I wanted to tell you “Thank You” one more time…..

Cute Thank You Comments
You know it seems sort of funny, each day this week I have ended with a comment. Now that you have made sure we stay on the net, I don’t know what to do. Well, that a little white lie, I do know what to do but will you get tired of hearing it for the 4 or 5 weeks…..

Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!

I know I will never get tired of saying it to you. Saving our little spot on the net means more to us than you can ever imagine. Everything I do I put my heart and soul into it. I never do anything half-assed, that isn’t my style. If I am going to do something, I am going to put my all into it. The first site we had on MSN, I did just that. I poured everything I had into it. Then when MSN closed the groups, I was upset to say the least. But then I had been working in the background on our new site on Yuku. No matter what I did, I just could never make that spot feel right. It just didn’t feel like home. When I shut it down, it was a relief. I know that is terrible to say but it was.

While I was on my break from the internet, the Goddess got a hold on me. She picked my little butt up and pointed me to WordPress. I didn’t know a darn thing about blogging but I sincerely believe the Goddess helped me make this site. I could feel Her presence every time I came to work on this site. The more I worked on it, the more it started to feel like home. And of course, this baby has my heart and soul in it. I know the Goddess helped me build this site. The Goddess is in the site just as much as I am. I made Her a promise when this site was finally ready for others to call home. I thought last week, I might not be able to fulfill my promise to Her. Losing the site and breaking my promise to the Goddess, I just couldn’t stand to even think about it.

I know you all probably got tired of me hollering about money. I am so very sorry I had too, believe me, please! I hate asking anyone for anything. I appreciate your patience with me. I know I had to get on your nerves. I got on my own nerves, lol! But at the time it wasn’t very funny. Now you know why it was so very important for us to save this site. For me to pester you to death, I couldn’t let the Goddess down. She has always been a great Mother to me. There has been nothing I have not asked of Her that She did not take care of. I owe Her so much. She has brought all of us together and that means more than anything to me. She continues to guide people to our site. We are constantly growing and getting bigger by the day. I believe we are honestly blessed.

It is very important that we continue the Goddess’ work. People must know the truth about us and more important about our Divine Mother. I believe, like myself, if She ever touches their heart, they will never leave. To feel Her presence and to know She is with you is the best feeling in the world. I might not live to see it, but I believe one day Paganism and Witchcraft will become the main religions throughout the world. And it all started with our Ancestors and you. Pat yourself on the back because you deserve it, my friend.

I can never thank you enough for all you have done for the WOTC and myself. I love each and everyone of you, you are my family. I must say I am a very fortunate witch to be able to call each of you, my brothers and sisters.

Thank you so very, very much,

Lady A

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’ for Monday, May 12th

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

Think on pleasant things. Deliberately turn your thoughts to something pleasant when the pressures are too intense. And be careful as undisciplined thought quickly sifts back to the unhappy, unsettled mind.

The greater part of the time we are victims of our emotions. They play havoc with our peace of mind and are great friends of pessimism. They tell us things are true with such sincerity that we believe them into fact. They convince us things are a certain way and that we cannot remedy them with any amount of effort.

But stop where you are and consider what it is you are listening to and how it affects your feelings. Do a turnabout and take the positive route of deliberately replacing thoughts of unhappiness, injustices, and misunderstandings with the thought that these are merely chariots to carry us past all that has withheld freedom.

__________________________________________

Available online! ‘Cherokee Feast of Days’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler.

Visit her web site to purchase the wonderful books by Joyce as gifts for yourself or for loved ones……and also for those who don’t have access to the Internet: http://www.hifler.com
Click Here to Buy her books at Amazon.com

Elder’s Meditation of the Day
By White Bison, Inc., an American Indian-owned nonprofit organization. Order their many products from their web site: http://www.whitebison.org

Elder’s Meditation of the Day May 12

“All the stones that are around here, each one has a language of its own. Even the earth has a song.”

—- Wallace Black Elk, LAKOTA

To believe that every tree, plant and insect can talk takes an open mind. Go by yourself into nature and sit quietly. Then pick up a rock and listen to your thoughts. After a while, put that rock down and pick up another rock. Your thoughts will change. These are the voices and wisdom of the Stone People. Each one has different wisdom and they are willing to share their wisdom with you. Many of the Stone People are very old and very wise.

Great Spirit, let every rock and leaf be my teacher.

May 12 – Daily Feast

May 12 – Daily Feast

Country people do not find it strange to hear the pond is turning over. They know it is not doing a flip but everything that has fallen in it suddenly comes to the top. It is nature’s way of cleaning house. It isn’t pretty but it does work. The whole pond of human affairs needs to turn over at times. When everything seems to happen at once, friends disagree, and coworkers are suddenly mired in stuff from the bottom of the pond, it is time to clean house. It isn’t always, u wo du hi, beautiful or pretty, but it does work. The best part is that it doesn’t last long. Everything rights itself with time – for a while. It helps to know that when something unclean falls in the water, eventually the pond will turn over to get rid of it. It just takes time.

~ We took an oath not to do any wrong to each other or to scheme against each other. ~

GERONIMO

‘A Cherokee Feast of Days’, by Joyce Sequichie Hifler

The Daily Motivator for May 12th – Start doing it

Start doing it

The way out of doubt is to do. The way to get beyond discouragement is with action.

Thoughts have a powerful influence on the way you feel and the way you are. Yet deeds have an even more powerful influence.

When you’re doing something positive, effective and meaningful, it’s difficult to be negative. When you’re actively making a difference in life, there’s no energy left for discouragement or despair.

When you want to get your spirits up, get yourself up and get going. Your actions can change life for the better, and that will most certainly change you for the better.

Think of how truly amazing it is that you can make things happen. Then go beyond thinking, and start doing it.

Don’t just wish or dream or complain or worry. Step decisively away from the negative, limiting thoughts with positive, purposeful action.

— Ralph Marston
Source:
The Daily Motivator

The Daily OM for May 12th – Steps to Freedom

Steps to Freedom
Change What Isn’t Working

by Madisyn Taylor

If we don’t change what isn’t working in our lives, we will continually have the same day over and over again.

We have all had the experience of realizing that something in our lives is not working. This knowledge can come as a sudden realization or a nagging feeling of doubt that grows stronger, waking us up to the fact that something needs to change. Some people have a tendency to act rashly and make sweeping changes before even understanding what the problem is. Other people fear change, so they live with the uncomfortable awareness that something needs to shift but won’t do anything about it. Between these two extreme responses lies a middle way that can help us powerfully and gracefully change what isn’t working in our lives.

The first step is remembering that your life is made up of parts that belong to an interconnected whole. Changing one thing can change everything. Because of this, small changes often have a big effect. Sometimes much bigger changes are necessary, but the only way to know for sure is to take the time to really understand the problem. Examine your life as an entirety—your work, your relationships, where you live—and determine what specifically is not functioning the way you would like. Once you have figured out the problem, write it down on a piece of paper. For example, “I am not happy with my relationship” or “I don’t like my apartment.” The next step is to figure out the adjustment you would like to make and how you can go about making this change. If you are unhappy with your relationship because you spend too much or not enough time with your partner, you may want to discuss this problem with them and come up with a compromise. On the other hand, if you realize your relationship is not working to such a degree that it needs to end, begin working through that process. Writing down the truth can be a powerful catalyst for change.

The key to making changes that work is to accept the necessity of change as part of life. As we change, we may find it necessary to fine-tune our relationships, work, and living situations. Our lives are living, breathing entities that reflect our dynamic selves.

Source:

Daily OM

What is Your Karma Number

by Jenni Kosarin

Your karma number is a “feel good” number that will bring you luck and take you on the right path. Calculate your karma number by using the letters in your everyday name (not necessarily the name you received at birth). If, for example, the name on your birth certificate is Winifred Alice Lee but everyone calls you Freddy Stanton, use the latter one.

As an example, let’s take the name Freddy Lee. To figure out this name’s karmic number, write out the letters of the name and give each letter a numerical value (refer to TABLE 11-1 to get the numerical values of letters): F = 6, R = 9, E = 5, D = 4, D = 4, Y = 7, L = 3, E = 5, E = 5. Add up these values: 6 + 9 + 5 + 4 + 4 + 7 + 3 + 5 + 5 = 48. Keep adding up the digits until you get a single-digit number: 4 + 8 = 12; 1 + 2 = 3. So Freddy Lee’s karmic number is 3.

TABLE 11-1 NUMERICAL VALUES OF LETTERS

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z –

Here is what each karma number means:

Have you ever been drawn to this number? Try it out while playing the lottery or for doing simple things in everyday life. This number is connected with you.
You very much want to bond with certain people in your life but, sometimes, you have difficulty doing so. The key is to stop trying to imagine and guess what the other person wants. You need to do and say what comes from the heart. The person who recognizes your sincerity will be more drawn to you.
How did you get so lucky? Things work out for you, don’t they? This is a very powerful karma number, though it doesn’t always work in romance. You like to shake things up a little and let people see the provocative side of you, which is fine, as long as you remain grounded.
Luck sometimes doesn’t fall your way because you analyze things to death. Instead of being so practical all of the time, why not try following your instinct once in a while? It will do you good. On the other hand, you’ve survived some scams that others have fallen victim to because of your solid-based nature. The key is to find a balance between going with your heart and going with your head.
Your luck is especially strong when you’re in foreign countries or strange situations. You also have a good sense of direction and you have good luck with cars, airplanes, and other modes of transportation.
You have good family karma. Though you may have had problems in your childhood, your family supports you now. Consequently, you have to work less to prove yourself to them.
Luck is on your side when it comes to contacts for work or for romance. Most of your relationships will come out of introductions from others you know.
Your luck lies in work, finance, and money matters. If you aren’t seeing any positive results, you’re doing something wrong. Try solving your problems at home first. Soon after, your work issues will fall easily into place.
Your luck is scattered. Spiritually, you’re high on the totem pole, so to speak, but it’s difficult for you to focus your karma. Depending on the day, though, you can be equally lucky in love, career, family, and work.

Is your past-life karma spoiling your love life?

What is love karma?

By Stephen Petulli

Live a happier love life without expensive therapy, stress, or more heartache. Why do some people always seem to be happy in love and others attract one negative love life experience after another? Is it just a coincidence? From the perspective of reincarnation and karma, there is no such thing as a coincidence; everything happens for a reason. We experience heart break or heart bliss because of our love karma.

What is love karma?

It is the result of one’s actions in the past, both in this life and past lives, whether or not the current personality remembers or believes in past lives. Someone with good love karma may have acted in past-life relationships more often with integrity, love, and compassion. Someone with bad love karma may have acted in past-life relationships with dishonesty, selfishness, jealousy, or greed. But before you feel guilty for any bad love karma, it is important to realize that we have all been good and bad in past lives. Furthermore, because of guilt or resentment, it is possible to have bad love karma without having done anything wrong.

Is it possible to overcome bad love karma?

Yes, by discovering and releasing the root cause, whether it happened last week or 2000 years ago. This will help you gain awareness and understanding, which will lead to forgiveness; the key to letting go of the past.

Turn your bad love luck into a happier love life (and reach other personal goals) with the following three steps:

Discover and release the blocks.
Forgive yourself and anyone else involved with the root cause.
Take the appropriate action at the appropriate time.

Most of us concentrate on the physical, mental, and emotional sides of relationships, but few of us know how to investigate or repair the spiritual side. This lack of awareness and balance leads to expectations which create heartache and disharmony. You can improve your love life on your own and all your answers really are inside of you. Past-life regression and meditation will allow you to gain the awareness and balance you need to let go of what isn’t serving you any more and welcome a new beginning.

Changing Destiny and Karma

by Jenni Kosarin

The key to living with your destiny is to avoid excessive worrying and not try to control it. Controlling and manipulating your destiny is the surest way to land flat on your face. You’ll still have to learn your lessons. And it might just be more difficult for you. Be kind to yourself. Search for help when you need it. And don’t try to stifle your suffering—feel it and live it so you can continue on, learn, and live a happier life. If you constantly avoid it, it will eventually find you anyway. This is what we sometimes call “karma.”

In Buddhism, karma is the idea that “what goes around comes around”—that your fate and your future are determined by your past. If you lived your past life by the rules of the universe and were kind and helpful to others, you are rewarded in your next life. If you did not, your next life is more difficult.

Karma Chrome

The Buddhist view of karma assumes that our present positions in life are the result of justice and retribution. Some Western philosophers say that the Eastern view of karma helps those in power, who can pat themselves on the back for having good karma. In Western teachings, karma is more about cause and effect within a particular lifetime and does not require belief in reincarnation. It is the energy around you, at this moment or period in time. If you spread the good energy through good deeds, it will come back to you—it’s like catching a good wave if you’re surfing. It works for the little things in life, like having the instinct to pick a winning number, meeting and connecting with a person who might help you in the future, performing a presentation well on a certain day, and so on. Of course, karma is not foolproof—anyone can have a bad day. Sometimes, it has more to do with your destiny than with the details of everyday life.

The best thing you can do to make your destiny work for you is to be good to yourself and to the people around you, and to pace yourself—indulge sometimes and cut back other times. Search for friendships, work, and play that bring out the best in you. Your karmic lessons will find you in this lifetime and teach you the things you need to know.

Karma and Rebirth

by Arnie Kozak, Ph.D.

In the traditional Buddhist view, moving between this life and rebirth is not a random act, but is determined by the actions in your current life. In this manner, you would be the heir to your own actions. As Peter Harvey says in An Introduction to Buddhism, if you commit acts of hatred — violent acts, such as murder, rape, incest, or bodily harm — you will be reborn into a life in hell. Here again the question arises whether this hell is meant literally or metaphorically. Unskillful or unwholesome actions of hatred and aggression leave one in a state that is very much like hell. You are trapped in a hot place of emotion with no hope for escape. You are blinded by rage, and out of control. That sounds like hell.

On the night of the Buddha’s enlightenment he is said to have remembered 100,000 past lives. How is such a statement to be interpreted? How critical is a belief in rebirth to the early teachings of the Buddha? The cultural milieu of ancient India during the Buddha’s time involved a vast and colorful universe of gods and goddesses. The Buddha speaks of gods and devas in his sermons, but he did not see them as godlike in the common sense of gods. These gods were trapped in samsara just as humans.

Rebirth is a fertile metaphor. It is not necessary to believe in rebirth to be a Western Buddhist or to derive benefit from the Buddha’s teachings. On the one hand, as a metaphor, rebirth is a potent concept about the cycles of experience that occur right here and now. On the other hand, Tibetan Buddhists take the concept of rebirth literally and base much of the culture, beliefs, and rituals on this possibility.

Whether metaphor or actual, “rebirth” occurs in every moment during this lifetime. When you breathe, your breath goes through a cycle of birth and death. As you move through life, you go through cycles of thought and emotion; everything is constantly changing. This is the cycle of becoming and when characterized by greed, hatred, and delusion, leads to neverending cycles of suffering. The goal of Buddhist practice is to become liberated from these cycles of becoming that infiltrate every moment of life.

You may be wondering, if there is no self and no soul, what is it that takes rebirth? How can karmic fruits be carried into a next life? The personality of “me” and “mine” does not persist, but the mental energy or samskaras are what Buddhists would say persist in the form of impersonal consciousness. That energy is what, for instance, the Tibetan Buddhists believe takes rebirth.

However, if human birth is considered be “precious” and rare, you might be wondering what the universe was doing for billions of years before human beings evolved? The idea that human life is precious seems a bit humanocentric, given the vast expanse of geological time where humanity is but a blink, unless this notion of linear time is dispensed. Again, the issue is whether you can derive benefit from the Buddha’s teaching without having to take these ideas literally. The answer is a resounding yes.

However, the notion of rebirth may be congenial to you. The Buddhist notion of rebirth is different than other concepts of reincarnation that you may be familiar with. Since there is no personal essence, “you” cannot experience rebirth. Something carries forward but it is not your personality or “soul.” You can think of it like a candle flame. One candle flame can light another candle. The flame “passes” to the next but has a unique identity. Within the system of birth and rebirth, there were considered to be many worlds and many ways in which one could be reborn — endless worlds and endless ways to be reborn.

Whether conceived of actual rebirths or rebirth into the next moment, these cycles involved not only human births. A person was not necessarily born as a human in every lifetime. There are also animals, spirits, gods, titans, and the inhabitants of hell. The early Buddhists rejected the Hindu caste system, so in rebirth it was possible to move from a god to a human, an animal to a god. There was no safety in reaching a higher life form. Every life form was subject to death and therefore rebirth. Most Buddhists in the Western world would take these realms and forms as being metaphorical or mythical.

Popular Misconceptions of Karma

by Arnie Kozak, Ph.D.

Karma means “deed” or “action” in Sanskrit. However, action is not substituted for karma, as karma carries much more weight than the simple understanding found in action. Karma is one of the most popular and perhaps least understood concepts in Buddhism. Karmic actions can be behaviors as well as thoughts and emotions.

There are multiple ways to consider karma. One way is “local” karma; actions in the present (including mental actions) have an impact on future experiences. Another is “remote” karma; actions performed in this lifetime have an impact on future rebirths. Remote karma, of course, depends on the idea of rebirth, which may be an alien idea to many people in the Western world. From a scientific perspective, there is no evidence for rebirth. However, your own direct experience can reveal the working of local karma. What you think now will affect how you feel later. What you do now will bear fruit at some future point in time. This is different from a universal balance, that is, “you reap what you sow,” which is a common misconception of karma.

Consider local karma like this: You can’t kill someone in the morning and then have a peaceful meditation in the afternoon. Here are some of the most common misconceptions about karma.

Misconception: Karma Is Retaliation from an Outside

Force How many times have you heard someone say, “She has bad karma,” referring to someone who has had a run of bad luck. In the West, karma has often been interpreted as equal to the principle of “an eye for an eye” — the retaliatory principle that you are punished with the same punishment you inflict on another. However, this is a misconception and misunderstanding of the Buddhist meaning of karma. According to the Buddha’s teaching, you are not made to pay for past mistakes, nor are you rewarded for your past good deeds — but you are, in fact, what you do or intend to do. More to the point, karma is the process by which your actions shape your life.

Since the Buddha did not acknowledge the presence of a theistic power, karma would not be associated with an external, objective judge. In the words of Shantideva (an eighth-century Buddhist teacher), “Suffering is a consequence of one’s own action, not a retribution inflicted by an external power…We are the authors of our own destiny; and being the authors, we are ultimately…free.”

Misconception: Karma Involves All Actions

Karma only involves intentional actions. Therefore, if you were to step accidentally on a spider, you would not invoke karma. You unintentionally stepped on the spider. There was no intent to hurt the spider.

However, if you decide beforehand that you are going to kill the damn spider that is living in the garage and stomp on him with malice aforethought, you will experience the karmic ramification of an action that is laced with hatred and aversion (remember, one of Three Poisons). If you understand karma as one moment conditioning future moments, you can see the interdependent chain of cause and effect. When your mind is clouded by aggression, this will generate particular effects. When your mind is occupied by peace, this will generate its own particular effects. This effect will be on your own mind moments and on your behavior that, in turn, affects others.

It might be helpful to set aside notions of “good” and “bad” karma because this distinction just creates confusion and reinforces misconceptions. Instead, think of skillful and unskillful actions. When remembering that actions include behavior and also mental actions (thoughts, feelings, and images that you intentionally engage with and nurture), you will discover that certain actions lead to beneficial results, that is, you feel good and others around you feel good.

If you walk down the street smiling, you will feel good and others around you will feel good. This is acting skillfully (“good karma”). You will also discover that certain other actions lead to harmful results, that is, you feel bad and others around you feel bad. If you yell and criticize and kick the dog, you will be lost in feeling bad, later experience regret, and adversely impact those around you. This is acting unskillfully (“bad karma”). Acting from the Three Poisons of greed, hatred, and delusion is unskillful, while acting from their opposites — generosity, kindness, and wisdom — is skillful.

Karma as the Ethical Center

by Arnie Kozak, Ph.D.

In Buddhism, actions matter. And therefore karma serves as an ethical compass for your life. Karma is not a complicated concept. It is as simple as this: What you do, what you say, and what you feel will have an effect.

Effects of Actions

You can taste the effects of some types of karma right away, but other karmic actions will bear fruit at some point in the future. Karma points to the realization that everything is interconnected in some way.

But your actions have much greater effect than one day’s span. Karma is a process of constant change. If you do skillful acts now you can change your later karma. For Buddhists, the belief in karma is a guiding moral compass. However, do not worry or obsess on past actions. Take care of your life today. Live in the moment and change the present. Thereby you can change the future as well.

Traditionally, Buddhists would undertake their lives in a way to maximize their skillful karma by generating merit. They do this by donating food to begging Buddhist monks, donating money to the monastery, and doing good deeds. If you live your life in accordance with the Buddhist teachings and moral principles, you will automatically be on the way towards generating merit and limiting unskillful or destructive karma.

Whatever the ultimate truth of karma and rebirth, it can’t hurt to live a good life that seeks to limit harming others and seeks to be less selfish and more generous (in fact, research suggests generous people are happier). Another important consideration about karma is that not all suffering is the result of karma. Local conditions such as temperature and internal conditions such as a virus have nothing to do with your karma. It is only through deep wisdom (prajna) that you would be able to know which bits of suffering are due to past karma and which are due to local conditions. Uncertainty winds up being the order of the day.

Mother, Maiden, Crone

`Mother, Maiden, Crone`
Mother Maiden, Crone I am just a Witch alone, honoring your many phases as my own.... Changes come and go, tides rise and flow as your light continues to grow, peeking through the window as I sleep, my dreams you safely keep, Goddess of the Moon, your magick fills my room, with blessings of the womb, moonbeams dance upon these walls, like golden threads, spun on a loom, Stars circle round, like a silvery crown, as I draw your energy down.. Many Blessings you continuously bestow with your magickal glow, as above... so below.... Mother, Maiden, Crone I am just a Witch Alone....

- by Mor`inanna~EagleSon

Source:

Blessed Be

Online Wiccan Resource Center

A Little Thought From Me to You………..

WOTC Cartoon of the Day – ‘The REAL Reason The Ice Caps are Melting, lol!

Source:

“Today’s Cartoon by Randy Glasbergen”

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