Well, that was a nasty, nasty flu. Next time I spend so much time in bed I better be having LOTS more fun. I'm just saying.

Thanks to some cold medication my head is clear enough for flying. I'm leaving for Paris today! I've always wanted to spend my birthday in Paris and this year I am. I'll be wandering around the Left Bank for the next few days.

I'm leaving my computer behind so I won't be blogging while I'm gone. But I'll be back in time for the Full Moon.

Blessings and good wishes!

AE

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 2:29 PM | Comments (4)

The FDA is using legal maneuvering to try to end your access to natural health products (like vitamins, minerals and herbs) and natural health therapies of all sorts.

Again.

This time, their ploy is to declare that therapies are "Medicine" so any non-physician who uses them will be practicing medicine without a license. Since these practices are "Medicine", any products used would be untested drugs and therefore forbidden.

Here's how it is designed to work:

1. By using the term "Medicine" rather than "Modality" for CAM (Complimentary and Alternative Medicine) practices, the FDA sets the stage so that anyone who is not a licensed physician is breaking the law by using these modalities since they are therefore 'practicing medicine without a license'.

2. By using the term "treatment" rather than "therapy", the FDA  limits those who can perform these practices to licensed physicians and, again, anyone who is not a licensed physician is breaking the law by using these modalities since only licensed practitioners can legally address and treat health concerns.   So people using these modalities are therefore 'practicing medicine without a license'.

3. By using the terms "Medicine" and "treatment" instead of  "Modalities" and "therapy", all substances, including vitamins, minerals, herbs, co-factors, etc., automatically become untested drugs since they are being used to prevent, treat, mitigate or cure disease states. Such use can only legally take place with FDA approved drugs.

Your Comments are Vitally Important

Public, professional and industry comments are being accepted on the FDA proposal to "capture" alternative procedures and products as "medicine" and then make them illegal. The history of these repressive attacks by the FDA makes it clear that public outcry, IN HUGE NUMBERS, is the only effective tool that natural health supporters have to change this disastrous outcome.

PROTECT YOUR ACCESS TO NATURAL HEALTH - ADD YOUR VOICE TO THIS CAMPAIGN

Comments will be accepted until April 30.

By contacting everyone you can and asking for their participation in this comment campaign, we can kill this assault on personal health freedom. Please send the link to the comment campaign to everyone you can reach with a brief explanation of the issues. Urge everyone in your personal and professional circles of influence to protect their health freedom -- their personal right to make their own health care choices.

In addition, it is important to take a moment to email the manufacturers of the health care products you take and ask them to alert their suppliers and customer base to protect their businesses. Your natural health care providers need to alert their patients and colleagues, too.

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 9:12 AM | Comments (1)

Aries ©2006-2007 bleedingmirror at deviantART

I'm having a relapse of whatever microbial ickiness took me out a week or so ago and am just not up to writing a proper article about tomorrow's New Moon in Aries. As usual, I turn to Cafe Astrology for the best analysis of the importance of this particular lunation:

On Tuesday morning, a new cycle begins. The Pisces New Moon cycle ends and the Aries New Moon cycle begins. The New Moon in Aries is a good time to commit to personal goals that express the positive energies of the sign of the Ram. It's time to take action—try something new and innovative, and go at it with gusto and confidence; be assertive without being abrasive; take charge of our lives; start a brand new project; and discover our own personal courage. This is a good cycle under which to re-evaluate our relationship to ourselves. With this potent Aries energy, we have the chance to make important changes in our lives.

This month's New Moon is supported by a trine from Pluto, adding purposefulness to our new beginnings. Starting a new fitness routine, kicking a bad habit, or anything that requires willpower is more likely to enjoy success. Our attitude now is that the old must now make way for the new. This is a time to engage in some sort of transformation in which we weed out the bad in order to more effectively use the good. It's time to make some solid yet realistic plans, and to set the stage for reaping the rewards from our new beginnings, as little or big as they may be, in approximately two weeks' time after the Full Moon occurs.

In fact, the Moon, Sun, and four planets - Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn, and Pluto - are all in fire signs. There is so much energy to support us right now, why not take a risk and try something new?

Spell Work

If you have any banishing spells you want to do, use the power of the witching hour to do them tonight, using the last of the Moon's Waning energy before the New Moon begins at 7:36 am EDT Tuesday. After that the Moon will move into its Waxing phase. One thing to keep in mind is that the Moon goes void of course at 10:26 am and then moves into Taurus at 12:11 pm. Many witches believe one shouldn't perform magickal work while the Moon is void of course, so choose whether the energy of Aries or Taurus best serves your purpose and time your spells accordingly.

When the Moon is Waxing it is the best time to perform all types of magick for healing, attracting good luck and increasing things such as money, love, etc. A Waxing Moon in Taurus would be particularly perfect for these types of spells!

I'll be back to my normal pithy self as soon as I can get my head off this pillow! New Moon blessings to everyone!

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 8:29 PM | Comments (0)

Highly sensitive people don't like to work under stress and pressure. It makes us nervous and lessens the quality of our performance. As people with particularly high standards and conscientiousness, the conflict between wanting to do well and feeling unable to do so builds into an intense and painful internal struggle. It's no wonder we sometimes explode, and more often burn out.

Interestingly enough, we often create this sense of pressure for ourselves by rushing.

Why do we rush?
Internally, many of us feel driven to perform, excel, and succeed. We want to do good work. We feel driven to earn more money, or by the fear that we don't have enough. We feel flawed for being highly sensitive and try to prove that we are not. We feel behind on life's accomplishments. We over-schedule because we don't want to miss anything, but we end up doing unimportant things. We are filled with passions, visions, and projects that compel us forward, taking on more and more. We postpone pleasure until we have accomplished our tasks, but the tasks remain unending. We spend our time injudiciously, perhaps in rebellion. We play games, answer lots of e-mail, create complicated solutions for small problems, and then rush to compensate. We rush to meet deadlines, believing we must be in a state of emergency to accomplish them. As sensitive people, we even rush because we feel that we have limited energy for any one thing and instead try to cram as much as possible into the time available.

We might even rush because we are afraid to stop -- afraid to see what's underneath, emotionally, when we slow down.

Information bombards us externally: e-mail, Internet, TV, commercials, jingles, billboards, the signs on our city streets and storefronts, etc.

And we have choices -- about everything. On a big-picture level, we have choices about our work, relationships, family, hobbies, and personal explorations. And on a smaller level, we have choices about lots of other things. One example is food: organic, biodynamic, conventional, traditionally processed, local, or commercially processed? Another is deodorant: scented or unscented; solid, roll-on, or clear; with or without parabens; with or without aluminum; preservatives; etc.

As a sensitive soul who processes everything deeply, do you have the time to process all that without feeling rushed?

On top of all this, busyness has become a badge of honor. How are you? "I'm good. Busy." This is often an unthinking, standard reply that evokes general approval and commiseration, so much so that not being busy can even start to feel unethical.

All of these reasons -- good or bad, light or dark -- can create a sense of urgency and lead to rushing.

It's time to stop the madness
When I worked in my prior high-pressure, deadline- and crisis-driven profession, I daydreamed about writing a book called "Hey, Folks, We're Doing It All Wrong." I see all the rushing and busyness as a systemic failure of mainstream culture, one that we as the sensitive sages of the world can see and point to, but one that we also fall victim to, time and again. Let us not be the canaries in the coal mine, but rather models for a new way.

To stop rushing, we must begin to make new choices. First and foremost, we must recognize that rushing is a choice we make, and choose anew. We can choose to follow our intuition about what is the next most important thing for us to focus on. We can become conscious and deliberate about the choices we make. We can cushion our departures so we easily arrive on time for appointments. We can observe, rather than absorb, the energy of rushing as it goes on around us.

Last weekend I choose to stay home and rest, rather than rushing to join my family for an Easter dinner. My intuition was that I needed an entire weekend of quiet time at home, puttering with my new husband. It wasn't easy to say that to our family, or to avoid my own internal obligation trap that tells me what I "should" be doing. But I am grateful for my choice. Today, I feel rested and whole.

My wise friend Julie builds anti-rushing time into her schedule, even with two small children. She consciously makes the choice not to rush. She gets up two hours early if needed and plans for a nap later in the day, in order to avoid rushing. As Oprah Winfrey might say, she has slowed down to the speed of life.

I challenge sensitive souls to step outside this rushaholism and become leaders in honoring the deeper intuitive messages that guide our lives. Let us be models for rational living that better serve our selves, our communities, and our planet.

Powerful questions
* Will anyone die if I don't respond to this "emergency," or stop treating it as such?
* Is this worth my precious time and energy?
* Is this choice in alignment with who I am here to be?
* Is this a "should" or a "have-to"?
* What's next?
* What is my inner wisdom telling me here?

And remember, from a spiritual perspective: You are right on time. You'll never get it "right" and you'll never get it done, so enjoy the ride.
 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Copyright 2007, Jennifer K. Avery

Jenna Avery, the Life Coach for Sensitive Souls, offers an original coaching program designed to guide highly sensitive souls to a deep sense of inner rightness, so they are inspired to step forward and shine. You're invited to visit her website to take her free online assessment, "Is Your Sensitivity Working For You?"

Related resources
Women in Overdrive: Find Balance and Overcome Burnout at Any Age, by Nora Isaacs
In Praise of Slowness: Challenging the Cult of Speed, by Carl Honore
Nourishing Traditions, by Sally Fallon
B-Society, a Danish website with ideas about a new "B" Society (under construction, but interesting)

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 2:27 PM | Comments (2)

This morning, in what has become something of a morning ritual, I checked with Cafe Astrology to see what the Stars have in store for us today and I did my Dream, Joy, Magic reading with the Fey Tarot.

The astrological lesson for today seemed to be that road blocks are the things that get us to stop and focus on something that otherwise would have gone out the door not quite right. Instead of getting frustrated when the universe places an obstacle in our path, perhaps we should see it not as a nuisance but as the universe's way of saying, "Hey, something here needs your attention."

Waite Ryder Five of Pentacles

The Magic card of my spread, which indicates the the work one needs to do to overcome personal limits, was the Five of Pentacles. We've all seen the Waite Ryder Five of Pentacles, with the couple dressed in rags walking miserably through the snow past a church window radiating warmth and light. The simple reading of the Five of Pentacles is usually poverty, but a deeper look at the Waite Ryder card suggests a certain refusal or inability to see where relief from our suffering is if we are only willing to walk through the door. (I'm starting to realize how heavily laced with Christian overtones the Waite Ryder deck really is!) A big difference between the Waite Ryder Five of Pentacles and the Fey Five of Pentacles is that the Fey are depicted inside, sleeping huddled by the warmth of a fire that is emanating from the pentacle before them, the remains of a simple repast nearby. Outside the window is a scary-looking beast. The message here is more of a choice between which side of the window we want to be on. Even those of us who don't have much are luckier than many if we are still able to find shelter, food, warmth and companionship. So the Magic in this card seems to be that we should be grateful for that which we have, even if it isn't much - to choose to be on the inside where it is warm. And who's to say that the scary beast outside isn't really a kindred soul who needs our help, but because he looks different we see him as something to fear instead of someone worthy of our compassion.

It's interesting that these issues came up for me today because they bring me back to an issue I was struggling with last week. I had done a couple of readings with Dianne Sylvan's Storyteller's Spread. One of the cards in the spread represents a Treasure that is our reward for defeating the Dragon (which for me turned out to be something in myself every time). In other words, bravely facing the "Big Bad" that we are meant to overcome to achieve the Goal set out for us at the beginning of our quest. In the first reading, my Treasure was the Three of Swords and in spread two it was Five of Cups. What's up with that? How can heartache and sorrow be a Treasure? How can these be my reward for bravely facing my demons? I was not a happy quester.

Then a wise Druid made a suggestion. He said that maybe the treasure is learning to deal with pain, loss, and struggle - learning to rise above them. "That's a treasure few people receive," he said.

I thought about this and I realized that, while I might have preferred a happier, shinier treasure, to know that one can face pain and loss and still survive is a valuable thing indeed. Fear of pain and loss is something that keeps many of us from moving on, from accepting transformative opportunities, from taking a leap of faith to jump into an unknown future that may hold more joy and happy, shiny treasure than we have ever known before.

For those of us who are walking a Wiccan path, these lessons teach us to look beyond the surface of pain and loss to find the treasures hidden within. That obstacles that slow us down as we hurtle down our path may be opportunities to fix something before it's too late. That we are only poor if we choose to see ourselves that way. That fear of the unknown is not smart or compassionate. And that knowing pain and loss is what allows us not only to know that we can feel but also that in living through the pain and loss we come out on the other side blessed with survival and the wisdom that we can do anything now that we no longer have fear to keep us from trying.

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 10:38 AM | Comments (3)

Dianne Sylvan's ears must be ringing because I've been singing her praise all around the blogosphere. After recently discovering Dianne's work - her books and her blog, Dancing Down The Moon - I feel like I've met a terrific new friend who turns out to be a long-lost spiritual sister. I hope she wouldn't mind that I've said that. Her writing is so resonant of her personality that it's easy to feel as if one knows her just from reading her work. As a writer, I'm in awe of someone who can evoke such a strong sense of voice. As a friend, I'd invite her out for libations and a chat if she lived anywhere near me (my door is always open, Dianne, if ever you find yourself in Boston!).

And as is generally the case when things find their way into my life, I discovered her book The Circle Within just when I needed it. She could have been writing about me when she said:

The problem is that you look in the mirror and you still don't remember who you are. Life feels heavy, and the rituals you attend have started to bore you. There is something fundamental that's missing from your religion, and you hate to admit it. After all, when you found Wicca, it felt so much like coming home. Does your dissatisfaction mean you're in the wrong house after all this time?

In making my way through her book, I'm finding Dianne's philosophy about "living" one's faith extremely appealing. I've spent a fair amount of time in formal training in the last couple of years but the thing that has eluded me is a meaningful daily spiritual practice. Dianne's book addresses how to do that in a simple yet deeply impactful way. As I did to Sojourner, who wrote of a similar personal challenge in her post Spiritual Time Out, I would highly recommend The Circle Within to anyone who is struggling with how to create a personal spiritual practice. While the book is most specifically focused on pursuing a Wiccan path, what Dianne writes is based in good common sense and there is much that would be of value regardless of your particular spiritual leanings.

Every once in a while we experience a work of art - be it a book, a painting, a piece of music - that has the power to affect us in some profound way, to change the way we see things, to transform us. The Circle Within has provided just such an experience for me. I'm finding it to be wonderfully inspiring as a guide to help me "live" my path as a witch.

Of course this is only one of the ways that I'm finding her book to be a source of inspiration. In her chapter Living The Path Dianne discusses what she considers to be Wiccan Graces: Love, Compassion, Forgiveness, Humor, Gratitude, Integrity, Wisdom, Joy and Growth. As I mull over what she has to say about each, I think I'd like to write a series of articles exploring these graces for myself.

To quote another book: "... the greatest of these is love." And this is what Dianne has to say about Love as a Wiccan Grace:

Love should be the cornerstone of any spiritual practice - indeed, it should be the cornerstone of everything. . . . When you learn to love with a whole heart, without question or limit, you will walk in the footsteps of Deity.

When we are learning to walk, we have people who hold our hands. When we are learning to walk in divine love, it's nice to have people who lend their support as well. Thanks, Dianne.

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 6:04 PM | Comments (3)

Many Moons ago I wrote about Witchy Wine. Alas, my corner wine store no longer carries Les Sorcieres, but today I found a new one: Aqua Pumpkin.

The label you see here is from a Chardonnay, although I'm drinking the 2004 Santa Barbara County Pinot Noir. It's terrific - flavorful and earthy. I wish I had a better image of their label, because it's a perfect complement to Blogickal, with a color scheme of purple, green and orange. And of course the Aqua Pumpkin proudly displayed in the center.

From the label:

Aqua Pumpkin came about from the chance positioning of children's crayons, harvest sleep deprivation and a sense of humor.

Pour the sunshine, enjoy the playground, and always share.

A PUMPKIN FREE WINE

Could there be a more perfect wine for witches who are so inclined?

Aqua Pumpkin - Fine Wine from Happy Grapes

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 5:26 PM | Comments (5)

For the past couple of days, I've been down for the count with something that seems to making its rounds among the good citizens of Boston.

Is it this guy:

Rhinovirus

Or maybe this one:

Orthomyxovirus

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 6:38 PM | Comments (1)

Good news tarot fans - Dianne Sylvan has created a new spread called The Storyteller's Spread.

Get yourself right over there and check it out. I can't wait to try this!

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 5:56 PM | Comments (2)

Inside the First Amendment: The nature of discrimination

This article in today's Louisville Courier Journal was brought to my attention by a member of my Spells for Democracy group. The author is Charles C. Haynes, senior scholar for the First Amendment Center. He writes:

People accused of witchcraft in America aren't executed anymore (we are 300 years and a First Amendment away from Puritan Massachusetts). These days they just lose their jobs.

He goes on to discuss the army chaplain who converted to Wicca and was dismissed from his post, the teacher who lost her job after the school board accused her of being a witch (she is Jewish), and the ongoing struggle to get the VA to approve the pentacle for the headstones of Wiccans who have died in service to this country.

These stories are hardly news for those of us participating in the Pagan blogosphere. What is heartening for me, though, about an article like this one is the fact that rational people outside our Pagan community are taking public stands in defense of our right to practice our religion in this country without persecution. Is Charles Haynes Wiccan? I don't know, but I doubt it. Is Louisville, Kentucky a bastion of liberal thought and a community filled with out witches? I don't know, but I doubt it.

Then again, Kentucky is where my Scottish ancestors chose to settle and if there is anything I know about them, it's that they never let anyone tell them what to do. They were Old Regular Southern Baptists (I know, scary) and a bit old fashioned in their approach to gender roles (don't get me started) but the people I knew in my childhood were good people full of common sense. It's not so terribly difficult for me to believe that Kentuckians are a folk who would defend freedom, if not openly support witchcraft. (Although I'm convinced some of my old Baptist grannies up in the hills were practicing the old ways. If only they were still around to ask.)

But back to Mr. Haynes. I'd like to see more writers like Haynes making his voice heard. There are others who have and Jason Pitzi-Waters at The Wild Hunt does a great job of bringing them to our attention. A rule of thumb in the PR and marketing world is that "third party endorsement" does more for your business/product/cause than any ad or program you could pay for. I see these types of articles in mainstream media outlets - read by communities who may never see a witch except for the four-year-old in a pointy hat at Halloween variety - as remarkably positive press. The staunch purists among us can choose to be offended by the various ways that Wiccans are portrayed in the media, but lets face it - we are struggling to secure rights for ourselves that other religious groups in this country never have to give a second thought to and articles like this one have a lot of power to move rational people to support our cause even if they are not a part of our community.

Haynes concludes his article with this:

As Wicca grows -- and it's one of the fastest-growing religions in America -- so will conflicts over witches. That's because most of what people think they know about witches and Wicca is wrong. Contrary to popular myth, Wiccans have nothing to do with the "evil arts" or Satanism. Nor do Wiccans conform to the stereotypes rooted in fantasies from "The Wizard of Oz" to "Sabrina, the Teenage Witch."

If it isn't what many people think it is, then what is Wicca? Although no religion is easily summed up in a sentence, most Wiccans would probably agree that Wicca is a nature-based religion rooted in a conviction that the Divine permeates all life. For a fuller explanation, Wicca Demystified by Bryan Lankford is a good place to start.

For First Amendment purposes, however, it doesn't matter what military officers or school principals or other government officials think about Wicca: It is their constitutional duty to protect the religious freedom of all Americans, including witches.

Thank you, Mr. Haynes.

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 11:39 AM | Comments (2)

Tomorrow at 1:15 pm EDT the Moon will be Full in the harmonious sign of Libra.

Cafe Astrology tells us:

The Aries-Libra polarity is a relationship axis, where Aries represents "self" and Libra represents "other". Where Aries is about self-assertion, Libra is about compromise. The energy of the Libra Moon is the awareness of the need for relationships and all that comes with maintaining them--compromising, negotiating, graciousness, and balancing. The Aries Sun, on the other hand, is self-assertive, leading, and personally courageous. This Full Moon urges us to strike a balance between meeting our personal needs and tending to the needs of a significant other, and between independence or autonomy and dependence or companionability.

As we are enjoying a season when the burgeoning green and blossoms represent the opportunity we have to bring abundance into our lives, what better time to use the energy of this Full Moon to concentrate on realizing abundance in our relationships in a balanced and healthy way. Helping us along in this endeavor is Venus' current dalliance in Earthy Taurus.

Holding Hands © 2007 LetThereBeLove at deviantART

As I've been reading Dianne Sylvan's The Circle Within, her philosophy around "living" our faith is resounding with me big time. She says that "if you live a magical life, one filled with spirit and in contact with Divinity, you won't need so many spells." With that in mind, perhaps some of the relationships we may want to work on at this time are with our personal spirit guides, the Gods and Goddesses who call to us or to whom we feel drawn, ourselves as divine beings.

From now leading up to the actual moment of the Full Moon is your chance to use the remaining energy of the Waxing Moon to perform any magickal work dealing with manifestation and growth. Rather than hustling to whip up a spell to perform tonight at midnight, what if the magickal work is simply to light a candle, put some flowers on your altar, invite the Divine to join you, and read a simple devotional geared toward the area in your life that feels like it needs a little attention? I can't tell you how many Full Moon opportunities I've let pass by because I didn't plan ahead to buy candles and ingredients to perform a particular spell. There are times and places for that work, to be certain, but the idea of simplifying the process of devotion appeals to me mightily at the moment.

If abundance is what you seek, again, I quote Dianne:

Through daily practice and constant mindfulness of the deep connections between us and all that lives, you can find a way to reach up and take the hand you are offered.

E.M. Forster said it best: Only Connect.

Correspondences

April's Full Moon is known as the Grass Moon, Egg Moon, Seed Moon or Wind Moon. It is a Moon of utility, efficacy and self-guidance. The Celts associated this Full Moon with the Alder Tree and considered this a time of completeness and spirituality.

Deities: Kali, Hathor, Anahita, Ceres, Ishtar, Venus, Bast
Nature Spirits: plant faeries
Herbs: basil, chives, dragon's blood, geranium, thistle
Colors: crimson red, gold
Flowers: daisy, sweetpea
Scents: pine, bay, bergamot, patchouli
Stones: ruby, garnet, sard
Trees: pine, bay, hazel, alder
Animals: bear, wolf
Birds: hawk, magpie

If you want to work with Venus, here are some correspondences specifically related to her:

Colors: green, red, pink
Element: water
Stones: emerald, turquoise
Metals: copper, gold coins
Scent: rose

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 4:30 PM | Comments (1)