Open and Listening
Respecting Wildlife
When in nature we often forget we are moving into another realm, one that asks us to drop our baggage and surrender.
For better or worse, much of the world we experience is dominated and controlled by human beings. We spend our days in houses, cars, and buildings, and inside these structures, we are in control. We assert our wills and manipulate our environment. Within the context of the human world, this is natural. However, we often carry this attitude with us into the world of nature. We forget as we enter the forest, or sit on the edge of a pond, that we are moving into another realm, one that asks us to drop our baggage and surrender to a different sense of order and meaning.
When we move from our everyday world into the world of nature, we may not even notice at first. We might continue talking loudly into our cell phone or to a friend that is with us. We might walk quickly as if we are on a busy city street, our eyes downcast, our thoughts hectic and hurried. In the best case, if we are sensitive to our environment, we will soon notice that it has changed. We may hear ducks calling, or wind moving through the leaves on a tree. If we notice the shift, we will naturally shift as well. If we don’t, we may get all the way through a beautiful park without having lowered our voices. Next time you find yourself in the presence of wildlife—even if it’s just a duck pond in the midst of urban hustle—try to move into a receptive state of openness and listening, no matter how much or how little time you have. Allow yourself to be captivated and calmed by the energy of the wildlife that covers this earth. Teaching our children to be respectful of nature and to stop and observe is a gift they can always cherish
We preserve pockets of nature in our urban centers and large expanses of nature in our national parks because of the magic we feel in its presence. It reminds us of our smallness and calls us back to a deeper, quieter part of ourselves. When we honor nature by being respectful in its presence, we honor the mystery and wild beauty of our origin.
Frost rimed windows … Mother Nature’s art
Icy abstractions painted with frosty finesse
Crystalline concoctions that form only a part
Of Mother Natures wonderful winter largesse
Ice coated limbs of slope shouldered trees
droop drowsily down as if fallen asleep
Unable to sway in winter’s frigid breeze
Appear as white mounds, when the snow drifts deep
The stillness one hears on cold winter nights
Broken by the sudden crack of ice laden boughs
The ethereal essence of undulating northern lights
Headlights in the sky for Nature’s snowplows
All is withdrawn, in awe of Nature’s might
Willingly waiting, deep neath frozen ground
Safely sequestered, from winter’s cruel bite
In warm tunnels and burrows, til spring comes around
Mother Nature invites winter into her domain Cohabits with coldness, wantonly sleeps with Jack frost
Yet finds cold winter quickly falls to disdain
Invites in the spring…and tells winter to get lost
Mother Nature is fickle…and also the boss!
—–David Whalen
11 Solmonath
Tiresias’s Day
Colors: Black and White
Element: Air
Altar: On cloth of black and white, lay a conch shell cut so that it can be blown through, a cup of water, and symbols of the hermaphroditic union.
Offerings: All should come to the ritual dressed in clothing of the opposite sex. Those who are of the third gender should wear black and white and be chosen to do the work of the ritual.
Daily Meal: Cakes and breads shaped like double genitalia.
Invocation to Tiresias
Tiresias, great seer,
You who traded sight
For foresight,
You who traded male
For female
And female
For the union of both,
Teach us that such boundaries
Are merely illusion,
To be dismantled
And walked right through.
Teach us that there are
New ways of seeing
That look past the blinders
Of culture and roles.
Teach us that our assumptions
Can often be done without
And that our lives will be
The better for it.
(There is no specific chant for this ritual; all should chant wordlessly while the water is poured into the conch shell and it is passed around. Each should either drink from it or blow into it like , depending on whether they need to invoke female or male energy respectively into themselves. Then the rest is poured as a .)
How would like to see this ton of bobcat come flying at ya’, lol! I learned the hard way never to call Razzy. She comes a running that’s for sure. I was lucky enough to catch this picture of her in mid-air. Right before she landed on my chest and knocked the camera out of my hands.
I don’t know if you have checked out our Pinterest page yet or not. But if you haven’t this is just one of the many photos you will find there. I have uploaded several photos of animals we have had the honor of having helped at the refuge. Also I have posted some personal photos of my beloved companion, Mocha.
So you get a minute, stop by and visit. I am sure you will find some of interest there.
The account is in my name but it is indeed for the entire site use, here is the link:
Don’t be content to merely gaze at images on a screen. Feel the rich, real and varied texture of life as you actively participate in it.
Look other people in the eye, not just through a camera. Engage in long and meaningful conversations, not just in abbreviated updates.
Live firsthand. Experience the fullness of what life feels like.
You are not just a concept or an identity. You are a beautiful and unique living embodiment of the miracle of existence.
Touch and hear and taste and see what’s really there. Live all the magnificent details of the experience.
Get fully involved in the living of life in all its dimensions. Live firsthand, and experience it all yourself.
— Ralph Marston
Calendar of the Sun 
11 Solmonath
Tiresias’s Day
Colors: Black and White
Element: Air
Altar: On cloth of black and white, lay a conch shell cut so that it can be blown through, a cup of water, and symbols of the hermaphroditic union.
Offerings: All should come to the ritual dressed in clothing of the opposite sex. Those who are of the third gender should wear black and white and be chosen to do the work of the ritual.
Daily Meal: Cakes and breads shaped like double genitalia.
Invocation to Tiresias
Tiresias, great seer,
You who traded sight
For foresight,
You who traded male
For female
And female
For the union of both,
Teach us that such boundaries
Are merely illusion,
To be dismantled
And walked right through.
Teach us that there are
New ways of seeing
That look past the blinders
Of culture and roles.
Teach us that our assumptions
Can often be done without
And that our lives will be
The better for it.
(There is no specific chant for this ritual; all should chant wordlessly while the water is poured into the conch shell and it is passed around. Each should either drink from it or blow into it like a trumpet, depending on whether they need to invoke female or male energy respectively into themselves. Then the rest is poured as a libation.)
November 10, 2011
Photographer: Robert Farrimond
Summary Author: Robert Farrimond; Jim Foster
The photo above showing a magnificent early autumn sunset was taken at Lake Loma, near Marysville, Washington on September 24, 2010. When I first noticed this sunset I was in my front yard. As the impact of the colors started to sink in, I grabbed my camera and then loped over to the lake’s boat launch to snap this shot. It seems that often the camera doesn’t record what you’re actually seeing but fortunately, this wasn’t one of those times.
The formula for the most vibrant sunsets and sunrises does not include an expression for clear skies. When the sky is as clear as a bell as the Sun is setting, the western sky is in fact not very remarkable at all. To get the best colors, there must be something in the sky to scatter and reflect sunlight. On this evening, it was clouds at different heights. Even without clouds, certain aerosols and particulates (including smoke, soot and ash) may produce fine color too. The upper and most colorful cloud layer on this photo is composed of cirrus clouds. These are high enough to capture fiery color though at the surface the Sun had already set several minutes earlier. Clouds carrying less and less color are seen lower and lower in the sky. Accent these lower clouds with a few odd holes, add in some silhouetted conifers plus a rippled lake that reflects the sunset and conifers, then place some floating vegetation and reeds in the foreground, and voila – your masterpiece is complete.
Photo details: Canon T1i camera; 50mm EF lens; f/8.
RUBY
Colour: Red
Lustre: Vitreous to adamantine
Hardness: 9
System: Trigonal
Ruby is a variety of the mineral corundum, coloured to chromium oxides. (The blue variety is sapphire and there are also yellow and colourless conundrums). High-quality gem rubies of rich colour and translucence are rare, hence their great value. Much more common are red and purple-blue opaque stones with a heavy metallic sheen. But even low-quality rubies have a mouth-watering beauty that makes them hard to resist. Traditionally the gemstone of the sun, ruby is believed to confer wealth and power, long life and health.
Identification and care:
toward each end.Magick:
Healing functions:
Practical ideas:
We had warm, wet weather all spring.
Now, white autumn is clear and cold.
Dew frozen, drifting mists gone,
Bottomless heavens open over this
Vast landscape of clarity,
And mountains stretch away,
Their towering peaks an unearthly
Treasure of distance.
These fragrant woodland chrysanthemums
Ablaze, green pines lining the clifftops:
Isn’t this the immaculate heart of beauty,
This frost-deepened austerity?
Sipping wine, I think of recluse masters.
A century away, I nurture your secrets.
Your true nature eludes me here,
But taken by quiet,
I can linger this exquisite moon
Out to the end.
– T’ao Ch’ien (365-427)
Witches Of The Craft® 
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