wolfmystic

Trailing thought

2006-07-13T19:58:46Z

Ok just follow along with me on this trailing thought. I say trailing cause well one thing led to another then another and well you will see.

Last night as I lay in bed I got thinking about something and whatever I was thinking triggered the thought that if I end up marrying my current SO I won't be able to make chili cause of the beans. No he isn't allergic to them but just can't have them. ANyways, this reminded me of when i was with a friend, who also can't eat chili cause of the beans, that I had a momentary flash of a scene. The scene was that of my daughter and see too couldn't eat chili. It was then I also remember at a different time of seeing my daughter. She had dark eyes and hair, looked nothing like me but like that of her father. My current SO, BTW has dark eyes and hair. That triggered another memory of feeling as if I would end up living out east. So lives in Virginia. See where this is going, various things I have seen in dreams and in just momentary glimpes as I was driving see to point towards my SO. Perhaps I will get lucky and he is 'the one'

The coming year

2006-01-05T20:29:53Z

I don't typically do card readings for myself. Don't know why I just don't. I think perhaps it is cause it is frustrating to do a layout and yet the cards don't have anything to do with where they are. Tis hard to explain but eh so is the case. well on New Year's Eve I did a tarot card reading for myself. The question/queary simply what lies ahead for me in the coming year. For once the cards cooperated *chuckle* actually that is a lie it is just this time the cards and their placement actually went together. First time in a long time.

Anyways it was an interesting reading. I was 'told' my current environment was causing me weariness, fatigue, exhaustion etc and that there is a need for a rest or break. I am currently being oppressed and stressed out due to responsibilites and obligations and that I need to examine the distinction between exploiting and being exploited. There is a longing for simpler, less complicated times; a desire to ressurect the past. I shall successfully finish a project, and leap back into the mainstream of activity after a period of withdrawl. I also fear to act because of the possibility of being misunderstood. I will be experienceing creativity, inventiveness, self-reliance and self-confidence. Then there is something to do with the legal system that with the card placement makes me think it has something to do with my sons. THere is some lack of emotion due to avoiding emothinal entanglements. My decisions will be based on facts informed by feelings. In short feeling something and finding proof to go along with those feelings. In teh end though self-forgiveness.

Really most of it made sense. The only thing that really doesn't is the self forgivenss part. Maybe I finally learn to forgive myself for having feelings and letting them show since currently I try really hard to not have any feelings or at least very few of them.

cc: ladydark

Squire

2005-11-30T06:52:52Z

This person I am not sure what to think of him. Squire is actually his character's name, one of his characters I believe. Anyways, I am not sure what to think of this guy. He is roughly my age. I can't remember what he told me off hand. Lives in up state New York or at least New York. There is a comfortability about him...almost a familiarity. I like it in that I smile whenever we get to talk and RP. In fact writting this and thinking about him causes me to smile.

I am a little leery of it cause well this is how I felt in my last relationship before it all well to hell. It doesn't help that I know very little of the guy. No I'm not going to pursue it. Just gonna let things happen however they may. Still I can't help but ponder it a little just cause of the familiarity/comfortability factor. I mean I have only known the guy, well his character for a little over two weeks now.

Blah....

Vacations

2005-11-30T05:13:44Z

I have had a total of four offers as to places to visit over the summer. Three with friends and one is the Castle D'Image gather. I would dearly love to be able to do all four but I fear tha tfinances as well as not knowing what can be arranged when it comes to the boys will have more to say about it. Also I think my parents will cause me a bunch of grief as well.

If I were to follow my heart, a trip to one of the married friends is a must and the visit to the other married frinds wil lahve to wait till at least next summer. The CDI gather, while not a must I am really going to try hard to attend. The other visit, i am unsure as to what will happen with it. Here are more specifics about hte trips.

The married couple I won't be seeing is beacuse of the boys. My gut says when I make that trip the boys are with me, in fact we drive cuase I have figured out to drive to this set of friends would be the same roughly as the trip I made recently to Texas. Currently there is no way my two-year old would make that trip. I barely can get him to sit for two hours, in fact most times the last 15-20 minutes he is fussing cause he is wanting out of his carseat.

The other married couple really I feel a driving need to vist them this coming summer. As the time passes that drive gets stronger. There is a reason that I need to visit them now, not to mention that it will be three years since I had last visited them. For some reason three is a significant number when it comes to them. There are a couple of things that i am feeling so to speak but they are minor and really nothing that I can put into words.

I regards to the other trip. It is a little complicated. It would be visiting a married couple but I am only friends with the male of that couple. The female does know of me and know what I look like and such. There are feelings there more than friendship from his end for me I will be honest and say there is a sexual desire there but that is where it ends. I am a little uncomfortable with the emotional ties from him. Not completely sure why cause I know that he is married and will be that way for a long time besides I am not wanting a relationship.

Anyways, then we come to the CDI gather. I really want to go to this and in some ways I am hoping that it takes place out east so that maybe I can combine the trip to the gather with the trip to see a few friends including the one just mentioned.

America’s Misconception of Witches

2005-10-25T03:07:11Z

This is a paper I wrote for a class I had last semester. To be nice due to teh length I have placed it behind a cut. If you want to know my sources just ask because as said this was a paper for school so we had to to a bibliography. I have left the citations within the paper so that if one really wanted they could see what was my own thoughts and what wasn't. If a whole paragraph is indented then that whole part is from someone elses mind. If there is only a (<name>, <title page>) The previous sentence was someone elses. Anyways, here it is.

What is a witch? Is she a woman that is spoken of negatively and usually referred to as a witch instead of what a female dog is called? Is she an old woman most would call a hag, or possibly a very beautiful woman? Or maybe she is a woman with green skin, a hooked nose and dressed in black? Perhaps she is a woman with supernatural powers like the ones seen on the TV shows “Bewitched” and “Charmed”? Actually a witch is none of these. If this is confusing to you do not worry; you are not alone. She can be a he. He or she could be your boss, the boy next door playing football with his dad in the backyard, the girl who comes to baby-sit while you have some time to yourself, or even the cashier at the grocery store. The negative image of witches needs to change. The reasons for this are because the images are based on terminology which is vague and/or not up to date, the stereotypes are based completely on fantasy or are centuries old and the image leads to violence and prejudice. The only way I can see for the stereotypes to change is through education and visibility.

In the bible, in the Old Testament, the word witch refers to women who used spoken curses to injure other people or destroy their property. In the New Testament the word witch refers to murderers who use poisons to kill people (Robinson, “What”). This is just one example of how in texts that are familiar to us use vague terminology to describe the same thing. A person is left wondering, if a witch a murderer or does she injure people and destroy their property. The dictionary is no more help. Most dictionaries when defining the word ‘witch’ look over the religious aspect of the word and most often have the words ‘evil’, ‘devil’, ‘hag’, and ‘beautiful’ somewhere in the definition. In Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary as it was found at www.wordassult.com lists witch as:

One who practices the black art or magic; one regarded as possessing supernatural or magical power by compact with an evil spirit, esp. with the Devil; a sorcerer or sorceress; -- now applied chiefly or only to women, but formerly used of men as well; an ugly old woman; a hag; one who exercises more than common power of attraction; a charming or bewitching person; also, one give to mischief; -- said especially of a woman or child.

Witch as it is found in Merriam-Webster Online dictionary is:

One that is credited with usually malignant supernatural powers; especially: a woman practicing usually black witchcraft often with the aid of a devil or familiar; an ugly old woman; hag’; a charming or alluring girl or woman; a practitioner of Wicca.

It is only in this online dictionary that I even found a mention of Wicca in relation to the word witch. Finally in My First Dictionary a dictionary meant for children a witch is:

A person thought to have magic power. In stories, witches might ride on brooms or cast spells.

Now this might not seem to bad since the children’s dictionary doesn’t mention any of the negative words as the ‘adult’ dictionaries did but there is a picture accompanying the definitions in the children’s version. The picture is that of a woman with green skin, a hooked nose, dressed in black and riding a broom.

Wicca’s greatest problem is that the public continues to link them to the imaginary witches of the Burning Times (Robinson, “Christianity”). This imagery or these stereotypes are these:

1. Witches were members of a sinister underground cult hostile to the norms and values of Christianity. 2. They gather secretly at nightly meeting known as sabbats. 3. They travel to the Sabbaths by flying through the air by magical means, often in the shape of animals. 4. The Sabbaths are presided over by Satan (often in animal shape), with whom witches have sealed a pact and whom they serve as their master. 5. Sex is central to the rituals: witches copulate with Satan and the Sabbath usually culminates in an incestuous orgy. 6. Ritual child murder and cannibalism takes an equally central place: fetuses and babies are slaughtered and eaten and their blood drunk in a purposeful perversion of the eucharist. 7. Blasphemous utterances and acts are directed against God, Christ and the symbols of Christianity. 8. Witches maleficium, i.e., they harm neighbors by occult means. 9. Finally, witches are predominantly or even exclusively women. (Hanegraaff 297-9)

As the years have passed some of the stereotypes such as a witch flying and murdering children have been reduced to only being stories of fantasy but these images still exist. The malevolent image of witches and witchcrafts in folklore is often the first image to which most children are exposed (Bartel 216). Tales from the Brothers Grimm introduced magic and mystery to readers beginning in 1812 (Bartel 220). These stereotypes are not only perpetuated in the tales from the Brothers Grimm, but also in music with such songs as “Black Magic Woman” by Santana, “Do You Believe In Magic” by the Lovin’ Spoonful and “Love Potion #9” by the Clovers. While in some television shows, movies and books, the witch is not evil there is some part of the stereotype that does live on, such as supernatural abilities in such shows as “Bewitched” and “Charmed” and in books like Harry Potter and The Witch-child. Because these images still exist in books, music and film it causes witches to start all over again with erasing them from peoples minds.

Today’s witch is far from being old women in pointed hats living on the margin of society. The modern-day Witch is likely to be a man, a person who is well educated, has a steady professional type position, a fully integrated person in society over the age of 18 and of any religious background. What sociological profiles there are show us that the average Wiccan is around 35 years of age in the UK, between their teens and thirties in the U.S., within the 20-40 age range in Canada and finally between 25 and 55 in Australia (Pearson, “Witches” 142). Studies also tell us that in the United Kingdom 38% of Wiccans are male while 57.8% are female and 4.2% claim to be androgynous (qtd. in Pearson, “Witches” 144). In a survey done by Siän Reid and presented to the Nature Religion Scholars List in June of 1990, three-quarters of the 187 Canadian respondents were female (qtd. in Pearson, “Witches” 144). With regard to education, in a survey conducted in the UK by Joanne Pearson in 2000, half of the Wiccans were university educated and at least 25% had acquired professional qualifications (Pearson, “Witches” 145)

Anyone a person comes into contact with in a single day could be a witch. To prove my point, in 1996, the estimated number of Pagans in the UK was between 110,000 and 120,000, of whom approximately 20,000 were initiated or formally inducted members of organized and distinctive Pagan Traditions. Of this 20,000, 10,000 were initiated Wiccans and 6,000 were Pagan Druids, with smaller traditions making up the remaining 4,000 (qtd. in Pearson, “History” 36). The witches voice web site (http://www.witchvox.com) lists nearly 900 covens and other Wiccan groups (Niebuhr). Fitz Jung, who created the site, witches voice, with his wife, Wren Walker, said nearly 17,000 people had listed themselves on it (Niebuhr). Accurate numbers though are impossible to obtain because of the decentralized nature of the religion (Wicca), and because more Wiccans remain underground for reasons of personal safety (Robinson, “Christianity”).

Other stereotypes such as being followers of the Devil have lingered not only in book and film but also in people’s minds. On the Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance website page being “Christian and Wiccan Conflicts: History of recent clashes,” I was able to find a number of examples of the types of violence brought about by these negative stereotypes that still linger. As examples I point out these three: a Baptist pastor in Texas expressed his feelings by saying he wished the government would use napalm and burn Wiccans alive. In 1999, The Free Congress Association said,

“Until the Army withdraws all official support and approval from Witchcraft, no Christian should enlist or re-enlist in the Army and Christian parents should not allow their children to join the Army.”

Finally, in 1999 in Jonesboro, Arkansas there was an attempted multiple murder by stoning. These are only examples that made it into the papers, but there are other stories of Wiccans who have lost their jobs, their homes and their children all because they call themselves a witch.

Until the general public is educated on what Wicca really is and who witches really are, there will continue to be theses stereotypes, and media such as films, television and writing will continue to make money off the plight of witches. But the question is how does this education happen? As scary as it is, it is those who are being persecuted by the stereotypes who need to bring the solution about. This is actually two-fold. First an attempt must be made to standardize terminology used when referring to Wicca and Wiccans. As pointed out earlier in this essay Wicca is also known as Witchcraft, Neo-Pagan Witchcraft, etc. and the same is for the followers. Because of the various traditions and the fact there are so many solitary witches, there can never be one centralized body for Wiccans to look to like those of Christianity can, or at least it will be very difficult to create one so there is a need for a standard of terminology. One such standard is to get all dictionaries to include in their definition of a witch, can be a follower of the religion Wicca.

The second step in the process concerns the individual Wiccan. The individual Wiccan needs to step forward and come out of the ‘broom closet.’ There are many ways in which one can do this, some of them are subtle and others are much more public. The Wiccan coming out of the 'broom closet' as it has been called needs to decide what is right for him or her. Coming out can be as simple as wearing a pentacle or other piece of jewelry that symbolizes you are a Wiccan. Another way is simply by not hiding, for the Wiccan to display his or her altar with pride and to practice Wicca as if it were as any other major religion. Thirdly, a Wiccan can write a letter to an editor of a newspaper or magazine or to a network when an article or program casts Witches in a negative light or promotes inaccurate information. Another option is to join or give to an advocacy group such as the Witches’ Anti-Discrimination Lobby, the Lady Liberty League or the Church of All Worlds. Finally, getting into the media is an option, though the Wiccan doing this has to be in a point in his or her life where they can afford to be known as a Witch and have a pretty tough (Hunter 202-5).

Many Wiccans are most likely saying to themselves, “I can’t come out as a witch.” As stated in my proposed solution, a witch can come out in subtle ways, in fact my writing this paper is a subtle way for me to come out of the ‘broom closet.’ These subtle methods can become stepping-stones to becoming more public as the witch’s life allows him or her to do so.

Ever so slowly, Wiccans are breaking through the stereotypes that were created centuries ago, through education by individuals, like myself, and groups, like covens, and by the efforts such as writing letters to dictionary companies and television networks.

Self Revelations

2005-10-24T02:54:54Z

In my random conversations with myself and sometimes with someone on the other side and sometimes with a friend in the physical world, the following revelations have occured.

I shall live to somewhere between the ages of 60 and 70. I will be hurt violently and the injuries from that incident are what eventually kill me despite the doctors best efforts. My life mate and I travel a great deal, especially to one particular place in Scotland I beleive (I will have to look it up and I will expand on this one in a moment) My life mate and I will have 25 to 30 wonderful years together. It is from this relationship I have my third child. A girl with soulful brown eyes that are so dark they almost appear to look into your soul when she looks at you, she also has dark hair. Once I leave this world my mate's will to thrive is no longer there and passes within 6 months of my passing. One by one my friends closest to me pass away over the course of 20 years.

AS with the traveling with my life mate...This one came about as I was reading a book about haunted places. The book didn't give much details about the places, mostly a map and directions and a very brief description of what haunts there. This book had 101 places in it and only one triggered a vision. As I read it I saw in my head the car we had rented pulling up to the gate of the house. The gates by the way are said to never be opened again until a Stewart I think sits on the throne. Anyways, i ask my husband to stop cause I want to take a picture of the house through the gate. I take one picture and I feel in my gut that there is something near the gates. I take a second photo and as I lower the camera the gates begin to open. I don't drop the camera but I don't realize I still have it as I am drawn towards the gates. The next thing I know I am walking trhough the gates and my clothing changes to a light colored medevial styled dress, it isn't white but perhaps silver or a very pale blue. The dress is a very regal and flowing. I walk straight up to the house. There is a groundskeeper and he is surprised that I cam from the direction that I did and asked how I got there. I turned and when I did the gates were closed but I still pointed to them and said, 'They let me in.' My lifemate is coming toward me from teh direction that visitors normally do and is just mystified by what happened.

That ends this post as I can't think of anything else to put into it. There will be more to come I am sure of it.

Blessed be and light be with you.

True Revelations

2005-10-24T02:38:56Z

To start this journal off as an example perhaps of somethings that may come, I present to you some 'revelations' that have come true.

While talking about my marriage with a friend, she said he and i would only be together for 5 more years at the maximum. I said to her I knew things in my marriage were going downhill, but it would be him leaving me. Nearly five years to the day my husband divorced me.

I have had three friends tell me that I would have three children. One friend said one boy and two girls. It was also said by one that the father of my second child would not be involved in my life long after the child was born. I have said that my oldest would have my hentle heart, my second would have my firey spirit, and my third would have my peaceful soul. It was and is agreed upon my children are and wil be very gifted in the physical world such as with sports but also in the mystical world. So fat I only have two children, both boys by my oldest does have my gentle heart which is easily hurt. My youngest definitely has my firey spirit whish tries my nerves na dpatience every day. Both of them show signs of being empaths and both have a fascination with the mystical world especially dragons.

Anyways, those are my examples of true revelations in my life. I fully expect more to come throughout my life, some being revelations of my own and others said by friends. So ends this first posting. I hope you enjoyed and look forward for more.