I funded a kickstarter program, which I thought actually looked cool.

I’m curious what you think of it, in a meta-game sort of way.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/500894669/serpents-tongue-a-new-magick-experience

NOTE: this is not an add to get you to also join in. 

Basically, take your average TradingCard Game, like Magic:TheGathering, where you play the role of a magi and must defeat your opponents.

The spells are “spoken” by decoding a little sigil/glyph on the card that corresponds to a key with “letters”.  Kinda like the secret decoder rings we used to have.    Simple level 1 spells are 3 syllables it seems.  (FUS RO DA!) and if you don’t say it right, you mis-cast the spell. (the pronouncing is on hte bakc of hte cards so others at the table can verify it’s correctness or not.

Instead of a deck, you put your cards in a little soft-cover “SpellBook” (that looks like it’s essentually a single card-holder sleeve on each page) to add to the feel of casting spells from your grimoire.

I really REALLY like the meta-idea of learning the spells “rote memory” the more you cast them, and get better at decoding the Glyphs on the fly as you familiarize yourself with the key over time.

What you think?  

Sprogling’s been playing Magic and made up his own “spell game” with his lego guys, so it’s ramping up to TableTop time in the next year or so.

I also kinda like the idea of this concept as a springboard for “learning about Magick”, as in the Hermetic sort as part of a more general study of different churchy type things.  His pen-pal in Brazil is wiccan so we’ve been discussing the differences between our more Unitarian/Methodist visitings, and the sort of ‘pagan stuff’ he finds at Fairy Festivals.

Before going, my son (the sprogling, to many readers here) made sure to tell all his friends that he would be donning his armor, and heading off to Protect the Beautiful Fairy Princess that weekend.   Here’s a great picture of the leader of the Mountain Tribe, calling on the spirits of her direction (with the beautiful Princess in white with orange face-swirls beside her).

He also made sure we brought “his drum” to the festival and carried it so that he could participate in the drum circle, and have a little video of it here.   Kinda bad quality as it is two short clips mooshed together, but I’m slowly learning the camera movie functions.  He drummed for a good half hour, and was rather intent towards the end.  Really getting into the energy of the thing, rather than “just making noise”.  My wife, Anne, and I seemed to have similar visions of him in his teens, at festivals, drumming all night, and surrounded by a throng of cute adoring fans.  (*oh my)

All together, a great weekend, and I can’t wait until next year!

Sorry for the horribad use of mis-spelled alliteration up there, (and here!) but it seemed to fit.

On October 22nd, I attended another firewalk with the lovely and talented Dorita Reyen (of Reyen Design Studios) at her friend Judy’s house.  It was one of the smaller groups I’ve walked with, but was extra special for me because after walking the coals a number of times before, I am now learning the Art of FireTending.

Preparing the pyre, configuring the coals, and all that.  From start of torch to hearts of ash, I was involved, and it is a much different perspective from simply attending the workshop to build energy, then heading over to walk the fire afterwards.   I liked it.  A lot.   Much more attuned to things, and such.   More to come on that front, as the season winds up again next year. 

At that firewalk, one of the folks brought a couple bottles of home-made kombucha tea.  I’d read about such things before for a few years, but never felt the need to go out and buy some at a commercial store.  To me, growing and fermenting your own supply just seemed more natural, similar to how I much prefer to wildcraft my own tinctures and herbal tisanes(tea) from the local area.  Might not be as “pharmacologically pure”  or effective as more exotic medicines at times, but the connection to the local lands and energies outweighs things, in my opinion.

So, through the wonderful synchronicity of Life, I managed to get a bottle of wonderful Kombucha tea, with a healthy ‘mother’ in it.  A real live culture.   So I took it home and have split it into two batches to grow myself.  (Kombucha info readily available online, along with far too many “how to grow” videos on YouTube if you are interested)   I read up on the various methods of keeping a Kombucha alive, then dove into the process.

The first small sample went into a larger bottle, and is becoming the most crisp and intoxicating vinegar.    I’ve swapped it out once now, transferring the SCOBY (symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast) which is a thick ‘jellyfish’ that formed as the vinegar mother kept growing.   It’s doing very well, and I had a splash of this vinegar on my salad tonight at work.  Yum!

The second larger bit, I have been keeping in a gallon-sized glass jar.  It’s been a bit slower to grow, since I am swapping out half of the fermented tea twice a week, and taste-testing it.   A bit of a strange brew, like ‘not quite sour apple cider‘ mixed with sweetened black tea.   However, I wouldn’t call it a “bad” taste at all, and I’m learning slowly to let it sit a full week to ferment properly, instead of being impatient and sipping some each day.   Patience pays.

Starting on the last Full Moon, I have a weight-loss goal set, since quitting karate for work-schedule reasons has proven I’m packing on winter-hibernation weight again.  But it’s nothing too drastic.  More of a “have water instead of soda, and a bit more  salad instead of extra scoops of ice-cream for dinner/dessert.”  I’m still not considering it a “diet” by any stretch of the imagination.

Also starting on the last full moon, I have been lighting a candle each night, with whatever prayer comes to mind or seems appropriate for the day.  Nothing big and complex with layers of ritual, just a nice drifting into darkness before bed, and a sudden flick of a lightswitch.

I’ve also been reading Stephen King’s “Dark Tower” series, start to finish.  This will be my second time through these books, and I must admit that reading them without hte year or two between volumes is an interesting perspective.   Somehow, I think mentioning this is not as off-topic from the rest of the blog post as it initially may seem.  Things have been a bit ‘nineteen’ lately, and are starting to line up again.

Lots of other things going on, but those two “catalysts” have kick-started a renewed sense of “I should be doing something spiritual” or at least “mindful” again.   This blog is part of that.

Little things.   But they seem to work.

Blessings of awe-tumn to all you readers!

Lots of things happening, and a much longer post in progress to more officially re-launch this blog, but for now, a quick little test post to make sure my logis work, the RSS feed still works, and all that jazz.

Full moon, recent birthday, and an otherwise good time to Start Stuff.  This, being one of them.

See you around!

-Maebius

Soon, though, Very Soon!

Still quite a lot of work to do yet, but compare it to this earlier in the spring…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfCkbe…
and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcYXCk…

I have a deep-rooted Dread (yes, with a capital D) regarding society today that I have tried to keep under wraps and dismissed as over-dramatic conspiracy-theory-ish folly.  Then again, I also think that dismissing such things is what got us to this point to begin with.   Thus, the unbalanced mood lately, and inability to focus on the details of things.

Recently, however, I found myself feeling altogether different about the whole topic of the Deepwater Oil disaster.

I was sitting outside last night, trying to visualize my opening ‘circle’ and was struck by a profoundly angry sky.  Physically, it was overcast and warm; a wonderful summery evening to sit outside.

Metaphorically (Etherically? Astrally?  Mentally?  I’m not really shamanic in my practices), it was an oppressive weight crushing me to the grass.   I cried.  Real little-kid-upset tears, at being berated so sternly by the Sky.  I was an ant, helpless and afraid, and scraping my meager scraps of glucose from the blades of grass and gathering dew while dreaming of building a fortress in the sandbox.   It hurt my heart, and cut my spirit.   The oil, it flows, and there’s nothing I could do about it, except be blamed for everything I did to cause it.  I was at fault.  Knowing even a single human being, made it my fault.

Honestly, it was scary as all heck, and something I’d prefer not to repeat again.  If that’s shamanic work, I’m not wont to continue it.  Yet, I think I should.

I should, because after being left feeling raped and shattered, I picked up the shards of Me and went back inside to get a drink of orange juice.  I needed something cold and soothing.   I began to feel Lighter then, and a strange sort of hopeful and bittersweet about the whole situation.

Like lancing a boil to drain the fluid before it infects the surrounding tissue, I felt relief, but not closure.

I’m left today at work with a sense that while there is nothing I can immediately do to affect the oil spill, I should continue to apply energies to the healing of the land.  It’s nature responding to humanity’s greed, and rather than fight upstream against the flow, I need to merely turn into the current and help steer away from the rocks below.

It sounds totally depressing to try typing into words, but I can’t help but feel better that it happened somehow.  Fish will die, coastlines will need cleaning, and a terrible tragedy has been unleashed.  I do not deny this.   I feel bad not feeling worse that it happened, though.

The cynic in me thinks maybe this waste of oil will speed along the endgame, so that it’s not quite as deep a trough we are sliding into? The optimist in me feels conflicted with the caring/feeling person in me that maybe lots of stuff dying will help more stuff stay alive?   (Hiroshima stopped the war, after all)

I’m not sure what I think.   It is almost a sort of Ennui, but more cynical, and resigned at Fate.

But I think a bit differently today than I have been.

Bear with things… it’s a weird river I’m rolling on…

In the course of these events, we cleared out a small cement ‘pit’ approxinately 2 feet deep and 4×5 feet, which is within a few feet of the well. Our guess is this is a trough of some sort from when the well had a hand-pump. Our plan is to use it to grow worms or other compostable critters, since is is moderately self-containing.

As we cleaned out the decades of trash from this pit (which had bits of pipe, broken bottles, barbed wire fragments, and lots of rooty weeds) the kid decided to do a bit of archeology himself with the last few bits of stuff found at the bottom amongst the dirt. Since this past Monday, he has been actively pondering these artifacts and asking the grandparents, his teacher, and random strangers what these clues add up to.

There are NO wrong answers here. (I’ll post the best theories he came up with later this week, and unfortunately, our camera is broke, so no photographic evidence. you’ll have to settle for MS Paint!)

Can you solve the mystery, using these clues?!

Clues:
1) A small glass ‘tiger claw’, (actually: shard of broken window glass) approximately 1 inch in length.

2) One strangely shaped bone, approximately 4.5 inches long (broken scapula? Skull fragment?)

3) A small dark blue, 2-hole button (such as on a shirt)

4) A small length of chain, with fat 1/2 inch links, un-rusted, approx a foot long found buried in the dirt.

5) A very rusty fork, with four straight tines and a simple pattern.  (cheap flatware)  One of the middle tines has 1/4 inch missing from the end.

6) A handful of sandy dirt.

Granted, I couldn’t wear it randomly at my workplace, and the sorts of places I would wear this, makes it seem rather redundant (since I’d wear it at festivals where folks ARE dancing naked in the forests)

Ugh, still recovering from cookie binges,but there are post in-draft form (yep, another teaser post!) about Life The Universe, and Everything.

Also, and Another Thing… speaking of 42, am reading a much happier book currently than my last literary adventure where the world as we knew it died.

*cough* Ahem, back to work…
See you all probably next year!

Nettle tagged me for this:
What religions do you find most interesting apart from your own? Would you pick one of the major world religions? Say Islam, or Buddhism, or Hinduism or Judaism? Or would you pick something more obscure, like Wicca or Taosim or Rastafarianism or Gnosticism? Would you pick irreligion, say Atheism or Agnosticism? Or if you’re not Christian, would you say Christianity?

To participate, state your own religion (or irreligion) as your first preference, state the other religions that interest you most as your second and third preferences, then pass onto five others. If you’re feeling brave, say why they interest you.

My answers to follow.

I figured I’d post a cliff-hanger to help keep readers coming back since I also have been horridly net-dark lately. This has been a good thing. Stuff got Done(tm).