Items Needed:
None
Instructions:
To bless the food at a table, have each person in the dinner party say a part of this blessing to the bounty embodied in the God and Goddess union.
“All fruits of the Earth
Are fruits of your union.
Your womb, your dance,
Lady and Lord.
Come, join with us,
Feast with us,
Enjoy with us!”
By Therese Francis
Herb of the Day
MARSHMALLOW (Althaea officinalis)
To Grow:
No directions to grow.
Uses:
The root is used primarily for digestive problems, inflammations of the digestive tract and on the skin. The leaves are used for the lungs and urinary system. The leaf can also be used for bronchitis, respiratory catarrh, and irritating coughs. Externally, the root is indicated in varicose veins, ulcers, abscesses and boils.
Parts used:
Roots and leaves. Collect the leaves in summer after flowering and dig up the root in late fall. Clean the root of root fibers and cork and dry immediately.
Decoction:
Put 1 tsp. of chopped root into 1 cup of water and boil gently for 10-15 minutes. Drink three times a day.
Infusion:
Pour 1 cup of boiling water onto 1-2 tsp. of the dried leaves and leave to infuse for 10 minutes. Drink three times a day.
Tincture:
Take 1-4 ml of the tincture three times a day.
This herb can be used as a compress also.
A Guide for the Genetically Disadvantaged
By Everfool
Dedicated to Loki
From Chamber’s English Dictionary (1989 edition):
Humour (Us: Humor) ‘a mental quality which appreciates and delights in the ludicrous or mirthful: that which causes mirth and amusement: playful fancy’
Humourless ‘petulant’
Irony ‘the Socratic method of discussion by professing ignorance: conveyance of meaning (generally satirical) by words whose literal meaning is the opposite.’
Sarcasm ‘a bitter sneer: a satirical remark in scorn or contempt, often but not necessarily ironical’
Brain ‘in vertebrates, that part of the central nervous system that is contained within the skull…intelligence, common sense’
It has recently become apparent that some viewers of the fine website that is The Cauldron have missed out on one of the exciting developments in the evolution of bipedal mammals: the ability to notice when someone is not being entirely serious. Because most of the people behind the website are kind, generous people, who would not say a bad word about anyone, the writing of this article has rather naturally fallen to me.
With the intent of making many lives more wholesome and enjoyable, it is my hope to help you to separate ironic humour articles from hideously idiotic editorials. This is a basic course, however, so don’t get cocky and start reading the transcripts of political speeches.
Useful Clues
1) The presence of the word ‘humour.’ One would think that this is an obvious sign, and certainly I think so, but apparently I’m out of step with the world. I blame the stuff they put in the water supply.*
Read the article. Look all over the page. Examine the web address even. If anywhere appears the word ‘humour’ in a label format, you should probably move onto deciding whether the article is funny or not. If you can’t decide on that, please order my new book Is It Funny?retailing at £30.95.
* Shopping trolleys mainly.
2) ‘Tone’ When you read the article, is your first instinct to laugh at how bizarre it is? Congratulations, it’s probably a humour piece! While some people are unintentionally funny, most people have to work hard at it. Come to that, some people have to work hard at basic cognitive functions, but I’m digressing.
3) Content of the rest of the site: Possibly your most useful guide. The most basic point links back to number one: is this article stored within a section labelled as ‘humour’? If you can’t handle the ramifications of this one, please see your doctor immediately and tell him you’re not allowed to reproduce. More time consuming is the examination of the rest of the site. Do all of the pages seem in keeping with the item that originally inflamed your anger? If you think the article encourages an absurdly ‘fluff bunny’ attitude, the intelligent article on controversies within the Pagan community may change your mind. May.
4) Ask the people who run the website whether they’re being serious. This may save you the effort of remembering all those interesting words your dad/uncle/priest used to use when they smelled of domestic bleach, and will save you embarrassment if you ever planned on holding a conversation with representatives of the site.
This concludes the basic guide to spotting humour.
Remember to look out for:
And if this doesn’t help, frankly we’re going to send the flying monkeys after you.
I should never wander off my tried and true Pagan informational sites. NEVER! I find things that scare me, NOT! But check out the link below, this is the first time I have ever run across a site like this……
Tune in, turn on and get a leg up on the competition all by using this powerful and effective visualization. On ‘World Television Day’ you’ll want to use an image of a TV to help you turn your dreams into reality. In your mind’s eye, imagine a television screen hovering over your head. In the screen, in the ‘bigger picture,’ put an image or scene from your life as it currently appears to you. In the lower left-hand corner, replace that image with a dream that you’d like to see manifest. Breathe in through the mouth, and then blow out through your mouth four big breathes into the smaller version. Watch the dream sequence become larger while the original image fades away. Once you have completely filled the screen with your dream, blow another four big breathes into the imaginary TV and allow the entire visual to disappear. Do this once a day for nine days straight and you’ll soon be happily directing all the episodes of your life.
By Ellen Whitehurst for Astrology.com
Your Rune For Today
Perthro
Mysteries will become known to you. You should be able to see your life’s path clearly at this time. Pethro is often thought of as “Gambler’s Rune.” You are in a lucky period right now. Chance is your ally. Take advantage of it.
Some Scorpio trickery is at play today as the Sun leaves this potent eighth sign of the zodiac for fiery Sagittarius (1:51PM PST) while Venus changes affiliation from airy Libra to watery Scorpio (5:21PM PST). It is due to the earlier six-week retrograde cycle by Venus in May-June of 2012 that Venus is still lingering some 30 degrees behind the Sun in the zodiac. That 30-degree distance right now creates the strange phenomenon of the Sun leaving Scorpio while Venus receives the red-carpet treatment by the same sign. All this cosmic horse-trading happens under the sensitive, emotional and psychic environment provided by Pisces Moon. If your moods are swinging wildly more today than recently, chalk it up to the Solar and Venusian shifts — amplified by the start of a new, lengthy void lunar cycle at 10:33PM PST that lasts until 5:13PM PST tomorrow. Plus — to add insult to injury, the Sun squares Neptune (11:12PM PST) during the void limbo cycle. Only two Sun-Neptune face-offs like this happen in a calendar year and both of them have shadow dimensions that can spread confusion and chaos like a virus.
Reed Month
Color: Blue-green
Element: Water
Altar: Upon cloth of blue-green place a vase of reeds, a single blue-green candle, a great bowl of water floating with wetlands plant leaves, and a knife.
Offering: Recycle something useless into something useful.
Daily Meal: Vegetarian soup and sandwiches. Only water or herbal tea to drink.
Ngetal Invocation
Call: Now is the time of the bleak cold.
Response: Now the reeds whisper in the swamp.
Call: Now is the time when we see the growing dark.
Response: Now is the time when we begin to shiver.
Call: Now is the time of bare trees.
Response: Now is the time of rain and wind.
Call: Now the rain fills the wetlands to overflowing.
Response: Now the swamp overflows into our lives.
Call: We feel our feet dragged down into the cold waters.
Response: Yet the wetland is the source of greatest life!
Call: We feel ourselves pulled into the unfamiliar.
Response: Unfamiliar to us, but no less of value.
Call: The damp cold begins to reach our bones.
Response: We must welcome its touch.
Call: We must keep it far away with fire’s warmth!
Response: We must welcome its touch.
Call: Why should we not ban it from our lives?
Response: For this, too, is a Mystery of water.
Call: Not the deep mystery of the Ocean…
Response: Not the running flow of the river…
Call: Not the crystal of snow and ice…
Response: But the secrets of the still waters.
Call: From the still waters springs the greatest number of lives!
Response: And it is this that we must honor.
Call: Welcome into ourselves the song of the whispering reeds!
Response: Welcome into ourselves the oncoming winter.
Chant:
Cold as stone
Marshes heart
We will own
What is apart
21 Blutmonath
Quetzalcoatl’s Day
Colors: Bright red, gold, green, and blue
Element: Air
Altar: On a multicolored cloth set many feathers of different colors, and a plate of chocolate.
Offerings: Colored feathers. Make something creative.
Daily Meal: Mexican food. Chocolate.
Invocation to Quetzalcoatl
Feathered Serpent
Creature of earth
That learned to fly,
You who brought the gifts
Of civilization and culture
To a troubled people,
You who fought against
The unnecessary sacrifices
Of the greedy gods,
Once a god, once a man,
Always a mystery,
You who sailed away into the west
And one day promised to return,
Lord of good judgment
Who is always fair,
Brighten our minds
With thoughts that dance and run
And finally leave the earth
And fly.
(All partake in a drum circle, after which the chocolate is passed around and shared.)
Magickal Intentions: Communication, Divination, Writing, Knowledge, Business Transactions, Debt, Fear, Loss, Travel and Money Matters
Incense: Jasmine, Lavender, Sweet Pea
Planet: Mercury
Sign: Virgo
Angel: Raphael
Colors: Orange, Light Blue, Grey, Yellow and Violet
Herbs/Plants: Fern, Lavender, Hazel, Cherry, Periwinkle
Stones: Aventurine, Bloodstone, Hematite, Moss Agate and Sodalite
Oil: (Mercury) Benzoin, Clary Sage, Eucalyptus, Lavender
This day is governed by Mercury. Wednesday’s vibration adds power to rituals involving inspiration, communications, writers, poets, the written and spoken word, and all matters of study, learning, and teaching. This day also provides a good time to begin efforts involving self-improvement or understanding.
*Wednesday(Mercury): The conscious mind, study, travel, divination and wisdom.
Moon Sign: *Pisces
*Pisces: The focus is on dreaming, nostalgia, intuition, and psychic impressions. A good time for spiritual or philanthropic activities.
*Waxing Moon
*The Waxing Moon (from the New Moon to the Full): is the ideal time for magick to draw things toward you.
Incense: Marjoram
Moon Phase: Second Quarter
Sun enters *Sagittarius 4:50 pm
*Sagittarius: Encourages flights of imagination and confidence. This is an adventurous, philosophical, and athletic Sun sign. Favors expansion and growth.
Color: White
Well good morning/afternoon to ya’! How are all of you doing the day before Turkey Day? Myself, rather good. We went last night and picked up our turkey. We took Tom and had him smoked at one of the local Bar-B-Que joints, lol! It is not a joint, the restaurant is known all across the country for their bar-b-que. We got the turkey home and just had to have some sandwiches. That turkey melted in your mouth, damn it was delicious! Yum-yum! I told my husband I will never cook a turkey again. We will take it and have it smoked, boy, they are good.
Enough talking turkey, 🙂 or else I will be in there eating again. Seriously though, I would have been here sooner but our cable is out. Some of the office wanted to watch the news today while they worked. I went to turn the darn thing on and nothing!!!! So I called Comcast. I don’t know if any of you have had dealings with them or not. But I would soon as pull my hair out as mess with them. They talked about our problem for 5 minutes. Had me get up and go unplug the box, come back to the phone and then tell them if it was working. Well of course not! Really quickly the salesperson said, “it will take 30 minutes.” Then he proceeded to tell me all the specials they were having. He had worked us up a package that included our phone service. I said no. He then told me how much I would save. I still said no. Then he said well let me change your account and you can call and cancel it if you don’t want it. Final straw, I told him, “Have you not been hearing a word I have been saying? I do not want it! I don’t want anything done to our account. I just want my damn cable back!” That’s all it took, “there is an outage in your area, your service should be back on within the hour. Good day!” It is pitiful when you cannot get through to these salespeople. What should have took 10 minutes took 35 instead. All he had to do was listen, explain there was an outage and then hang up. Five minutes. But heck no, he had to waste my time after I told him again and again, NO! I know these companies push their employees to do this but don’t they realize they can also lose customers this way. Apparently not!
Oh one more thing and I will leave you alone. Do you have any opinions about these stores opening on Thanksgiving tomorrow? I definitely have one. You share yours and I will share mine. Come on, I want to hear from you…….
More Funny Thanks Giving Comments
‘THINK on THESE THINGS’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler
How much voice do we really have in our own affairs? How free are we to speak out on the things we know and believe and want to say? How much voice do we have in public affairs?
How much goes unsaid because it may be bad for business, or it might make us look foolish? How often we should speak up but think it is none of our business? How quiet we are when someone’s unethical hand does wrong.
What is it that inhibits us? Our own fears. Fear of our own ignorance, fear of losing, fear of the bugaboos we know lurk somewhere, but just aren’t sure where.
Who are the people who are free of fears? They are the individuals who govern themselves in such a manner as to have thought out their own ideas enough to be able to speak freely for themselves.
Ethics would seem to be something to ignore if you wish to be successful in business. Many people strive harder today than at any other time to divide their lives so that being seen in church is good taste, and being unethical in business proves they are shrewd. Being successful isn’t nearly as important as proving that they’ve gotten that way by the clever undoing of their opposition.
There was a time when building a better mouse trap by the most efficient methods gave us satisfaction, but too often these days we are impressed because someone is smart. Not smart with intelligence, but smart with the cunning that goes along with the jungle code of getting before someone gets you.
The person who tries to get ahead by ethical methods, and by wanting only to provide something better than is already in existence, must also be equipped to withstand ridicule.
Frankly, the race of the tortoise and the hare is still on, and while the hare is tearing around showing off its ability to be a fast runner, the tortoise is making progress, and never losing its way.
Socrates, being asked the way to honest fame, said, “Study to be what you wish to seem.” Success takes time and moral discipline, but our successes will be as human beings first, and then the crown of success in business will sit easily and firmly.
*<<<=-=>>>*<<<=-=>>>*<<<=-=>>>*<<<=-=>>>*
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 – November 20
“Money cannot buy affection.”
–Mangas Coloradas, APACHE
In these modern times we put too much emphasis on material things and on money. We believe that money is power. If we have money, people will respect us. If we have money, people will admire us. If we have money, we can have anything we want. Maybe we can purchase anything in the material world, but we cannot purchase anything in the Unseen World. The Unseen World is not for sale. It can only be given away. Love, affection, admiration, trust, respect, commitment — these must be earned or given away. If we use these things from the Unseen World, we are using real power.
My Creator, let me demonstrate Your power today. Let me be loving to all I meet.
November 20 – Daily Feast
Always take into account what your mind has in it. What of the world have you taken in and stored in all the little crevices and avenues of your mind and thinking? Guard your mind, for out of it comes what you think is possible for you. If you have stored defeat and rejection, those are the only things you have to draw on. Our voices record everything we say within our minds and hearts. Blessing or swear words, sarcasm or snappy cynicism, all are there, and all have a part in ruling life. This is the hardest part to sweep out and control, but it can be done – and it is better than storing trash.
~ Neither anger nor fury shall be found lodging in their minds. ~
IROQUOIS – CIRCA 1570
‘A Cherokee Feast of Days, Volume II’ by Joyce Sequichie Hifler
You are alive, and that is amazing. You can make a difference, you can change things, right here and now, and that is a boundless opportunity.
There are challenges, and they are difficult, even painful. Yet they are nothing when compared to the possibilities.
What’s happened in the past makes you wary about the future. Fortunately, you can act in the present to influence the future in a positive and meaningful way.
Life is an open-ended miracle and it is yours today. Get clear about what you would most like to do with it, and get busy working to make that happen.
You are immersed in a sea of energy and abundance. You have the outstandingly good fortune of being in a position to make something truly meaningful out of it all.
Make your beautiful, amazing presence known in a positive, creative and loving way. The miracle is yours to live right now.
— Ralph Marston
Doing the Best You Can
It isn’t always easy to meet the expectations we hold ourselves to. We may find ourselves in a situation such as just finishing a relaxing yoga class or meditation retreat, a serene session of deep breathing, or listening to some calming, soul-stirring music, yet we have difficulty retaining our sense of peace. A long line at the store, slow-moving traffic, or another stressful situation can unnerve you and leave you wondering why the tranquility and spiritual equilibrium you cultivate is so quick to dissipate in the face of certain stressors. You may feel guilty and angry at yourself or even feel like a hypocrite for not being able to maintain control after practicing being centered. However, being patient with yourself will help you more in your soul’s journey than frustration at your perceived lack of progress. Doing the best you can in your quest for spiritual growth is vastly more important than striving for perfection.
Just because you are devoted to following a spiritual path, attaining inner peace, or living a specific ideology doesn’t mean you should expect to achieve perfection. When you approach your personal evolution mindfully, you can experience intense emotions such as anger without feeling that you have somehow failed. Simply by being aware of what you are experiencing and recognizing that your feelings are temporary, you have begun taking the necessary steps to regaining your internal balance. Accepting that difficult situations will arise from time to time and treating your reaction to them as if they are passing events rather than a part of who you are can help you move past them. Practicing this form of acceptance and paying attention to your reactions in order to learn from them will make it easier for you to return to your center more quickly in the future.
Since your experiences won’t be similar to others’ and your behavior will be shaped by those experiences, you may never stop reacting strongly to the challenging situations you encounter. Even if you are able to do nothing more than acknowledge what you are feeling and that there is little you can do to affect your current circumstances, in time you’ll alter your reaction to such circumstances. You can learn gradually to let negative thoughts come into your mind, recognize them, and then let them go. You may never reach a place of perfect peace, but you’ll find serenity in having done your best.
| Once upon a time, in a land far away, a beautiful, independent, self-assured princess happened upon a frog as she sat contemplating ecological issues on the shores of an unpolluted pond in a verdant meadow near her castle.
The frog hopped into the Princess’ lap and said: “Elegant Lady, I was once a handsome Prince, until an evil Witch cast a spell upon me. One kiss from you, however, and I will turn back into the dapper, young Prince that I am and then, my sweet, we can marry and setup housekeeping in yon castle with my Mother, where you can prepare my meals, clean my clothes, bear my children, and forever feel grateful and happy doing so.” That night, on a repast of lightly sauted frogs legs seasoned in a white wine and onion cream sauce, she chuckled to herself and thought: “I don’t think so.”
|
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