that e’en the shy maiden
is slow to shun my love.
162.
These songs, Stray-Singer, which man’s son knows not,
long shalt thou lack in life,
though thy weal if thou win’st them, thy boon if thou obey’st them
thy good if haply thou gain’st them.
163.
An eighteenth I know: which I ne’er shall tell
to maiden or wife of man
save alone to my sister, or haply to her
who folds me fast in her arms;
most safe are secrets known to but one-
the songs are sung to an end.
164.
Now the sayings of the High One are uttered in the hall
for the weal of men, for the woe of Jötuns,
Hail, thou who hast spoken! Hail, thou that knowest!
Hail, ye that have hearkened! Use, thou who hast learned!

Source: The Elder or Poetic Edda, commonly known as Sæmund’s Edda, part I: The Mythological Poems, edited and translated by Olive Bray (London: Printed for the Viking Club, 1908), pp. 61-111.

And since it is this verse that interests hedgewitches so much, here are a few other translations of that part:

I know this, the tenth:
If I see the hedge-riders magically flying high,
I can make it so that they go astray
Of their own skins, and of their own souls.

I know the tenth:
if I see witches
playing in the air,
I can so arrange it
that they go astray
from their proper shapes
and proper thoughts.

I know a tenth:
if troublesome ghosts
Ride the rafters aloft,
I can work it so they wander astray,
Unable to find their forms,
Unable to find their homes.

The tenth rune-spell that I know:
When the witches have gone Hedge-riding
I can close the gap in the Hedge
So that their minds and souls
Cannot find home and return to their bodies