Tag: San Francisco Bay Area

Hexing the Enemies of Women and Peace

Some women shirk from fighting back. Too many years have passed since the heroic age of the seventies, when everything new started. We used to have self-defense classes, repair our own cars classes, women’s studies about who we are as women and what have women done in Herstory that we are not aware of. Gathering our treasures and our tears.

Still we live in male centered societies. Males often rule by violence and rape, and the everlasting wars. Not by law. Too many rapists have gone free, too many murderers as well. White-collar thieves live long and hardly ever fall into the hands of justice.

But something has happened here in the San Francisco Bay Area that tripped the “that’s enough!” wires for me as a witch. A lesbian was viciously gang raped by four men. Then they kidnapped her, and continued their assault for another 45 minutes. She was brutally beaten to within an inch of her life for being a woman, for being a lesbian. Then, they stole her car and left her naked in the chilled winter winds and pounding rains, daring her to survive.

She did.

I have not hexed anybody since the Trailside Killer (still in jail) in the 80’s, but something turned inside me when the crime came this close to my life. I’m much older now at 68 and somewhat incapacitated with artificial hips. I gathered enough courage to call to arms all those women who considered holding a hexing circle in defense of our lives a worthwhile effort.

13 women answered the call. It was a magical number. I went ahead.

As always we document all hexes, so there could be NO doubt we are not calling on the devil.

I contemplated the situation and carefully chose the Lady of Guadalupe as our Queen of all Americas to be the center. I asked a friend to get me some large banners of the Lady. She sent us two large banners, glorious in her appearance, the Lady in her full queenly glory. Thank you, Karen!

Next I gathered the all-important occult supplies. Yes you can cast successful spells without anything, just praying but when you are up against a rape culture, violence of this hate crime magnitude, it’s good to have some mandrake root with you, and other secret baneful herbs to burn in your cauldron.

I represented the lives of the rapists with red thread, and over the smoking cauldron, praying to the Queen, I cut their luck into many small pieces. The only man who came to our hex, Lez, helped to put them all into the burning cauldron of change. This was important. Men must stop rape. Men must come over to the women’s side and fight for us.

Rarely ever happens.

To the Queen who we invoked as grandmother (her old name used to be Tonatzin) , we asked her to help us and to bring these men, and ALL rapists down with Unluck. We cut their luck into tiny little pieces, their luck now gone.

Next I hexed them so nobody would hide them. Hexed them that their own family would give them up. Hexed them that they would turn on each other. Hexed them that the youngest one would talk.

Video of parts of this hexing ritual are on my DU website: http://wicca.zbudapest.com and on my blog: http://blog.zbudapest.com

Then we went home. I lie down on my couch and let the new year arrive. Thought it would be a little while that this spins out its necessary wheels.

By Wednesday, the news was on the front pages of the SF Chronicle. Three of the men were arrested. The younger one’s family gave him up! And then he talked as the hex had requested. They arrested two more and by Thursday the fourth criminal turned himself in. Blessed be Tonantzin!

Sisters of the Susan B. Anthony Coven Number One participated with us globally in this incredible fast Justice. In Orange County in Southern California, and elsewhere, the women gathered to support this hex. All could see the success of their labors. Enough is enough!

On the same day the arrests began here, a serial rapist was caught in Columbus, Ohio … No luck for rapists! Justicia rules! So now I have allowed myself a little victory toe-dance. Yeahh!

What I hoped would result from this experience is a nation wide hex on ALL rapists and similar gender initiated violence. This would take place annually, on the dark moon at the end of every year.

But the real change can only come from a change of consciousness. A mind change that would see women differently. Not as meat, not as holes, or whores, but as sisters and mothers and citizens with rights.

Male gods’ religion didn’t help at all. Thousands of years and the societies are still not civilized. The male gods remain the Lords. They have holy books full of violence and trashing of women. Switching back to Goddess culture and appreciation of life is what would help see women in the loving light.

After all we are the doors of life. We birthed everybody.

Where is the gratitude? Why the rage against us?

I hope that women ‘grow a pair’ and learn not to be fear driven, to stand up for themselves and each other. Learn SISTERHOOD again! (SIDE NOTE: Lady Rhiannon says women just have chestnuts. So, they are bigger than men’s lets flex them ladies)

Maybe it’s time that the ‘Take Back the Night Marches’ that I started back in the 70’s, becomes an annual hexing ritual done by sisters and brothers alike. A hex on all enemies of women and peace. Maybe that will make the difference! It has to begin somewhere!

Your Animal Spirit for December 19th is The Otter

Your Animal Spirit for Today
December 19, 2013

Otter

Otter represents one of the most playful feminine energies on earth—and she has swum over into your reading to bring a message of joyful play. If life has been difficult or challenges overwhelming, relax a little—Otter is here to remind you that play is just as important as work—and NOT competitive play, but rather the kind you loved as a child. Hopscotch anyone?

We Are Honoring Our Past, Present, & Future Soliders All Weekend! They Deserve It!

Memorial Day Images, Quotes, Comments, Graphics
Freedom’s Colors
©2002 Roger W Hancock (www.PoetPatriot.com)

Red is for Bravery;
blood shed in sacrifice.
Freedom came with lives the price

White is for Liberty;
freedom’s purity.
Life be free from God’s decree

Blue is for Justice;
as vast as the sky.
Over freedom’s land to occupy

Digestive Tips for Your Holiday Feast

Digestive Tips for Your Holiday Feast

  • posted by Care2 Healthy Living Guest Blogger

By Scott Blossom, Ayurvedic and Traditional Chinese Medical practitioner

I recently watched the movie, “Melancholia,” by Lars Von Trier, and was struck by parallels, plot-wise, with the upcoming season of holiday feasting. For those of you who don’t know anything about the movie, it is about a wedding that happens on the eve of an astronomical disaster. The promises of love, unity, and family bonds are eclipsed by the presence of a rogue planet on a collision course for Earth. I know from first hand experience and observation that many a holiday feast, while gleaming with the promise of gathering and celebrating life with our beloveds, often ends with some in the party being eclipsed by a sort of gastronomical crisis!

Yes, I am being hyperbolic. Indigestion is not the end of the world. From an Ayurvedic perspective though, digestion is integral to virtually every aspect of our body/mind health- to harmony and balance as we know it.

The thing to keep in mind: you are not what you eat, you are what you digest.

Most people’s digestive capacity is similar to that of a small campfire. (There is, of course, a special subset of exceptional individuals, mostly adolescent males, who like wildfire can incinerate nearly anything that comes their way. I direct my commentary toward the rest of us.) Like a small campfire, the average human’s digestion is delicate: overload it and you smother it; feed it too little fuel and it dies; stir it too much or too little and it sputters. The key to good fire tending is to be a good observer and listener. Elemental fire knows what it wants and communicates its needs in the form of heat, radiance, and sizzle. Our internal digestive fire speaks its own sensual and intuitive language: that of gut feelings.

For successful digestive fire tending, at least from an Ayurvedic perspective, consider these images:

 

  • Heavy foods, like flesh foods, dairy, highly processed and intensely sweet foods are big logs. (Actually, dairy and intensely sweet foods, especially sweetened dairy foods like ice cream, are more like green or soggy logs, since they are the hardest to digest for most people.)
  • Nuts and legumes, which fall in the middle of the spectrum from heavy to light, are well-seasoned medium logs; their vegetable fat and protein content make them both easy to burn and substantial enough to burn for awhile.
  • Vegetables and fruits are light foods, easy to burn but quick to burn out. Fiber-rich foods like these are the sticks that keep the fire burning, that stir it up and keep air circulating within it (via healthy peristalsis and elimination patterns).
  • Judicious amounts of alcohol (apertif anyone?) and seasonings are your matches and kindling.

 

An experienced fire tender knows you need all of these items, in the right balance and timing, to have a good fire.

So how does our fire-making go wrong?

  • Heavy food offered to your internal digestive fire in excess can overwhelm it and produce indigestion by stifling the fire.
  • Insufficient heavy food and too much light food will weaken the fire by starving it.
  • Large amounts of strong spices, fried food, or alcohol will cause the fire to flare up, which may scorch the fire-tender. (Excess alcohol overheats and dampens the fire simultaneously.)

The key to tending the digestive fire is to learn to accurately identify the moment of satiation, the first signs of which are feelings of energy, satisfaction, and gratitude. Complications set in because most people, for a wide variety of reasons, take these first signs of satiation as a cue to eat more. In a Hollywood world, the film’s score would loudly alert everyone to the danger approaching in that the next plate of food or glass of wine that will upset the eater’s digestive harmony. In the real world the score, while clear enough if we listen carefully, is sometimes too subtle to detect.

Like most skills proficient tending of your digestive fire is best developed through personal trial and error. Useful suggestions may be found by reading about eating well but even the best theory requires verification. Personal experience and paying attention to how the crucible of your own stomach works are the only sure ways to knowledge. In my opinion, one of the best sources of insight in this regard is to tend an actual fire, from ignition to ashes, and draw your conclusions from direct observation and intuition. As you watch the interplay flame, air, fuel and smoke you may put yourself on a surer course to avoiding gastronomical collisions this holiday season.

Scott Blossom is an Ayurvedic and Traditional Chinese Medical practitioner in the San Francisco Bay Area. Visit www.DoctorBlossom.com to learn more about Ayurvedic food recipes, whole-food cleansing, and health consultations. He wants to thank his brother Michael for contributing to this article.

Green Outdoor Weekend Activities

Green Outdoor Weekend Activities

posted by Greennii
 

Spring has finally arrived here in Northern California and all this sunshine begs for fun things to do outside, which often also happen to be green. I tend to go outside at even the slightest hint of sunshine (then again, I’ve also been known to walk the dog in the rain just for fun), and do whatever it was I was doing inside, out under the sky. For instance, I’m sitting at an old-fashioned school desk, replete with wooden cross-bars under my seat for holding my books, and peeling green paint; outside; half under the Wysteria-covered arbor and half in the sun (the computer screen is oh-so-much easier to see in the shade); occasionally throwing the ball for my dog, who earlier got a little bath during the watering of the lettuce.

As I sit here considering the glistening, black-bottomed pool, I’m also considering the possibilities for the weekend:

1. Plant some organic lettuce. It’s so fun to open up your front door (or back door, or kitchen window) and snip off a few pieces of lettuce for your sandwich, a garnish or your dinner salad. I love lettuce and would have thought it beyond me to grow such a delicate, frilly, easily wilty plant, until my husband forced me to do so by planting a half-dozen little teeny baby lettuce plants and then promptly leaving them in my daily care. Turns out, lettuce is easy! Oh joy! So hop on down to whatever nursery is nearby and pick up a couple of six packs of the lettuce varieties which suit you. Then, rummage around in your backyard, ask your neighbor, scour the garage sales and thrift stores, and find yourself some shallow, wide pots (you could also plant each lettuce in its own pot, which would be very cute, but perhaps space-consuming). Stop by your local ACE and pick up some organic potting soil (or grab some where you get your lettuce). You’re ready to plant! Lettuce wants its little neck sticking out a bit, so don’t plant all the way up to the leaves. Keep the soil moist. Cut leaves from the bottom as soon as the plant starts growing.

2. Visit the Alameda Point Antiques Faire, held the first Sunday of every month, which just so happens to be next Sunday, April 3. Take a list with you of things you were otherwise going to buy brand new and see what you can find. I have not yet been, but I have it from a reliable source (read: friend who loves antiques and has discerning taste) that this is the best show in the Bay Area.

3. Go to any of the local farmer’s markets held all around the Bay Area. Most have food (the kind someone makes for you, not the kind you buy and take home as ingredients) vendors, so you can take your appetite and eat there. Take your refillable coffee mug along and get your morning dose from one of the local coffee shops along the street. Use these guides to find the market closest to you:

4. Unplug your life (and that of your family or a group of friends) and go outside with a picnic made from the organic stuff you bought at the farmer’s market (or at least from a small, local market). If you drive in a group, you’re lowering your carbon footprint, as well as not using all those electronic devices you’d be using if you stayed at home. Check out any of the local beaches, state parks or local parks and enjoy nature. The California State Parks system is vast, and their website has great ideas and guides for getting outdoors:

I’m likely to do at least two of the above, unless I decide to help my husband and our friend finish changing a Land Cruiser from right-hand-drive to left. I’m guessing the beach will win out over that. At least for me and the dog.

-Jocelyn Broyles