It has been brought to my attention that some readers are having difficulty leaving comments. My apologies to any of you who have been getting error messages that say that you have left too many comments in too short a time. This is a bunch of bunk, of course, and I do really want to read whatever it was that you kindly took time from your day to try to post!

Unfortunately, this is a problem that I have experienced repeatedly on the site and my web host insists that there is nothing wrong. I have asked them to look into the issue again and hope that we can find a solution. Finally.

Do you think there is some sort of trickster cyber faery living in my code? I'm not sure technical support is prepared to deal with faery mischief.

In the mean time, I can share the trick I use if this happens to me when I am trying to respond to a comment someone has left. I switch browsers. I'm not sure if it is that Movable Type doesn't recognize you if you are commenting from a different browser, but somehow this works for me. (I usually use Safari and switch to Firefox to get around this bizarre comment problem.) If any of you have the patience to go to this length to leave a comment at Blogickal.

I certainly do appreciate when someone cares enough to comment! I will try to remedy this as soon as possible.

Love and blessings to you, my friendly readers.

UPDATE

My web host tells me that this problem is related to the Captcha password feature. For some reason, when the Captcha code isn't entered properly the error message one receives is this crazy thing about posting too many times. How stupid is that!?

See, there is a trickster faery living in my code!

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 11:01 AM | Comments (0)

Yes, I am shamelessly announcing that today is my birthday because I don't look my age and I'm very proud! Some girlfriends and I are going to a divine little boite in Cambridge, Cuchi Cuchi, to celebrate. How convenient for me that Tuesdays are the days that they have a tarot card reader on hand!

Take care of the luxuries and the necessities will take care of themselves.
- Dorothy Parker

My motto to be sure! Kisses all around!

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 5:33 PM | Comments (3)

On Saturday I continued my digging in the dirt (cue Peter Gabriel) to plant gladiolus bulbs in rows along the fence that edges the lawn and a sprinkling of dahlias in strategic spots (I only had eight of them - dahlias, it seems, are expensive). I got very into the whole experience; it was very zen. Dig a hole with my spade, put in a bit of plant-food-infused soil, place the bulb, say hello to the earthworm I'd disturbed, cover everybody back up with dirt, and move on to the next. It was cooler than it had been earlier in the week when I was planting pansies in window boxes and herbs in pots on the deck. A breeze was blowing and listening to sounds of the woods next to me, the birds chirping, and the occasional bee buzzing was lovely and meditative accompaniment to my work. I had folded up a towel to rest my knees on and at one point I laughed because I realized that my dirt-covered holey old towel was rather like a prayer pillow, providing cushioning for a supplicant. How appropriate, I thought, because kneeling amidst the wonders of nature as I was - surrounded by forest and wind and creatures and burgeoning signs of Spring - felt very much like praying for this witch.

Whatever meditation or ritual I usually do is at an altar in my apartment in the city, very much indoors. My experience on Saturday felt like the Pagan version of someone used to kneeling alone at bedtime, rosary beads in hand, suddenly finding herself praying in a grand cathedral with all the trappings. It really drove home how simple, and how important, getting a little Earth into my Earth-based spirituality is. And I was just planting flowers, talking to earthworms, leaving little rock altars to the faeries in hopes that they would keep the deer from eating the tender shoots when my gladiolii start to grow.

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 9:26 AM | Comments (3)

I had no idea there was going to be one but the other day I found at the bookstore the sequel to Chocolat: The Girl with No Shadow. How exciting! I bought it on the spot and once I started reading, couldn't put it down. Since Chocolat, I've gone on to read as many of Joanne Harris' books as I can get my hands on; not all of them have been published in the US (she is British) and are often difficult to find. The Girl With No Shadow has become my new favorite.

Joanne Harris is one of those writers who infuses her stories with real magick, as well as the kind of literary magic that makes for delightful reading. She either is a witch herself, or witchcraft and magick and mysterious people are favorite subjects of hers, about which she has extensive and detailed knowledge. More importantly, perhaps, as a reader of her books, she is a very talented writer and she writes precisely the kind of fiction I love to read: clever use of language, compelling characters, rich in detail and location.

The Girl With No Shadow is probably the most overtly magickal of Joanne Harris' books yet. One of the characters refers to herself, Vianne and Anouk as witches. Magick is performed and things are discussed that in Chocolat were only hinted at. Even still, the book's strength lies in its craftily created characters and well-developed story line. I was utterly captivated, not because of the magick, but because of the writing.

I know there is an entire genre of fiction about magical worlds to which rows and rows of shelves in any local mega book store are devoted, but fantasy fiction is not what I'm talking about. With all due respect to fantasy writers and fans, what I'm talking about is literary fiction that manages to include magical themes, characters, realms - entire plot lines even - and yet first and foremost remain well-written works of literature. Alice Hoffman's books falls into this category. So do Susanna Clarke's. There's the magical realism typical of Latina literature in The Hummingbird's Daughter and Like Water For Chocolate, the quirky and comic The Good Fairies of New York, mystic Paul Coelho's latest The Witch of Portobello, and a fascinating British book that I loved, Season of the Witch. Of course, now that I tend to look for them, I find these books more often.

Yesterday I bought Alice Hoffman's latest offering, The Third Angel. I look forward to jumping in over the weekend.

For more of Joanna Harris' books and a variety of my other favorite works of magickal literature, check out the last section of the Blogickal Bookshelf.

Happy reading!

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 8:12 AM | Comments (1)

Yesterday was Earth Day. April 22nd each year marks the anniversary of the birth of the modern environmental movement and, since its foundation in 1970, has become a veritable juggernaut of activism and celebration for this little blue and green planet we call home. The significance of this day I'm sure is not lost on any of us who worship Earth as mother and to whom we look for the foundation of our spirituality.

While I did not participate in any of yesterday's organized activities, today I had my own private Earth Day because I literally got my hands in the Earth and planted flowers. Planting flowers may not seem like a very big deal to most people, but I can't remember the last time I had anything to do with flowers that didn't come delivered with a bow and a sentimental card. And actually digging in the dirt? Grabbing fists full of loamy soil and pushing it around plants? I'm a city girl - I just never did those things. That is why my morning of planting flowers and getting my hands in the soil and not caring a whit about how dirty my nails and my clothes got was such a monumental thing for me. And damn it felt good!

Today I was planting pansies. I had a couple of varieties, but my favorites were the tiny ones with cute purple and orange faces. Tomorrow I have some heather to plant, as well as some herbs and some vegetables.

Truly!

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 5:19 PM | Comments (1)

This morning at 6:25 am EDT, the Full Moon occurred, with the Sun in Taurus opposing the Moon in Scorpio. Cafe Astrology says:

The Full Moon is a time of culmination and the promise of fulfillment of that which was started at the New Moon. It is an emotional time - a time of romance, fertilization, and relationships.

The Taurus-Scorpio polarity deals with the balance between all that is mine (Taurus) and all that is yours (Scorpio). It also emphasizes the concept of form (Taurus) versus transformation (Scorpio). While Taurus deals with matter, personal values, material goods, possessions, and security, Scorpio rules the destruction of form, shared possessions, change, and transformation. The Sun in Taurus wants us to be happy with the simple, tangible things in life, while the Scorpio Moon draws our attention to complexities, intangibles, and mysteries. Neglecting either end of the axis will surely backfire on us. Ideally, a balance should be found between the two energies, and this is what the Full Moon invites us to do. This Full Moon is about emotional declarations. Something has been building inside of us, likely of an intimate nature, and now is the time when the energy of the cosmos fairly demands that we let it out. Over the next two weeks, we will discover what this declaration means for us. For now, we can't sit on our feelings. We need to express them. The Full Moon illuminates this conflict between collecting and sharing.

This Full Moon is supported by both Saturn and Pluto, adding practicality and logic to an otherwise irrational state. The epiphanies we have now can be turned into something solid and real.

What has been building inside of you that feels like it's about to burst? What work have you been doing that feels like it is reaching fulfillment and can benefit from this energy that both encourages change and gives us a foundation to support us through it? What epiphanies have you experienced lately?

I particularly like the Taurus/Scorpio polarity. As a Taurus, of course I am comfortable when the influence of my sign is affecting what's going on in my life. It's a safe and cozy place. The energy of Scorpio, however, is thrilling and speaks to my shadow self - in a good way. When you've come to terms with your shadow self and welcomed it back into the fold (as I did during my shamanic training) turning to the shadow can be empowering. Sometimes it gives us more information than our sunny self is willing to see. And at this particular time, using Scorpio's energy to illuminate those complexities, intangibles and mysteries will be very useful.

As the eighth sign in the zodiac, Scorpio is associated with the Eighth House, which has to do with birth, death, transformation, sexual relationships, deeply committed relationships of all kinds, and magick and psychic abilities. With the Full Moon in Scorpio, there is powerful energy to support work in these areas of your life. Traditionally seen as being ruled by Mars - a planet with masculine energy that leads us toward desire and action - more modern astrologers consider Scorpio to be ruled by Pluto - which represents the urge to transform and regenerate. The tarot's Death card makes the perfect metaphor for a Full Moon in Scorpio, because it really is more about the emerging of the butterfly into its new state of being than it is about loss that made transformation possible.

Spellwork

Generally I like to plan and create my own spells, based on whatever energy is being supported and emphasized by any particular Full Moon. But lately I have been spending less and less time focusing my practice on major spellwork. For those who are interested, I did find this website that tells us that a Full Moon in Scorpio is useful for working the following types of spells:

Spells for increasing psychic ability, contacting other planes, merging with Deity, spirituality, prisons and prisoners, confinement, the downtrodden and unfortunate, criminals, hidden enemies, past lives and karma, reincarnation, magick in general, potions, brews, poisons, drawing out poisons, cleansings, secrets and hidden things, finding lost items, banishment, exorcism, mediumship, charity and welfare, widows and orphans, spies, working on self-betterment by examining hidden aspects of yourself, hypnotism, mental health, nuclear power, radiation, psychic healing, working with oils, incenses and perfumes, luck in general, bad luck.

Pisces rules dance, escapism, banality, fishing, planting, solitude, possession, secret societies, merging with God/dess, alcohol, chemicals in general, the past, the still small voice, dance, invocation, large institutions, drugs, potions and elixirs, relatives in general, charity, humanitarian concerns, large animals, zoos and menageries, insanity, faith, music, keeping secrets, deep very psychic stuff, vulnerability, facing fears and conquering them, facing the past and overcoming it, divine madness, endings, aloneness, high magick, the water cycle, water in the oceans, salt water.

Scorpio correspondences:

Ruler: Pluto, Mars
Element: Water
Colors: black, scarlet, dark red, brown
Stones: diamond, obsidian, topaz, ruby, jet
Metal: iron, steel
Herbs: agaric, artichoke, asafoetida, basil, belladonna, blackberry, black-eyed susan, blackthorn, bloodroot, catalpa, cattail, chrysanthemum, cohosh (black and blue), damiana, datura, dogwood, dragon's blood, elder, foxglove, fumitory, ginseng, hemlock, horseradish, lobelia, mandrake, morning glory, nightshade, woody, pansy, patchouli, pomegranate, rye, saw palmetto, toadflax, tobacco, vanilla, wormwood, yew
Trees: holly, blackthorn
Birds: eagle, vulture
Animals: scorpion, wolf, panther

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 8:36 AM | Comments (1)

While I'm finally starting to really recover from this flu, I'm not quite back to being my creative writer self. (An article on my recent experience with intuitive psychic Vera Nadine is in the works and coming soon.) I have, however, been doing a fair amount of reading. On this lovely Spring Sunday, I thought I'd share a few snippets:

Far beneath the many thick layers of indoctrination about who we are and who we should be lies an original self, a person who came into this world full of possibility and destined for joyful unveiling and manifestation. It is this person we glimpse in another when we fall in love or when we idealize a leader or romanticize an artist. This is the person who comes to life in us briefly as we get married, start a course in school, or try on a new job - before worry and cynicism have set in. Chronically trying to be someone other than this original self, persuaded that we are not adequate and should fit some norm of health or correctness, we may find a cool distance gradually separating us from that deep and eternal person, that God-given personality, and we may forget both who we were and who we might be.

from Original Self: Living with Paradox and Originality by Thomas Moore

When we reveal ourselves to our partner and find that this brings healing rather than harm, we make an important discovery - that intimate relationship can provide a sanctuary from the world of facades, a sacred space where we can be ourselves, as we are . . . This kind of unmasking - speaking our truth, sharing our inner struggles, and revealing our raw edges - is sacred activity, which allows two souls to meet and touch more deeply.

John Welwood, quoted by bell hooks in All About Love: New Visions

I don't love you as if you were a rose of salt, topaz,
or arrow of carnations that propagate fire:
I love you as one loves certain obscure things,
secretly, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that doesn’t bloom but carries
the light of those flowers, hidden, within itself,
and thanks to your love the tight aroma that arose
from the earth lives dimly in my body.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where,
I love you directly without problems or pride:
I love you like this because I don’t know any other way to love,
except in this form in which I am not nor are you,
so close that your hand upon my chest is mine,
so close that your eyes close with my dreams.

100 Love Sonnets: XVII by Pablo Neruda

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 9:48 AM | Comments (1)

My apologies for being generally absent and short on commentary for the past week or so. This flu I came down with has been doing a number on me. When I've been able to get off the sofa long enough to sit at the computer, my brain spins and nothing much like an intelligent sentence wants to form.

This afternoon I'm playing shopkeeper, looking after a friend's jewelry gallery for her. As long as I don't pass out on any of the customers I'll be fine.

More later . . .

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 3:20 PM | Comments (2)

A mourning dove perched on my back deck this morning. Among the different birds I've seen, this is the first time she has come to visit. She's hopped off to the yard below now, but I can still hear her cooing.

As a totem animal, the dove represents the feminine, peace, maternity, prophecy.

The dove is the embodiment of maternal instinct. She is connected to Mother Earth and her creative energies. Her mournful call speaks to our deepest self and stirs our emotions. The voice of the dove is a rain song and brings us hope of a new beginning.

The dove is the totem of "Between Times" and shows us the time of the thinning of the veils between the physical and the spiritual world. Listen for her call with your soul.

Source: Animal Totems

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 10:17 AM | Comments (0)

A little madness in the Spring
Is wholesome even for the King,
But God be with the Clown,
Who ponders this tremendous scene—
This whole experiment of green,
As if it were his own!

- Emily Dickinson

This poem would have been perfect yesterday, April Fool's Day, when everyone is un poisson d'avril and silliness rules the day. It was a day, too, when the air was warm, even the crazy wind, and rain fell on the buds that are loosening toward leafhood. It feels that Spring has truly arrived at last here in Boston.

My ennui of Friday turned into the flu by Sunday, so I spent my April Fool's Day lying on the sofa and coughing up a lung. I am having fun with this Greta Garbo voice I've got - at least until it goes and then I can only croak like some otherworldly frog. You want to talk about boredom? There are only so many reruns of Charmed and Law and Order a girl can take! Today I venture out to get my hair done - a trim on the grand chop of a few weeks ago to remind me why I did it - and a bit of beauty for my upcoming date. That Venus, she knows her stuff!

More later, darlings!

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 9:07 AM | Comments (1)