Okay, given the whole kerfluffle over Z Budapesht’s transphobia and the similar blow up with the Temple of the Goddess I’ve come to a decision.

I’m going to start a new Temple that is trans-inclusive. One that not only welcomes Trans women and Trans men, but one that works with them to celebrate their new sex and their needs in a spiritual sense. This group won’t ignore the Intersexed, the Genderfluid or the Asexual person either, I just need to figure out ways to incorporate their unique energies into the overall format.

Now, this is going to be a hell of a task. I’m going to need everyone who is a reader of this website to help.

1. I’m going to need publicity.
2. I’m going to need rituals.
3. I’m going to need those who want to head up local chapters to come forward.
4. I’m going to be doing ceremonies to advance this idea and temple in the Astral world, and I need energies to do so
5. I’m going to need your ideas for things that would bring on inclusiveness.

While there are many out there who don’t need another group “helping” them in their self discovery, or in the spiritual implications of that discovery, there are MANY who will need it. Not the least of which is the people who have already been traumatized by those groups named above, the ones who have shunned and humiliated the QUILTBAG of sexes because the equipment is missing or they don’t bleed.

Now, please say you are with me on this? And let me know if this is something that would be of use to you and the people you know in your circle?

This is a video that Ellen made up in response to the recent rash of gay/bullying suicides.

Not to detract from the whole story she just told, but I was victim of it too. I suffer from PTSD in regards to one incident where my sexuality and bullying was combined. I nearly killed myself that time. I was the butt of “jokes” from others who thought it would be funny to make a date with me and then stand me up.

This is not acceptable on any level.

Those of you who think it is, need to go to the psychologist worse than the victims of your “jokes” do.  This scars for life.  There is NO fixing it.

To my shame, I passed on the abuse to others.  I can’t make up for it, but when I found out that I had done so, I tried to make it right.  There is no fixing it, but the cycle can be stopped.

Originally posted 2010-10-02 11:29:46.

Or:
How the Mormons measure up on The Advanced Bonewits Cult Danger Evaluation Frame

I wrote this article mostly to purge many feelings out of my heart.  ALL of this is based on my personal experiences with the Mormons.  Some are based on many stories of things that happened to others in the church, and they are not isolated incidents either.  If I used someone else’s experience as the basis of making my judgment, it was because there were many who had either identical or very similar experiences.  All of these accusations are documentable, but most can be found on Richard Packham’s Home Page or Recovery from Mormonism – The Mormon Church.

I have to explain about this chart.  The scale is from 1 to 10, with 1 being low to little, and 10 being extremely to total.  The number of the question and a short explanation comes first, then the next paragraph is my score and the reason I scored it as I do.  If you have any questions on this, or need further references, I ask you to contact me.

Reviewing the Mormons (with commentary)

Internal Control: Amount of internal political and social power exercised by leader(s) over members; lack of clearly defined organizational rights for members.

9. The Mormon Church has, through subtle techniques almost total dominion over the lives of the members, all their waking hours are either spent providing for the family through a job and a one-income (father) or in various church duties assigned to the members with no chance of opting out of these duties. These duties are given to them by the leaders of the local church, and it is a “Calling by God” so the member MUST be capable of doing this, they wouldn’t be asked to do it otherwise.

External Control: Amount of external political and social influence desired or obtained; emphasis on directing members’ external political and social behavior.

9. The Mormon Church has many members in political seats. At this point, Utah, Arizona, Oklahoma and many other western states have a majority of the State political offices being filled by Mormons, and many more members from those same states serving as representatives on the National Level in Congress or as political appointees. The Mormon Church claims a membership fo 11 Million Members, giving a significant voting block. Topics are assigned as talks around election time as member speeches in the main worship service that are hot-button political topics, with the slant of the talk being what the church authorities want the members to vote as. IE, in a campaign with candidates who are pro-Choice, there will be a series of talks given by the leaders in conferences that are pro-Life, and the same topic will be “assigned” as topics to member given speeches for any activity, which run 6 days a week.

Wisdom/Knowledge Claimed by leader(s); amount of infallibility declared or implied about decisions or doctrinal/scriptural interpretations; number and degree of unverified and/or unverifiable credentials claimed.

10 The Church claims that the President of the Church is a Prophet of God, infallible when he states something, unless he states something wrong, in which case he’s not being the Prophet, but just being a man. The entire body of the First Presidency (main administrative body in SLC who oversee the day to day operation worldwide) are “inspired” by God in the littlest decisions, and the regional leaders are similarly inspired when they make decisions, on down to the Father of the home being inspired by god when he punishes the children and wife for some infraction.

Wisdom/Knowledge Credited to leader(s) by members; amount of trust in decisions or doctrinal/scriptural interpretations made by leader(s); amount of hostility by members towards internal or external critics and/or towards verification efforts.

9 Being inspired by God makes them infallible and the members constantly reinforce themselves with declarations of how holy the leadership is, how they are Inspired, and how they are very wise. The common adage is “When the Brethren (First Leadership) decide, the thinking is done.” Meaning that the decision is not open for debate again, until they change their mind. Anyone criticizing the Church is ganged up on by members. Overwhelming pressure is put on former members to return to the fold by everyone around them until they have some sort of reaction, either by rejoining or breaking down. Immense sums of money are spent trying to validate ANY portion of the Book of Mormon by the Mormons, but anyone using current fact to refute claims are called “Enemies of God, apostates, liars, deceived by Satan, and their works are explained away.” Each member is trained to be a Mormon Apologist, dismissing or explaining glaring errors in Mormon theology, holy writ and history.

Dogma: Rigidity of reality concepts taught; amount of doctrinal inflexibility or “fundamentalism;” hostility towards relativism and situationalism.

9 Centuries old concepts are still being taught as current or holy writ, and not open to change unless the current head of the church changes it. He is the only one who can make changes to any of the dogma in the Mormon Church. For instance, the Temple rite from 1860 or so had a concept of Blood Oaths, meaning violation of these oaths was punishable by death. This was still taught as what God wanted as recently as 1970. The current head of the Church recently removed those oaths sometime after 1970. Segregation and the inferiority of the descendants of the African Slaves was still taught as recently as 1980, and is still quietly taught, out of hearing of the Black membership.

Recruiting: Emphasis put on attracting new members; amount of proselytizing; requirement for all members to bring in new ones.

10 Mormon Missionaries. ‘Nuff said.

Front Groups: Number of subsidiary groups using different names from that of main group, especially when connections are hidden.

NA Not known. Officially the Church does not own companies, but the records are kept so secret that no one can trace the ownership records of various industries and businesses. It is know that many LARGE companies are owned by Mormon members, such as the Marriott, Wal-Mart, and many others.

Wealth: Amount of money and/or property desired or obtained by group; emphasis on members’ donations; economic lifestyle of leader(s) compared to ordinary members.

10 There is a MANDATORY tithe of 10% GROSS income levied on all members. Psychological pressure is exerted and the real pressure of loss of friendships and “blessings” and talks with the presidency (local) if this tithe is not met. Records are kept of these monies, and all funds are sent to the HQ in Salt Lake, who supposedly disburse this money as needed to the various groups, but any money for local issues like new church buildings are demanded as further offerings from the members, and there is a fast fund. Once a month, the members fast for 24-48 hours. That money, which should buy food, is sent to the Church as a “Fasting Offering”. This means that something like $15,000,000,000 (yes, that’s BILLION) dollars are collected by the Church annually (figuring a middle income family of $30,000 per year and counting 5 million families out of the 11 million members figure) just in tithes. An estimated $100 million is spent in building temples and maintaining various church activities (all local clergy are not paid, they do it as a volunteer), but that is all. While no obvious difference exists between members and the First Presidency’s lifestyles, questions into this is not encouraged by anyone.

Sexual Manipulation of members by leader(s) of non-tantric groups; amount of control exercised over sexuality of members in terms of sexual orientation, behavior, and/or choice of partners.

10 One of the basic tenets of Mormonism is Chastity until marriage. The spoken and taught canard is that if a girl is not a virgin when she marries, she may as well be dead. No exception is made for a girl who is raped either, and there are many cases of suicide by rape victims in the Mormon Church. Males are publicly exhorted to chastity, but if they have sex prior to marriage, depending on the “faith” of the person and their family (read how much the church needs these people and how much money is donated to the Church), it is either overlooked and dismissed or they are castigated as the females are.

Sexual Favoritism: Advancement or preferential treatment dependent upon sexual activity with the leader(s) of non-tantric groups.

1 This is covered by (9) above. If a girl has ANY sexual relations, she is damned to hell and no “decent” male will have her, she may as well be dead because her family will disown her as well.

Censorship: Amount of control over members’ access to outside opinions on group, its doctrines or leader(s).

10 Investigation into the history of the Church is STRONGLY discouraged if the person is using non-church sources, meaning any quality scholarly work. All approved histories are written, edited and published by the Church, and sold in the Church Stores or from Church Catalogs. Multiple magazines are written and published by the Church and all members are almost required to have subscriptions, to the point of multiple subscriptions of the same material coming to the same address and family. Anyone who publicly puts down the Mormon Church are vilified (such as the Tanners) and dismissed as “Enemies of God”.

Isolation: Amount of effort to keep members from communicating with non-members, including family, friends and lovers.

7 While communication with non-members is encouraged in order to convert the “hetathen”, along with family, self-censorship is encouraged and desired in regards to any anti-Mormon material that they encounter. Quite a lot of communication with other members is encouraged, mostly because you are too busy to cultivate interests outside the Church. There is no time to encounter much information from outside the Church.

Dropout Control: Intensity of efforts directed at preventing or returning dropouts.

9 Ex-members who leave are still considered members unless they actively take steps to remove their name from the rolls of the Church, which means that they are contacted and harrassed by local leaders to come back to Church and Missionaries. To get your name removed from the rolls of the Church requires a month long process, and in some cases requires a several year long process which many are not willing to go through, simply because it’s complex. Members in good standing are encouraged to “fellowship” previous members back into the fold, although this ultimately is subject to those political pressures and local conditions. Even death does not keep you safe, as they have an active program to baptize the dead by proxy to make them members of the Church and “save” them.

Violence: Amount of approval when used by or for the group, its doctrines or leader(s).

5 While active pogroms are not condoned nor are they started by Church leaders, if something happens to non-members by members actions, and it looks to be a scandal to the Church, it is covered up, or the offending members are cut loose and disavowed by the Church. There has been little test of this in the last 50 years or so, but it was the case back when the Church was in it’s infancy.

Paranoia: Amount of fear concerning real or imagined enemies; exaggeration of perceived power of opponents; prevalence of conspiracy theories.

8 Those who point out inconsistencies in the Doctrine and who truly question beliefs and search for fulfillment are enemies and trying to bring the Church down. A member in good standing who looks for validation of their beliefs from non-Mormon sources and starts questioning is labeled a traitor and reviled, to the point of sometimes driving people from the Church. Those who question, either within or without the church are not “real Christians” and are trying to bring the Church down. The only reason this score is not higher is because other than being labeled as traitors, nothing is done to them.

Grimness: Amount of disapproval concerning jokes about the group, its doctrines or its leader(s).

9 You rarely hear a Mormon Joke. Either from members or from non-members. If a jokes starts, it is treated as though it were a crime by that person by the Mormon Leadership.

Surrender of Will: Amount of emphasis on members not having to be responsible for personal decisions; degree of individual disempowerment created by the group, its doctrines or its leader(s).

10 Literally all things good come from the Church, to leave the Church is to be a sinner and apostate and to have license to do anything one one wants and to have no morals or conscience. If the Church Leadership decides something, the thinking has been done as far as the Church is concerned as a whole. To disagree with the leadership is to sin. “Follow the Brethren” is the watch phrase. One is encouraged to tell everything to the Church leaders, and they will make decisions for you and your life, despite it not being their life. You are expected to still live with the consequences of those decisions, and the Church takes no responsibility. When going through the “Temple Endowments”, you literally pledge, by binding oaths for those who believe them, everything in your life to the Church, all your money, all your support, all that you have and own and possess, and your family with you.  The Church used this once to raise money to defeat a measure in California supporting Gay Rights.

Hypocrisy: amount of approval for actions which the group officially considers immoral or unethical, when done by or for the group, its doctrines or leader(s); willingness to violate the group’s declared principles for political, psychological, social, economic, military, or other gain.

10 Approval by cover-up. Putting a convicted pedophile in charge of the Primary class (all the children under the age of 10) and then telling the children and their parents that it never happened, that they are lying or making things up and allowing the pedophile to remain in charge is hypocritical, especially when the leadership rails against those who are pedophiles. Approving of young males going out and screwing non-member girls to gain experience, while convincing young ladies who have been raped that they are better off dead and then sanctimoniously stating that every child should be chaste (to the point of masturbation=murder and is a mortal sin) is hypocritical.

For more information, check these links out:

• Reason Filling in the missing pieces of the Mormon History Puzzle.
• Recovery from Mormonism – The Mormon Church
• Richard Packham’s Home Page
• Utah Lighthouse Ministry
• Yahoogroups: ExMormon

Originally posted 2009-11-11 19:43:00.

I follow a lot of people here (on Tumblr), and most apparently don’t understand that it’s not just the outside package that is beautiful, but the internal personality, attitude, love and joy that shine out that combine to make someone beautiful.

Yes, the outside package is what people react to first.  Yes, it is the one that most will judge you on first.  But just like a Christmas Present, sparkly gold paper and nice ribbons do not make the Popeil Pocket Fisherman any better.  Just like wrapping an iPad in the comic section of the newspaper doesn’t detract from the present.

However, since humans are visual oriented, presenting an attractive outer casing is what seems to be important in the very short term.  Yes, beautiful people are more desirable to be around, they are more envied, but that is ONLY because people who look at them ONLY see them as the outer casing.  Just as if you only saw the gold wrapped package or the comics wrapped package.  The casing would be what you would judge on first.

And we are even warned against this.  ”Don’t judge a book by its cover.”  ”Beauty is only skin deep…” and many other such sayings warn us that it’s not the casing, the package, the wrapping that is important, but the contents of the mind, soul and spirit.

So I see people worried about their appearance to the exclusion of all else, and I get very sad.  I get upset when I see someone who only thinks that attractive appearance is what is important.  Hey, I like looking at pretty things around me too, but to stay around those pretty things there has to be more than just pretty appearance.  Because beauty fades, the nicest flower in the world will whither, and the most gorgeous gown will rot with time.  But the personality and the internal qualities are what will last.

I’ve known many girls in my life.  The beautiful ones are very rarely the ones who stay “beautiful” and “thin” and “tanned” and “fit” and “skinny” three or more years after I come to know them.  There are a few like that, but most understand that while their looks may have initially turned my head and had me look at them, the contents of their character are what kept me around.

And I’ll tell you something else.  It’s the “sad, weird” people I enjoy spending time around.  Cookie cutter personalities like are shown on Mean Girls or Bring it On are not anything that interests me.  But the girl with an armful of books, the one who wears spiked hair or a collar, the girl with the black makeup and the pale complexion, THOSE people are interesting.  They have a persona they want to show, and they apparently are willing to show it and be contrary to society rather than trying to conform and blend in.

Those people are worth the time to get to know.

So, ladies and gentlemen, no matter who you are, please revel in yourself.  Yes, put on an attractive appearance but understand it is not the appearance that will keep someone around.  The gestalt of you is what keeps someone.  And understand that even if this person over here left you, it is their loss due to you being a beautiful creature.  Someone else will be with you and the others, well, they have to content themselves with the Pocket Fisherman.

Astute readers of my Journal will have already noticed that the name has changed.  That’s what should be.  But let me tell you why.

As you may have read in earlier entries, I’m transitioning from Male to Female.  Well, in recent months I’ve made some major strides forward in that regard, namely I’ve come out to everyone I know that I’m transitioning, and I’ve legally changed my name from my male moniker to a more female name.

With this change came a LOT of soul searching, a lot of meditation and a lot of discussion with the Gods.  Finally after a long time, we all determined that I am Their daughter just as much as I was Their son.  I am Their Priestess and still Their Priest.

Confusing?  You bet you.  About as confusing as being female, dressing as female, being called “She” and “Her” and “Miss” and still being called “Dad” by my daughter.  But that’s okay, things take time, and I’m only partway through the hormone treatment.

So, with the new name, new gender and the acknowledgment of the world at large, I rededicated myself one morning near Samhain.  I abandoned the name Daven and took the name Erin to be my magickal working name.

You may be able to see some of the changes.

Juliet:
“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.”

So, the name of the Journal is changing to Erin’s Journal.  But the content is not.  It will still have the same content as any you have come to expect.  The look and feel will be the same.  It may have more personal focus and changes based on crossing gender lines and still being a representative of the Gods.

I am going to be taking time over the next months to find and change all references to Daven’s Journal and replace them with Erin’s Journal.  I am going to do this gradually since it will take some time for you, the reader, to adjust to this change too.  Everyone knows Daven’s Journal, but it will take time to realize that it is the same site as Erin’s Journal.  Thus the “new and improved” logo upstairs.  Hopefully by keeping something the same, it can become normal, then we gradually phase out the various elements of Daven and replace them with Erin.

But also, like the Shattered Tower, this is a change that has happened and cannot be undone.  But also like Death, it’s one that has been a long time in coming.

(Note from Daven: This is a song my daughter made up when she was 4 years old. It’s interesting.)

Horned One

By Rhiannon Landrum

Horned One tells me a story
Horned One tells me a story
Of rainbow smiles in all of my dreams.
Horned One tells me a story

A rose is gone to please
To take of the Goddess
To make me please

Horned One tells me a story
About flowers dancing in my head
He tells me about his adventures in my head.

Stars light your path.

Originally posted 2009-11-11 18:54:16.

PantheaCon has no personal effect but I feel the need to contribute to the discussion of the issues that have been made public.

The comment on the Wildhunt by Z Budapest that follow prompts my response.

“This struggle has been going since the Women’s Mysteries first appeared. These individuals selfishly never think about the following: if women allow men to be incorporated into Dianic Mysteries,What will women own on their own? Nothing! Again! Transies who attack us only care about themselves. We women need our own culture, our own resourcing, our own traditions. You can tell these are men, They don’t care if women loose the Only tradition reclaimed after much research and practice ,the Dianic Tradition. Men simply want in. its their will. How dare us women not let them in and give away the ONLY spiritual home we have! Men want to worship the Goddess? Why not put in the WORK and create your own trads. The order of ATTIS for example, (dormant since the 4rth century) used to be for trans gendered people, also the castrata, men who castrated themselves to be more like the Goddess. Why are we the ONLY tradition they want? Go Gardnerian! Go Druid! Go Ecclectic! Filled with women, and men. They would fit fine. But if you claim to be one of us, you have to have sometimes in your life a womb, and overies and MOON bleed and not die. Women are born not made by men on operating tables.”

It is on this comment that I want to speak out.

I am a transwoman myself. I was born in a male body, but I have always felt that I was a female, born in the wrong body. This has been a condition of my life. This means that in all likelihood my brain is wired like a female’s brain, and I can and do empathize with many female issues of the day.

• I fear being raped.
• I fear being attacked by those who don’t understand me and my life.
• I wish to have children of my own body.
• I have raised my daughter when she was younger.
• I have taught her to be proud of herself as a woman.
• I have helped and tried to talk to her about female issues, including telling her about her period and other such “female-only” topics.
• I have given her much advice on relationships, and reveled in her relationship with her lover.

Do these make me a woman? Probably not.

However, having the internal plumbing of a female doesn’t either. Here’s what we can look at:

1. Am I genetically a female? No, I’m not.
2. Do I have a period and bleed from my uterus? No I don’t.
3. Do I have the biological ability to give birth to children from my body? Not yet.
4. Do I have hormones of a female in my body? Yes I do.
5. Do I have the mood swings associated with estrogen and other female hormones? Yes I do, and I have for long before I had HRT.
6. If I take a pregnancy test, will it be positive? Yes, it will.
7. Can I lactate from my breasts? Yes, I can.
8. Do I have to worry about HPV and Breast Cancer? Yes, I do.
9. Will I have a subcutaneous layer of fat, making my skin softer and a bit more squishy? Yes, I do.

However:

1. Do women who have a hysterectomy bleed from their uterus? No they do not. Are they considered women? Yes.
2. Are infertile women considered women? Yes they are.
3. Do women who have mastectomies still have access to “women’s Mysteries rituals”? Yes, they do.
4. Do women who have had their cervix removed still have access to a women’s bathroom? Yes, they do.
5. Are people who go to work in paying jobs outside the home, who have two X chromosomes considered women? Yes.
6. Are AFAB who put on a tuxedo and boxers considered to be female? Yes.

Yes, these lists are a bit scattered. See, assigning gender to a person is slippery.

I can have all the sexual organs of a female, transplants work. I can have someone’s uterus, fallopian tubes and ovaries implanted in myself, and I can have things redesigned, cut and changed around so that I can have all the same equipment to carry a fetus to term and give birth to it.

That is, if I had the money for it.

Does that make me more of a woman? Does it allow me to enter the “sisterhood of the bloody week”? Will that give me access to “feminine mysteries”?

I worship a goddess. Does that make me a girl? My wife worships a God, does that make her male? Is it that my wife has a female name, and I have a name that is typically assigned to a male?

What standard are you using to define who is and is not a particular gender? Is it ultimately genetics that tell you which you are?

If I can find a AMAB who has two X chromosomes, can he enter into the Sacred Sanctums of the Goddess? Or will he be denied too?

See, in my mind, the problems is not “who can participate”. The problem is “What defines gender” and that has ALWAYS been the problem.

I don’t have a problem, really, with those who want to have a AFAB ritual. I truly don’t. But when an intersexed person comes in who has a vagina, uterus and all the equipment, along with a penis and tries to participate, and they are turned away, is that truly what the Goddess wants? Will only lesbians be allowed into those rituals next?

Z. says that women are born, not built on a table. I can see and I actually agree with that. However, a woman who has an extra appendage has it surgically removed still a woman? If they have a rhinoplasty, are they women? If they have a facelift, are they still a woman? What if they have a “Vaginal Rejuvenation” as in getting a facelift for the lower lips? What if they are in an accident and have to have a complete Vaginoplasty? Are THEY still considered women?

Is the difference a matter of what we grew up with? How we were taught? Do I have to be beaten up by boys who don’t like me to be a woman? Do I have to learn how to cook and sew, how to put on makeup? How to walk with a book on my head? What about having a relative molest me, or a stranger who wants to grab my “private parts”? Do those make me a woman? Do those experiences make me closer to the Goddess? Will I commune more successfully with the nurturing mother, and the self-centered maiden or the wise crone if I have been abused sexually?

Here’s the central question: If a person who was assigned male at birth, who has had ALL of the above happen to them, rape, abuse, being beaten for being gay, for being too effeminate for being too swishy, for not liking to play football, a person who has studied how to provide a loving and happy home, who takes care of children, who looks and acts and has the hormones of being a female, if they tried to declare “I am Woman, hear me roar!” and stood out and asked to be allowed to be with her sisters, is it right and the Will of the Goddess that those who were assigned female at birth continue to abuse them by saying “no”, or would the Curse of the Goddess fall upon them?

A drag queen who revels in being a parody of a woman? Sure, deny them. Someone who does it for humor? I can see that too. Someone who only crossdresses because they get a sexual thrill out of lacy underwear? I can get behind those who want to deny them a place in the Circle. But someone who has had every, EVERY thing happen to them that you think makes a female, other than the genetic accident of XX instead of XY, why do you insist on continuing the abuse? Have they not suffered enough? Will YOU, Z., will you personally stand before the Goddess with them and say “They are not a woman”?

I think that is the central problem here. You say you speak for the Goddess, that you are Her representative on the Earth. Yet, you are spewing EXACTLY the same discrimination that the other Churches and religions out there do in denying this person the ability to be who they are. Hell, the Muslims don’t have a problem with TransGender people, they are commanded in the writings of Muhammad to be whom they are, and those who feel they are female should be female, living that way, even if they don’t have the equipment.

You are right in that there were groups in the past who would change themselves to be more like the Goddess. They would keep to enclaves where they could be with their own kind. But I want you to think of something for a minute: How do you know about them?

The men of the day wrote down about these deviants and about the weirdoes who cut their balls off so they could sing female parts. They told stories about men who dressed and acted like women, as they derided and made fun of those deviants. There was no place for them in any aspect of “Western” society. The Native Americans treated the berdache people as the sex they wished to be. The Japanese did the same. They weren’t hunted and hounded. They were allowed to live their lives as they chose, identifying as they chose.

So how is what we have now progress?

To those who have problems with these “men” being included, I say to you; Yes, I can see your point. Men should not be part of those rites of femalehood. But when someone goes through two, three, four and more years of effort to be female, paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to correct a genetic mistake, all to be simply who they are, if you can HONESTLY say that they are mocking the Goddess in that effort? Will you continue to kick them when they are asking you to treat them as a Sister?

I can tell you that it has been my experience that many male groups would welcome FtM transsexuals with open arms. Why are you so threatened by a person who wants to be treated as a woman being included in your rituals? Shouldn’t women be allowed at all rituals that celebrate womanhood?

I would think that you, as a true Goddess-loving female, would want to celebrate any form of womanhood. That to have a ritual dedicated to bringing a new woman into the fold would be something to bring joy, not something to be disrespected.

Or do you plan to stop having “coming of age” rituals for girls who start their menses too? After all, they aren’t women but they want to be women, and a little blood does not a female make. After all, I can bleed.

And think about this: Here is a male, someone who has male privilege, who you allege has a lot of power in our society, is VOLUNTARILY deciding to become a minority, a female. They are giving up their “place in society”, as you seem to suggest, to move down the ladder of empowerment, right to the bottom as a transwoman. They will have no rights to anything, they will get the short end of being female, they will get the hate of being a “failed male”, the bad parts of being gay, all of it, heaped together. They will be denied the use of ANY bathroom in public, because the women don’t want them in their bathroom and the idea of being forced into a men’s bathroom is repugnant. They will live with fear EVERY DAY that someone will spot them as a transwoman, and that they will be killed with sticks and bricks. They will be killed and the cops won’t do anything. They will be beaten by the cops too and no one will believe them.

Why all the hate and rejection? Because they are the person they were meant to be.

And you will be adding to that. Think about it.

Originally posted 2011-03-02 00:07:09.

I’ve been putting off doing this article for some time. This is due (in part) to life.

Life, when it smacks you, really smacks you. There were many things that I expected to happen, several things that didn’t happen that I thought would, and things that I didn’t see coming and had no clue about.

And guess what? That’s the topic of this article.

Mostly this article is going to talk about a trend that I’m seeing in Mainstream Wicca (as opposed to Traditional Wicca) and that’s the “One Book and I’m a Witch” attitude that is being espoused by many authors these days. They state (either outright or implied) that all you need is to read their books, follow their Way and you too will be a 20th level High Priest Warlock in Squirrel Society and authorized to act as the high priestess of any ritual there.

Not on your life. Not on your best day, not on MY best day and absolutely no chance of this happening.

It means you read a book. That’s all.

In Wicca, as in many other mystical traditions, personal experience is paramount. Knowing what is going to happen because you have done this before or because you have encountered a similar situation before is critical to this path. Knowing how to deal with Situation X because you have had this situation before is damned near a requirement.

There are going to be those who read this article and go “nope, I’m a High Priest Warlock, and I know what I’m doing. High Lady Suffandnonsence said so.” There will be those who think that just because I’m saying that experience trumps most forms of knowledge that I’m off my rocker. These are the very people that need this article the most.

It’s been said that Experience comes from Good Judgment and that Good Judgment comes from Bad Judgment. This is one of those statements that could have been said by anyone and it’s so important and pervasive that it transcends any one person’s cerebrum. This is a Universal Truth.

Book knowledge is good, but learning from a book can only take you so far. It can give you the framework to base experience on, but without that experience, the framework is useless.

An analogy of this would be a house. Take the house frame. It’s the foundation, the wall skeleton with the studs and window frames, then the floor joists and that framework, and so on till you get to the roof and the ridgepole of the house. That’s fine, but no one is going to be able to live in that house. All it is is a skeleton of wood that COULD potentially become a house.

It’s not until the drywall is attached to the studs, the floor is nailed down, the shingles put on, the water pipes run, the electrical wiring put in place, the doors hung that it becomes a house. A very important component is the insulation that protects guards the house from attack. That is what experience does to the framework of book knowledge.

Book knowledge can tell you about what you MAY have happen to you. It can tell you about the situations you might be in, and how the author dealt with them. It can tell you that if you feel this that you shouldn’t panic, it’s supposed to happen. But in reality, the book can only describe what the author has had happen to them, not what you may have happen to you.

Everyone has different feelings during a ritual, during a spell and during an initiation. That’s one of the Mysteries of Wicca and any other tradition that has transcendental experiences as part of its mysticism. When you get to the part where you have to feel something, my experience in the EXACT same situation is going to be different, if only because I am using my own mind with my own “spin” in it to interpret those experiences. This is what a subjective experience is. It is subject to your interpretation and only what you perceive.

Two people going through the exact same experience at the same time are not going to report the same thing happening to a third person unless they compare “notes” afterward. This is one of the reasons that police HATE witnesses to crimes, since every witness is going to have a different experience. The only way to have the same experience is to swap stories of what happened before reporting it to a third person.

Back to our house analogy. Both of us have the same framework to hang our experience on. When we finally get around to putting different experience in the house, our shingles may be different colors, the drywall may be from two different companies, the pipe may be routed in different ways, the electrical wiring may take a different route to the various points in the house and may terminate into plugs that are in differing locations. This is okay; these are little stylistic differences that make us unique. But the lights still turn on when I hit the switch, I can still run a computer, my head is still dry when it rains, and when I flush the toilet it still travels through the pipes.

This means that with experience, the framework now can function more fully as it was intended to do, and it can support more and more experience. Little stylistic differences are immaterial in the overall picture; the bare functions of this house are exactly the same no matter how many differences like this are pointed out.

“What about a construction company?” you may ask, meaning what about the “row houses” who are all built by the same company and who all are almost exactly the same. Good thought, but look at the statement closely, “almost exactly the same”.

No matter who it is, no matter what group is training them, what order or religion it is, there is no way to have the exact same set of experiences happen to another person, so it’s useless to say that your experience and my experience, even though we are both members of the same coven and have been trained identically, are the same. They are not the same and never will be.

The general overview and the gross characteristics are going to be the same, granted. But when I learn something, I may have a slightly different “take” on it, or understand the material a bit differently from you. While this makes us of the same group, I cannot say that I have the same knowledge as you do, other than in what we were taught. You may have had insights to your knowledge that I have not had.

So no matter what company builds our houses, or even if they follow the same exact blueprint and get the materials from the same companies, there will still be differences. Slight and subtle differences (the placement of the nails, where seams are located for floorboards and drywall and so on), but differences nonetheless.

Now, I have talked about the Framework (the book) and the Finishing (experience), now to talk about the Decorating (intuition).

Because your experiences and my experiences will be different, and I may have a different insight from you, my way of doing things will be different. I may even understand that it’s not necessary to do (whatever) but that I can substitute (this and that) for what I was doing. This is the intuitive process that makes for a great Priest, Priestess, Wiccan, magickian or practitioner. It is the customization and the stylistic stamp that will be on your personal practice.

This “stamp” is not a bad thing. It is an individual expression. Crowley said that Magick is the Science and Art of causing change yadda yadda yadda. This is the Art process, where you take your experience, which is hung on the framework of books, and temper it with your understanding into something that works for you and your mind. Make absolutely no mistake here, EVERY religion; EVERY transcendental process has this element in it. If not, it would be worthless to the individual practitioner.

Yes, Christianity has this element too. The core teachings are the same, Jesus is the savior, the Bible, the moral structure, God and Satan and so on. This is where the details get fiddled with, and it becomes very important as to whether or not you have a kneeler at your bedside or a home shrine to Mary. This is why there are so many sects of Christianity.

The same is true for Wicca and Druidism and Asatru and Chaos magick and on and on. Each of these spiritual paths has a time when you are allowed to put your own stylistic mark on the beliefs and practice them for yourself.

In our house analogy, we have the frame and the finishing done. This means that this house is ready for human habitation and use, but it’s not very pretty. It can be used, exactly as is, but no one is going to like it like that for very long. So, the house is cleaned up, paint is applied, carpet laid down, tiling done, furniture moved in, beams and so on stained, lamps and window treatments placed, and plants are put about the home. For it is now a home, something one person can be happy to be in and to live in and with. They have a place to sleep, a place to eat, a place to relax, a place to lounge about on the floor, a place to bathe and so on. Each of these places reflects their personality and their wants and needs. Therefore it is THEIR home. Doesn’t matter that the same exact wall studs appear in EVERY house around them, or that the same company which built their house built 40 other houses nearby, or that the layout is the same as all the other houses around. Nope, this is THEIR house and only theirs for it has their marks all over it.

It is the same thing in religion.

Now it has the marks of the individual practitioner, and it is customized for them and only them. It is THEIR religion in a way that could not happen any other way. It is meaningful and it answers their needs.

My wife pointed out something that needs to be mentioned at this point. There IS a maintenance phase that fits both these analogies. In both a religious structure and in house building, there is a phase where you maintain it, either the religion or the house. Maintenance of a religion consists of attending rituals, interacting with your gods, teaching and so on. Maintenance of a house is what is important to you in terms of the beauty of your house. This is just as individual as decorating the house. And it is necessary as well, since if you don’t use your religion and practice it, you loose it or fall away.

Having looked at the proper way of doing things, let’s spend the rest of this article looking at what happens if the “house” isn’t built to code.

First problem: Adding various elements together that don’t belong together without the knowledge or experience to make them work properly and having no structure to support them. Here you have an empty lot, it has beautiful bushes, a fountain, trees, a couple couches, some carpet, wallpaper laying around, a lamp or two standing up. It looks nice, but the substance of this home doesn’t exist. The decorations are nice, but there is no place to put any of them, and the first strong wind that comes along will blow away much of what is there.

This is the “one book and I’m a witch” or Fluffy Bunny syndrome run rampant. It looks wonderful, and the fantasy is astounding. It is pretty and seems comfortable, but the first hint of a storm or challenge, and it starts falling apart.

This comes when all that exists are the stylistic elements, the incorporation of unicorns and dragons into the religion, the myths of other lands as examples to be used, the invocation of Kali as a mother figure. All these elements actually work if there is a house to put them into, a framework to support them, but when left naked and alone on the lawn by themselves, they look absolutely stupid.

And what’s worse is the resistance that is encountered when a construction worker comes along and says that there’s a storm coming. All this beautiful furniture needs to be under shelter or it will be ruined. The owner fights and argues, cries and wails, and may deny the very existence of the storm. IF s/he becomes convinced of the need of the shelter, a tarp may be thrown over everything, and left. The person in question thinks that this tarp is sufficient to protect his/her wondrous possessions from anything, without ever seeing just how fragile that shelter is.

The solution is simple: Move everything into storage, and start building the foundation. Once the framework and the house are finished, everything can be moved in, placed where it should be, and it will work as a whole. Additionally, all of it will be protected from others, sheltered from the elements and so on. It will also become very plain which elements work and which don’t. But until the fluff actually admits that there is a need for something more solid than a tarpaulin, no progress can be made.

I know a lady, a good friend, whom I met under the fluffiest of circumstances. A friend of hers and I had an encounter, he asked her and many others to look at what I had said and they had a good time ripping it to shreds. Come to find out that she was not a fluffy idiot, as I had believed, but rather someone who had been badly misled by her friend. When she and I started talking, all the stylistic things I had seen from a distance that initially turned me off of her (and had me labeling her as fluffy) I actually saw for what they were, individual marks. I hadn’t seen her house for all the topiary bushes of dragons, motorcycles and unicorns in the way. But once I saw the house, they all worked together and presented a complete whole. At which point I said, “Okay, her home is not for me, and *I* wouldn’t want to live there, but it works for her.”

The lesson here is that just because you can’t see the home, does not mean it’s not there. There are irredeemable fluffiest out there, those that don’t know when to cover their stuff. But what could be taken as an excess of squishy marshmallow may just simply be you seeing only the surface of something that goes much deeper. So don’t be quick to judge.

Second problem, ONLY experience with nothing else.

Okay, this could be a major problem. It means that you do three times the work than if you just did things right from the beginning.

Imagine that you have the drywall, the floor tiles, the carpet, the siding and the shingles ready. So you start constructing the house from these materials. Except the drywall won’t stay standing unless you brace it against itself, using twice the drywall you might under other circumstances. The siding you nailed to the outside of the house is falling off since it’s only nailed to gypsum drywall, and the pipes are running all over the house, exposed since there is no place to put them. Sockets for lamps and electrical power are laying on the floor, and the power isn’t running to them since there is no way the Inspector will let you turn on the power to this “house”. There’s no second story since no matter how careful you are, you will fall through the plaster that is used on the ceiling.

So, your wall collapses, injuring people. You jury-rig something to hold it up. Then the pipe bursts since it’s not supported right and the joint isn’t done properly. That puts water all over the place. It takes out another wall, and ruins the carpet. So you fix that and buy new walls and carpet. It goes on and on and on ad nauseam.

Eventually, you start building a frame for the walls to hang on. Glory be! That works! So you keep building the wall framework. You take the carpet out and put down a floor. Then you go back and add a ceiling and so on. Holy crud, you now have a house. There is no foundation, and there are probably many things you missed in building a house like this, but it’s up and you stay dry. It may still fall down in a high wind or a storm, and Gods help you if there is an earthquake, but you have something that looks like a home. You have to be careful of the placement of your furniture, and forget about finishing some things since you are running around trying to keep the house erect.

This is what only “street smarts” does to you. You have to get your framework from the school of hard knocks, and Gods above does it knock hard. Many times there is a complete meltdown before there is ever a chance to correct the mistakes made out of pure ignorance.

There is actually a lot to be said for learning like this. Primarily among those strong arguments in favor is that you learn to do things that people say can’t be done. You have a thought about substituting a cigar for the athame. Your reasoning is that a cigar is phallic; therefore it looks like a wand. A wand can be substituted for an athame in other rituals; therefore the cigar can substitute for an athame. I laugh. “That’s fluffy-speak,” says myself. I say it can’t be done.

You go and try it anyhow. Since this is a ceremony for summoning Mars, it works much better than anticipated. You do a little looking and find out that one of the herbs sacred to Mars is tobacco. Ah HA! You exclaim, and shove it in my face. You were able to do this because you didn’t know it could not be done that way. Like putting an electrical outlet in the middle of the floor.

Classical training has some serious flaws, one of the biggest being that it ossifies and codifies the way of doing things into almost a holy writ, without allowances being made for those who actually can do it other ways and succeed. Improvisation and intuition are discouraged until it’s almost too late. Experimentation is not allowed since doing things THIS way is traditional.

Learning on your own is free of that flaw, and reasonable sounding associations can and do happen all the time. Still, there are many times when there are reasons for doing things the traditional way, most of which can be summed up in two phrases. Precedent and what works.

The experimentation and discarding of what doesn’t work is already done. What is left is what works. Learning through experience means that you will have to repeat someone else’s mistakes before you find his or her successes. So you may find, through long and laborious effort, that it’s much better to go clockwise around the Circle when casting it, and going counter clockwise seems to unravel it for some reason. This could have taken you years of effort to discover, when spending ten minutes training under an already experience teacher would have given you the same information and reasoning.

It takes quite a bit of additional time, effort and energy to do the entire discovery on your own. The trade off is that you may be able to do things those others say can’t be done. While it’s not worth it in my opinion, your mileage may vary.

As far as precedent goes, magickally any action creates a resonance in the Spirit Worlds, and that resonance adds energy to the spell or ritual. Doing it the same way every time pulls upon that energy and helps the ritual along.

The last problem in this essay is the “only framework” problem.

This is the chronic “I read a book” set that irritates so many. Just having the framework is as bad as only having the decorations. The difference here is that this state is curable.

Think about it, the foundation may be there, the walls may be framed out, but there is nothing keeping out the rain, there is no place to go to the bathroom, no bed to lay down on. All you have is the skeleton of what COULD be a beautiful house.

It’s being able to recite lists of associations for deities without knowing anything about the individual deities’ personalities to understand WHY that deity likes red and not green. With this, you will not be able to do anything when it falls outside the limited range of what you know.

Let’s say for a second that you want to call up a goddess of love to help you get a lover. You know red is the color of romance, so you use red candles to do your ritual with. Aphrodite shows up. You think “Great! Who’s better to help me than the goddess of Love herself?” Except you don’t know that Aphrodite, while certainly being a love goddess, is also a goddess of lust and infidelity, as evidenced by her bribery of Paris. So instead of romantic love and faithfulness, you get a lover who jumps from bed to bed to bed because of a need for sex, and who leaves a trail of broken hearts in their wake. You got what you wanted, but you didn’t know what was going to happen because you only knew a limited amount and had no experience to back it up. Please, don’t try saying to a deity, “I wanted what I meant, not what I said.” Scorch marks are hard to clean up.

Had you some experience to back up the framework of the tables of association; you may have remembered Aphrodite’s myths and how she acted toward others. (And if you really want to have your head spin, check out Artemis Diana of Ephesus.) You may have remembered that red is most commonly associated with passionate love, while yellow is the color of a steady love, a committed love and white is pure love. You may have known, from having seen other love spells go bad, that Cupid has two sides to his personality.

Fortunately, as I said back in the beginning of this essay, this bad judgment will bring experience that is the forerunner of good judgment or wisdom. If you have the learning curve of a snail, you will learn from this incident and do better next time. So the next time you work with Aphrodite, you will remember this incident, or you will work with a deity that you already know.

The point of this diatribe is that Experience costs. The best and easiest way of doing things, be they religious, magickal or just in life, is to build the framework first, from various studies (books or school or tutoring), take that knowledge and apply it in your life to gain experience, then put your own personal interpretation on your combination of studies and experience to have a system that is uniquely you.

Added to this is responsibility. If you are teaching others, you should be careful to teach the framework, share your experience, and keep your stylistic stamp to yourself unless and until you see that your student can handle and separate your interpretation of things from their own.

Don’t knock any one stage as being unnecessary. Intuition and understanding are just as important as the book knowledge. Conversely, don’t make the mistake of thinking that any one stage is the be-all, end-all of how to do things. One dowel does not a structure make; it’s only when you have three supporting legs that the tripod is born, and the tripod is one of the most stable structures there is.

Originally posted 2009-11-11 21:42:19.

Okay, in an attempt to raise money, I’m going to be offering a service for sale.

Ask me your questions, any questions.  I’ll do a tarot reading and tell you what you need to know and do.

What are my qualifications you may ask?  Well, I’ve been doing tarot readings for the last 14 years.  I became Wiccan and started studying the Tarot, my wife taught me everything I know about it and she should know since she’s been doing this for the last 40 years and taught three other tarot readers that I know of, possibly more.  Since then, I have worked as a professional Tarot reader with Kabrina’s Psychic Answer (a phone in TV Psychic service) which is now defunct, leaving there because of not enough calls for when I could work.

I was able to support my family on what I made as a TV Psychic.  So I do know what I’m doing.

Finally, I went to private practice, doing readings for myself, my wife, friends and those I know in various forums.  Generally I didn’t charge money for those readings, but there was a quid pro quo exchange of energy and effort to those readings.  I’ve even had good reviews on these.

Now I offer you the chance to get your reading done by me.

I use the Robin Wood deck to do these readings since it’s the one I have been working with since I began.

I have three levels of readings, one that is $15 for one question and answer, using a five card yes/no or a ten card Celtic Cross spread depending on how complex the question is.  One is a reading (spread of my choice) answering one complex question.  That’s $30.  The last is answering two complex questions for $50.

I have one more spread that I can do but it has never taken less than an hour, but it is a thorough life reading called an Astrological Spread.  Given that it will be even more complex with having to interpret EVERY card in the deck, I’m not even going to consider doing that one for less than $90.  But it is a very good spread to understand what is going on around you and in various aspects of your life.

I also have one unique reading I do.  It’s called “The Bondage Spread” in which you are shown what is holding you back and how to get free of this.  It takes an hour to do and costs $25.  But hopefully with it you will see what you need to do to get free.

So, click below to get these readings.

Be warned that I may contact you for additional information, so your email address HAS to be correct and I do need your name.  A picture of yourself would be very helpful as well.  All readings and additional information are shredded upon completion so you don’t have to worry about that.

Testimonials

Some testimonials with contact information. These clients have kindly consented to have their names and contact information listed for you to ask about the readings they received from me. Hopefully this and any questions that they answer will allow you to feel more comfortable in purchasing a reading. Please do contact them if you have questions you feel uncomfortable asking me about the reading.

“A few months ago I had Daven do a generalized reading for me, just to see what another reader could find that I’d overlooked; I’ve been reading for a decade and I’m pretty good on my own, but sometimes it’s best to get a second opinion. What I got from Daven was an excellent (though sometimes surprising) assortment of cards and his interpretations thereof that really pinpointed some areas I’d missed, and made a few situations I’d been wondering about more clear. The details are personal, but I’ll say this–I highly, highly recommend Daven as a reader.”

Lupa
Author of “Fang and Fur, Blood and Bone: A Primal Guide to Animal Magic” and
“A Field Guide to Otherkin
chaohippie (at) excite (dot) com
http://www.thegreenwolf.com

“I found Daven’s readings to be well done. He is very concise and clear in his presentation. He isn’t one for mincing words- and he won’t cater to the ego. He’s straightforward and professional. I would recommend him to other people for readings with no hesitation.”

Hope Jackson
hcjaxn (at) yahoo (dot) com

Keep checking back here for other information. I plan to have a sample reading up on one of my spreads so you can see for yourself just what the reading consists of and how I interpret the cards for you.

Originally posted 2009-11-06 22:53:30.

On Livejournal and Dreamwidth there is a Pagan Meme going around. I’m going to fill it out but it’s not going to be exactly like what the author anticipated. There are some of these questions that are invasive and not relevant to anything other than me.  My answers are in red and comments are in green.  But I have comments in the regular answers too.

But the rest is interesting. So, take a look.

B A S I C S //

Do you have a magical/Pagan name? Yes. (never asks what that name is, only if I have one.)
What does it mean? “Daven” means “to pray” in Hebrew. I picked it because of another lifetime I had.
How did you find Paganism? Lots and lots of research in metaphysics and parapsychology.  Been interested in those topics since I was little.
How long have you been practicing? Continuously, about 19 years now.  Been reading and experimenting since I was 4.
Solitary or group practitioner? Yes.  I practice my way, and I celebrate holidays and other such community things with my wife.
What is your path? Druid, Seax-Wica, Witch
Are you out of the broom closet? Out.  Been out for about 14 years now.  But just because I’m out does not mean I’m confrontational or “in your face” about it.

D E I T Y //

Who is your patron God? My Lord Herne the Hunter
Who is your patron Goddess? Lady Rhiannon of the Birds
What Gods do you worship? I honor Fuji, The Morrigan, The Dagda and most of the Irish Pantheon (as well as most of the Welsh Pantheon).  I respect them and talk to them, I remember them at holy days, I thank them for blessings, but blind worship, no I don’t.
Do you fear darkly aspected Gods/Goddess, or rather respect them? Let’s get one thing straight, this fear of the “dark” is stupid.  Everyone has a part of their psyche that is hateful and mean, parts that we try to overcome when dealing with others. Gods and Goddesses have this part too.  EVERY deity is “dark” and every deity is “light” as well.  You cannot ignore the dark.  It is there.  Without the dark parts, you wouldn’t know what the light parts were.  You HAVE to have that contrast to understand the whole of existence.  Do I fear it?  No.  Do I acknowledge it?  Definitely.
Do you worship the Christian God? Why in the thousand sacred names of Vishnu would I worship a God that has NO PART in my religious pathway?  Reading the texts where He speaks to his followers, He states outright that He is a jealous god and that you can’t have any other god.  And he also authorizes the killing of people who worship a deity other than him.  If I wanted to worship that deity, I would have remained a Mormon.
Do you ever worship animals? Same answer.  I honor the Animal Spirits, respect them and take counsel from them, but I don’t worship them.  Respect and honor, not worship.
Or plants? Now you are getting silly.  No I don’t worship trees or grass, I respect the beings in nature and I try not to exploit or waste them when I do use them.

N A T U R E //

Do you regularly commune with nature? Yes
Ever walked barefoot in the woods? Yes
Taken a camping trip just to talk to nature? Used to do it all the time.
Describe the moment you felt closest to Mother Earth? I can describe events that had me closer to the Gods and all of reality, but not one specifically that drew me closer to “Mother Earth” as in the living/breathing planet and all that is on it.
Do you have a familiar? No.  I have a cat who looks to me for everything, who has picked me as her person, but she’s not a familiar.
Have you ever called upon the powers of an animal in ritual? Once or twice calling on the Spirit Animals to help with their Medicine.
Or a plant? No
Do you hug trees? Been known to.
Give them gifts? I take care of them when I can.  If I have to harvest part of a tree, I make sure that I take care of the injury afterward.  I guess you could see that as bringing it a gift.
What is your favorite flower to work with? None
What is your favorite tree to work with? None

W H E E L . O F . T H E . Y E A R //

What is your favorite holiday? Samhain. Feeling the transition from one part of the year to another is magickal.
What is your least favorite holiday? Samhain.  I hate the commercialism and the secularism surrounding a beautiful holiday.
Have you ever held a ritual on a holiday? Duh.  Yes.  Try to do it that way every time.  Now you are just getting silly.
Ever taken a day off work to celebrate a Pagan holiday? No.
Do you celebrate Yule on the 21 rather than the 25? Yes.
Have you ever felt the veil thin? Every ritual I do, which is what is supposed to happen.  If you don’t feel it thin, then you are doing it wrong.
Ever danced the Maypole? No.
Know what the Maypole symbolizes? Some of the symbolism, but it is not part of my practice and I’ll leave it for others who do incorporate it in their religion.  This is another silly question.  It makes assumptions that need not be made.
How do you usually celebrate the Pagan holidays? Quietly with my wife and daughter, in our home, remembering the Gods and the meaning of the holiday.  Stories and mead, teaching and learning.

D I V I N A T I O N //

Do you use Tarot? Yes
Do you use runes? Learning them.
Do you use a pendulum? Have one, no opportunity to use it yet.
Do you use dowsing rods? Not a water witch (another silly question).
Do you use astrology? I use it to find out what the general trend of someone or something is.  I don’t use it as a predictor of the future.  Too many things can influence an event for the stars to be accurate.
Any other form of divination? Omens, animal behavior, listening to the Gods, looking ahead on timelines, and being aware of consequences.

S P E L L S //

What was the first spell you did? I don’t remember.
What was the latest? I ate breakfast.
Ever done a love spell? No (revis, not to target a specific person into loving me, but to bring someone who could love me into my life, yes).
A job spell? Yes.
A healing spell? Yes.
What was the most powerful spell you’ve ever performed? Marrying my wife.
What deities do you usually call on? Herne and Rhiannon

(Let me explain why I answered these this way.  A spell is anything that will bring you your desired object/outcome.  I wanted to not feel hungry, so I ate.  I wanted to be with my wife for the rest of my life, so I married her.  The Harry Potter spells that this meme is asking about are not what a spell is, and most of those don’t work anyhow.  It’s the subtle spells that make the most change.)

C R Y P T O Z O O L O G Y //

Do you believe in Vampires? Yes.
Werewolves? No. (as in the classic half man/wolf shown in “Thriller” and “An American Werewolf in London”.  In people who can shift their mind and soul to that of a wolf, taking on their aspects and qualities… yes.)
Shapeshifters? Yes.
Elves? Yes.
Faeries? Yes.
Dragons? Yes.
Nymphs? Yes.
Sprites? Yes.
Mermaids? Yes, but it is more Merfolk than just the women.
Sirens? Yes.
Satyrs? Yes.
Ever “seen” any of the above? Yes.
Ever talked to any of the above? Yes.
Ever used any of the above in magic? Yes (another stupid question, define “used”.  Called upon a Dragon to help me do something in a ritual?  Yes.  Taken control of them and making them do it all for me?  Not on your life.)
Do you have one of them as a personal guardian? Here’s another stupid question.  I have friends on the astral who are all of the above and more, I watch their back, they watch mine.  Is this a “personal guardian”? No.  This is two people watching out for each other.

(I have no clue what this section was supposed to tell about me.  All these creatures exist on the Astral plane, you can interact with any of them that you want to.  It is not some huge secret.  Do I believe they exist on the material plane here?  Yes, with caveats.  They all were here at one time or another, and as Mankind rose in prominence, they retreated to the Astral, where they are staying now.  Until we learn to live in harmony with others, that is where they will stay.)

R A N D O M //

Do you see a rabbit, a man or a woman in the moon? I see craters and shadows and seas that take on the shape of a man’s face, a woman AND a rabbit at different times.
Own a cat? Yes.  (relevance?  I has none)
When you meditate, what does your happy place look like? I don’t have a “happy place”.  If you mean my Astral Temple, it is complex, if you mean the meeting place I go to so I can talk to the Gods, that’s something else.  If you mean the landscape that I find inside my head, that’s even more different.  Another silly question.
Do you work with Chakras? Since they are part of our bodies and since I work with Energy, I guess I do.  Haven’t done anything directly with them.
Do you believe in past lives? Yes.
If so, describe a few briefly: No, I don’t think I will.  It has no bearing on anything.
Do you believe in soul mates? Yes, as long as you define it as someone you have been with in other times and places that you are with again and again.
Do you have a spirit guide? Several, if you define this as someone who teaches me who does not have a corporal body.
Is it always love and light? Not even close.  You can’t know light without knowing the dark, as I said above.

I think that this entire meme is one of those “tell us about your woo so we can be impressed with how special you are” things.  It makes too many assumptions about what my path is and how I walk it.  It assumes that I follow a Wicca-lite canaric faith, and that it is a “faith” not a knowing. It assumes that this is a question of “having faith in” meaning that your default attitude is “it doesn’t really exist”.  I take offense at that assumption.  This seems to be more “introduce yourself” than anything else.

I need to write my own meme that makes more sense.

Originally posted 2011-01-11 07:09:53.