June 2014 Magazine

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Paths Through Life Posted by Skye

I try to uncomplicated life by keeping it simple and look at things through the eyes of a child with awe and wonder. We all travel a path through life and this is the way I look at it.

As a child we walk along the path holding hands with our parents or guardian. As we grow, we begin to take longer and longer walks alone. Still looking back for our guardian's guidance. Then, we reach a point to where we must begin to walk the path alone. Easy at first, but then we run into a crossroad. We now must choose the direction to go. Sometimes the path is covered in thorns, vines and poison plants. And some of the thorns leave scratches and scars on us, but we move on. Sometimes the path has high hills to climb and valleys to go through. There are lots of dark and scary places on the path, but we continue on.

I have walked my path for many years now. A few years ago I chose a different path that I thought would make me happy. It did not. I have now reached another crossroad and I chose another direction for my path to go in. Now, my walk is peaceful again. Where before I felt I didn't belong or wasn't good enough no longer applies. I no longer feel I need to please others first and compromise my well being. Why write this? Because I sincerely hope that each of you that reads this blog finds your true path. A path that feels right and where you feel only love, peace and a wonderful sense of belonging. Blessings, Skye

Warning Signs Your Chakras Are Out Of Balance

Posted by Debby Many Nations

by Reshma Patel

There are 7 main energy centers in the body, known as chakras. Each chakra is located throughout our body so that it correlates to specific body ailment and physical dysfunctions; each energy center also houses our mental and emotional strengths. When we have a physical issue, it creates weaknesses in our emotional behavior. When we release the stale energy from the body, it can undo any tightness, stiffness, or malfunction of that area. The clearing of the energy can also balance our emotional state of mind. The Chakra Mind-Body Balance is a two-way street: if there are certain fears and emotions we are holding on to, we experience physical restrictions, too. If you have achiness or stiffness, or certain reoccurring emotions and fears, read along and you may find out which chakra is affected or blocked. 1st or Root Chakra Sits at the base of your spine, at your tailbone.

Physical imbalances in the root chakra include problems in the legs, feet, rectum, tailbone, immune system, male reproductive parts and prostrate gland. Those with imbalances here are also likely to experience issues of degenerative arthritis, knee pain, sciatica, eating disorders, and constipation. Emotional imbalances include feelings affecting our basic survival needs: money, shelter and food; ability to provide for lifes necessities. When this chakra is balance, you feel supported, a sense of connection and safety to the physical world, and grounded. The lesson of this chakra is self-preservation; we have a right to be here.

2nd or Sacral Chakra Located two inches below your navel. Physical imbalances include sexual and reproductive issues, urinary problems, kidney dysfunctions, hip, pelvic and low back pain. Emotional imbalances include our commitment to relationships. Our ability to express our emotions. Our ability to have fun, play based on desires, creativity, pleasure, sexuality. Fears of impotence, betrayal, addictions. When this chakra is balanced, we have an ability to take risks, we are creative, we are committed. We are passionate, sexual and outgoing. The lesson of this chakra is to honor others. 3rd or Solar Plexus Chakra Located three inches above your navel. Physical imbalances include digestive problems, liver dysfunction, chronic fatigue, high blood pressure, diabetes, stomach ulcers, pancreas and gallbladder issues, colon diseases. Emotional imbalances include issues of personal power and self-esteem, our inner critic comes out. Fears of rejection, criticism, physical appearances. When this chakra is balanced, we feel self-respect and self-compassion. We feel in control, assertive, confident. The lesson of this chakra is self-acceptance. 4th or Heart Chakra Located at the heart.

Physical imbalances include asthma, heart disease, lung disease, issues with breasts, lymphatic systems, upper back and shoulder problems, arm and wrist pain. Emotional imbalances include issues of the heart; over-loving to the point of suffocation, jealousy, abandonment, anger, bitterness. Fear of loneliness. When this chakra is balanced we feel joy, gratitude, love and compassion, forgiveness flows freely, trust is gained.

The lesson of this chakra is I Love. 5th or Throat Chakra Located at the throat. Physical imbalances include thyroid issues, sore throats, laryngitis, TMJ, ear infections, ulcers, any facial problems (chin, cheek, lips, tongue problems) neck and shoulder pain. Emotional imbalances include issues of self-expression through communication, both spoken or written. Fear of no power or choice. No willpower or being out of control. When this chakra is balanced, we have free flowing of words, expression, communication. We are honest and truthful yet firm. We are good listeners. The lesson of this chakra is to speak up and let your voice be heard. 6th or Third Eye Chakra Located in the middle of the eyebrows, in the center of the forehead. Physical imbalances include headaches, blurred vision, sinus issues, eyestrain, seizures, hearing loss, hormone function. Emotional imbalances include issues with moodiness, volatility, and self-reflection; An inability to look at ones own fears, and to learn from others. Day-dream often and live in a world with exaggerated imagination. When this chakra is balanced we feel clear, focused, and can determine between truth and illusion. We are open to receiving wisdom and insight. The lesson of this chakra is to see the big picture. 7th or Crown Chakra Located at the top of the head.

Physical imbalance include depression, inability to learn, sensitivity to light, sound, environment. Emotional imbalances include issues with self-knowledge and greater power. Imbalances arise from rigid thoughts on religion and spirituality, constant confusion, carry prejudices, analysis paralysis. Fear of alienation. When this chakra is balanced, we live in the present moment. We have an unshakeable trust in our inner guidance. The lesson of this chakra is live mindfully. After reading this, you (like me) may feel that more than one chakra is imbalanced or blocked. This is because when one is blocked, the other chakras begin to compensate and either become overactive or under-active.

Plants and Sacred Spaces Posted by Skye

Many witches include plants in their sacred space, often to mark the four elemental quarters. By choosing a plant with the appropriate elemental association and putting it in the corresponding quarter, you honor the Watchtowers (the elemental guardians of the four quarters that watch over the sacred space) and support the energy of the sacred space. The following list contains some common plants and their elemental associations: Earth (north): Alfalfa sprouts, beets, corn, fern, honeysuckle, magnolia, moss, peas, potatoes, turnips, vervain Air (east): Anise, clover, dandelions, goldenrod, lavender, lily of the valley, marjoram, mint, parsley, pine Fire (south): Basil, bay, cactus, chrysanthemum, daylilies, dill, garlic, holly, juniper, marigolds, onions, rosemary, sunflowers Water (west): Aster, blackberries, catnip, cucumbers, daffodils, gardenias, geranium, iris, lettuce, lotus, roses, water lily, willow Also consider the time of the year when selecting plants for your sacred space. Certain plants are linked with each zodiac sign.

Aries: Holly, snapdragon, cactus, jonquil Taurus: Daffodil, clover, lilac, columbine, daisy Gemini: Azalea, honeysuckle, lily of the valley, heather Cancer: Iris, jasmine, water lily, white rose, gardenia Leo: Red rose, poppy, marigold, sunflower, dahlia Virgo: Lavender, myrtle, aster, fern, heather, daylily Libra: Cosmos, gardenia, pink rose, violet, hibiscus Scorpio: Orchid, violet, eucalyptus, foxglove, pinks, wolfsbane Sagittarius: Paperwhite narcissus, Christmas cactus, red clover, dandelion Capricorn: Holly, carnation, mistletoe, pansy Aquarius: Carnation, wild rose, lady slipper Pisces: Lotus, passion flower, violet, narcissus, wisteria

You can align yourself with cosmic energies by including plants whose energies correspond to the sign in which the sun is positioned at any given month. Blessings, Skye

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Honeysuckle Evenings Posted by Skye

I live in the southeastern part of the United States. Here the daytime temperatures are already in the upper 80's and the humidity is over 60% almost every day. That in itself can be miserable but one positive thing is that late in the evening, just before sundown a wonderful thing happens. The wind settles and the high humidity causes the honeysuckle to be extremely fragrant. You can sit on my front porch in the rockers and smell the wonderful scent on the air. No perfume or spray room freshener can come close to the actual scents of Mother nature. Nothing is more relaxing than sitting with a cold refreshing beverage while you rock away the days tension while smelling the sweet smell and listening to the birds singing their evening songs. During the day it is not unusual to see hummingbirds visiting the honeysuckle vines. Butterflies and certain moths will visit the vines also. Birds such as the mockingbird likes to make their nest in the vines. These are all wild vines. They were here when we purchased the property 20 years ago. We just keep them in check with a little pruning a few times a year. I feel fortunate to be able to enjoy my little slice of paradise. If we will just stop and disconnect from technology every once in a while, Mother nature has lots and lots to show and teach us about. Blessings, Skye

Take a walk with me? Posted by Skye

Come with me this morning and we will take a walk through the yard and into my beloved forest. As we start off the temperature is in the 80's and party cloudy skies. There is a little breeze blowing and the humidity is pretty high. I do see off into the distance some thunderheads that means storms later today. I made a slideshow to share with you. Just click on the slideshow at the end to come along with me. As we enter the forest, we stop and listen to the birds beautiful song. Robins, Red Cardinals and Carolina Chickadee all sound so happy. We look up into the trees and we see my little fat squirrel buddy clambering around up in the canopy. The sun shinning through the trees makes for a beautiful pattern on the forest floor and when the breeze blows, you can just see the blue sky through the tree tops. Listen.......do you hear that? Way off in the distance......yes!.....its the call of a wild turkey. Sometimes you can get lucky and hear the gobbler answering her call. Oh, now we hear a tree frog hollering for rain. We continue on and stop to look at the wild roses still in bloom with their wonderful scent that the modern tea rose lacks. Just about another week and the wild roses will be over until next Spring. We have the pink, dark pink and white varieties here. Now.....take a deep breath.....smell that?......that is the faint smell of honeysuckle. Walking on we stop to look at the interesting bark of some of the trees. River Birch and Persimmon. Over there is a beautiful lichen moss growing. Oh do you hear that woodpecker? He is building a new nest for him and his mate. Now we top the hill and see the first glimpse of the pond. Oh my, how beautiful it looks with the sun shinning over the smooth as glass surface. The surface shimmers like a million diamonds! We walk over to the pond and sit down on a fallen tree. We close our eyes and just be. Clearing our minds we notice how clearer the bird calls sound as well as the wonderful smell of the forest. We take a deep breath and just meditate. Sometimes when I open my eyes after sitting awhile in meditation, I find a little gift the spirits have left. Might be a pretty stone, or a beautiful leaf or a perfect pinecone. I always treasure these gifts and bring them home to place in my special treasure box. It's time to start back home and back to reality. Thank you for walking with me today. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. Blessings, Skye

~ ~ A !~

Creations

Witch, Please... Posted by Mystical

Here are the things I dont care about:

I dont care what the name of your religion is. I dont care what the names of your gods are. I dont care how old your religion is. I dont care if your great-great-whatever grandmother passed down your famtrad Book of Shadows under the watchful eye of the Inquisition. I dont care if an entire civilization worshiped your Goddess for ten thousand years. I dont care if you made Her up based on manga or Tolkien or a dream you had. I dont care where you place your altar. I dont care which direction you call Earth. I dont care how psychic you are. I dont care if youre smarter than me. I dont care why you eat meat, or dont. I dont care how many shields you think you need. I dont care how your childhood trauma made you a powerful magickian. I dont care if you spell magic with a k. I dont care if you were an Atlantean Magus in your last life. I dont care if youre brand-spanking new. I dont care how much you hate Christians.

I dont care how many degrees you have. I dont care if people call you Lady or Lord. I dont care if youre King of all Londinium and wear a shiny hat. I dont care if you can read minds or light candles with your breath. I dont care how the world owes you a living. I dont care if youve been studying the Craft for thirty years or thirty minutes. I dont care what your totem animal is, especially if its a wolf, raven, or unicorn. I dont care if you can trace your lineage back to Gardner. I dont care if you think Im a moron, fraud, or basket case. I dont care how many books youve read. I dont care how much or how little money you have. What do I care about? I care that your religion has made you a kinder, more compassionate person. I care that you can hold down a job. I care that youre growing past whatever happened to you as a child or last year. I care that your gods help you become stronger without coddling you. I care that you are willing and able to adapt and change as your life does. I care that you care about the Earth. I care that you care about someone and something outside yourself. I care that you practice your religion with devotion and reverence. I care that you respect others paths. I care that you never stop learning.

I care that you can conduct adult relationships with respect and understanding. I care that you get how hilarious life is. I care that you know when to ask for help. I care that you realize that someone will always be smarter, more powerful, and more together than you. I care that you realize it doesnt matter, because tomorrow youll be smarter, more powerful, and more together than you were yesterday. I care that you have reasons for everything you do, even if those reasons are purely intuitive. I care that you can admit when youre wrong. I care that you know youre both a tiny speck in a vast universe and a rare, precious jewel in the darkened sky. I care that youre making a difference. I care that you know when to speak and when to shut the hell up. I care that you are seeking a relationship with Deity and with Nature. I care that you are healthy. I care that youre contributing to your family and community. I care that your capacity for love and joy increase with every passing year. I care that you believe in yourself. I care that youre doing the best you can.

Firefly Memory Posted by Skye

Here in the South where I live, there is a magical thing that happens every June. Starting at sunset and continuing through the night until daybreak for about 6 weeks, we have a little bug that comes out and their rear lights up. He is a harmless little creature. Don't bite or sting or any of that nasty stuff, but it is quite magical to watch them. The male bug is about 1 inch long and the female is about 3 inches long. There are several species all over the world, but I'll talk about the southern one we have. The female is flightless but the male flies all night long, blinking his little green butt light, looking for that "special" date all his own. I understand they mate and she lays her eggs just barely under the soil. They hatch during the summer and hibernate back under the ground during the winter, to start the life cycle over during the beginning of June. I have only seem a few females in my lifetime, but they too light up.

I remember as a kid getting a mason jar and catching the little bugs to watch them light up. One time when I was upset with my Dad for something, I caught somewhere around 50 or so and then unscrewed the top of the glass mayonnaise jar and left it sitting under their bed. Well, after dark the show began and my Mom was not amused. Since I am a only child, it was not difficult for her to figure out who had done the deed. Of course, leaving the jar behind was a pretty good clue. Now as a adult, and with all the CSI shows, I would have taken the jar with me. I guess you can say with age comes wisdom! My Son, who is now grown and has 3 kids of his own, used to love to catch the little bugs in a jar and place it on his nightstand. He would go to sleep watching the little bugs flashing their lights. I would go into his room after he feel asleep and get the jar and take it outside and return the little creatures to their destination, placing the jar back on his nightstand. The next morning he would jump up and look for his precious bugs. I would tell him that the sandman took them with him so that my Son could catch some more. His 2 girls are afraid of them and his youngest, which is a boy, isn't old enough to go bug hunting yet. Oh I guess another childhood memory gone to the wayside. I'll share this little poem with you written by Lilian Moore entitled, If you catch a firefly:

If you catch a firefly and keep it in a jar You may find that

you have lost A tiny star.

If you let it go then, back into the night,

You may see it once again Star bright.

Make New From Old Posted by Skye

If you are like me, you have candle stubs laying around and they still have plenty of wax left. Most of the time, jar candles will burn out their wicks long before theyre out of wax. But dont throw those yummy scented candles away Reuse them! Its really simple, so heres what you need and what you need to do to reuse your old candles. First.a word of caution. Be very careful. Hot wax will burn the skin on contact! This is not a craft project I recommend with or around small children (wait until they go to bed!). Only use pots and stirring utensils that you no longer use for food preparation. Reuse glass jars with care, some can crack if the candle wax is too hot. Fill all glass containers while sitting them in another container, they will become hot. Dispose of any cracked glass containers. Dont bump glass containers together while hot. Scared yet? Lol Keep reading, trust me. You Need: Old candles, of course Deep pot for melting candles Stirring utensils Candle wicks (find them at most craft stores!) Candle molds (you can also just reuse the jars from your jar candles) Wick anchors (also at most craft stores)

To Reuse Candles: 1. Pair like with like. Dont mix beeswax, soy or regular wax together. They each have different burn temps. Only mix beeswax with beeswax, soy with soy and etc. Also, if Im using spell candles I like to do a cleansing ritual on them before I recycle them. Also, be mine full of different scented candles. Some scents dont smell great mixed together! I like to mix likeminded colors together so I dont end up with a brown blob mess. White candle stubs will make darker colors lighter. 2. Melt the candles. Always melt the wax using a double boiler over water. Start melting jar candles still in the jar by placing the container, right side up, inside the top of your double boiler over low heat on the stove. Once jar candles are melted, pour out the wax in another container lined with Reynolds non-stick aluminum foil. Let cool and just peel the melted wax from the foil and break up. Non-jar candles can just be cut up directly into your double boiler.

3. Pull out the old wicks. Carefully pull out the old wicks and discard them. I have reused the little wick holder in the bottom. 4. Dip the new wicks. Get your new wicks ready to go in your molds by dipping them in the wax and getting a coating of dried wax on the wicks. Feed some of the wick through the hole in the center of the anchor. Keep the wicking longer than you need. You can cut it off later. Drip a small bit of wax into the glass jar. When the little blob sets, press the metal anchor into the wax pointy side down. Smash it so the metal points grasp the wick. Then, place your wicks in the center of your molds. 5. Pour your candles. Pour the wax carefully and a little at a time into your candle molds or jars. Make sure the wick is straight. Roll it around a pencil and set the pencil on the top edge of the glass to keep the wick straight. As the wax sets up, a depression will appear around the wick. Fill it in with the reserved wax. You will probably have to melt the reserve wax again. When the candle has set up, unroll the wick from around the pencil and trim to about 1/4 of an inch. If your candles are jar candles, youre done, but if youre using molds, youll obviously have to pop the candles out of the molds to use them. To remove waxy residue leftover inside the jar containers, I drop them in very hot, not boiling, water then remove with tongs. Let dry and reuse. (Alternative Step 5: If you like taper candles, you can make these, too. Youll need to make sure your melted wax is fairly deep. Then, simply take candle wicks that are longer than your desired taper candle length and dip them into the wax. Between dips, allow the wax to solidify. Continue dipping until your candles are the size you want them, trim your wicks, and light your candles!) Clean up - never pour excess melted wax down the drain. If you have enough left over, let it harden and save it for the next candle. Clean bowl by repeatedly filling it with boiling water. If you melt multiple candles in different colors or scents, you can even create layered jar candles, which make great gifts. Just melt each color separately and layer in your jar. You can also reuse white, unscented candles and make them more fun by adding coloring and scent to your candles. Most craft stores sell some candle coloring and scent additives, or you can use essential oils to add authentic scent to your homemade, reused candles. I know this seems like a lot, but they really are easy to make. Blessings, Skye

HAVE FUN AND PLAY! Posted by Kate

Playfulness, is what manifests love. Love is not

manifested through serious survivability, seriousness, stability. It's one form of love, but it's

not the love that we're discussing. Love, the essence of love, manifests itself through

playfulness.

BLESSINGS Posted by Kate

Always remember to forget The things that made you sad But never forget to remember The things that made you glad

Always remember to forget The friends that proved untrue But never forget to remember Those that have stuck by you Always remember to forget

The troubles that passed away But never forget to remember

The blessings that come each day.

Ojibwa Native Tradition Spirit of Universe

Posted by Cynthia G

According to Ojibwa Native tradition all things, both animate and inanimate have spirit energy. Universe is living spirit. The stars are Spirit Elders. The moon is Spirit Grandmother and the Earth is Spirit Mother. All upon the Mother is of the living spirit, the rocks, the soil, the plants, the animals as is the water and all that resides within it. The air and all that resides within it, too.. This was why in the old days when one had used what they needed from the land it was returned to the land from where all is born. An offering of tobacco and prayer in thanksgiving was offered to the Spirit who had provided for them. It was believed that all that was provided to the people should be returned to replenish the Earth Mother's living spirit. Then there is the moon cycle ceremony of Grandmother moon who comes to visit every month to cleans and prepare the girl child for womanhood or to cleans the mother to be in the sacred moon lodge. Father sun gives sustenance to Mother Earth and her children. The children of the grandfather stars from whence they came so shall they return. In the old days the people celebrated pot-loch twice per year, spring and fall. This is the ancient celebration that is basis of the modern day pow wow. A sacred celebration in thanksgiving to the sun god and the spirit mother for providing them with the abundant seasons of trading, hunting, fishing and harvesting that they have been blessed to have to sustain them through the long sleeping time. Today physicists have begun to become aware of the various frequencies of energies coming from everywhere, the Earth, plants, air and water as well as from Universe itself. If you can be at peace with yourself and become harmonious with the universal energies certain channels will open for you. This is where your awakening consciousness can be gained through harmony with the environment around you, with unwavering attention. The last requirement is *believing* in your ability to do so. You need to be in harmony with the Earth elements to manifest what you need or want. Do not forget that these energies do not discriminate negative from positive, that is left for you to make the right choice. You can place your request or prayer to the elements in the Native traditional way, by sprinkling sweet grass or tobacco offering on an open flame. The fragrant smoke lifts your prayer or petition up to the heavens to the Great Spirit. But then you still need to do the footwork involved to bring this magic into being in this reality. If you have gone this far you will know the right steps to take. You will be led. Cynthia

SOLAR MYTHS, TREE SPIRITS, AND TOTEMS

Posted by Whispr

This document was written by William Ridgeway and originally published in The Dramas and Dramatic Dances of Non-European Races. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1915. pp. 11-19. For more than half a century three theories have exercised a potent influence on many sides of Classical and Anthropological studies--the Sun myth of Kuhn and Max Mller, the Tree worship of Mannhardt, and the Totemism of J.F. McLennan. As the authors of the latest theories of the origin of Tragedy have laid them all under contribution, it will be necessary at this stage to make some remarks upon them. The first of these theories were the product of the German Comparative philologists, who in the first glow of that new study believed that they had in it a most powerful instrument for historical investigation. But its founders started with a fundamental misapprehension of human nature by assuming that the primitive Aryans had a language consisting of abstract verbal roots, such as AK, "to be sharp," from which all sorts of nouns, such as equus, "the swift one," and the like, were derived. They thus assumed that the primitive Aryans could do perfectly what few most cultured people of to-day can only do imperfectly--think in abstracts. Yet they might have remembered that so far from verbal roots being antecedent to nouns even in Sanskrit and Greek there are whole classes of denominative verbs, i.e. verbs derived from nouns, and that living languages are daily recruiting their verbal system by new formations from previously existing nouns, thus demonstrating that the names for objects come first, and that verbs and verbal roots are derived from them. There must be a Captain Boycott before there can be a verb "to boycott."

This fundamental error of the philologists was due to the fact that they looked at things

from the a priori standpoint begotten of Metaphysics, and though they were always

talking loudly of Science and Scientific method, in practice they resolutely turned their

backs upon it and took that easy primrose path of guesswork still trodden by their

votaries. It is not surprising, therefore, that when this school began to investigate

primitive religion they contemptuously flung aside the traditions and beliefs of the

Hindus, Greeks, Latins, and all other people respecting the origin of most of their own

gods--that they were human beings deified after death--and they boldly denied that

these gods and humans had ever been human personalities,

and maintained that they were mere personifications of the phenomena of Nature and their changing processes. Thus not only were Apollo and Heracles, but also Agamemnon, king of men, Menelaus, Achilles, Odysseus, and all the other stately worthies of the heroic age of Greece, regarded as mere phases of the Sun myth, just as their successors in the school of a priori speculation now regard the same heroes as mere manifestations of abstract Vegetation spirits. Yet any one conversant with Greek literature and the history of Greek thought might have realized that it is only at a late stage of development that even the Greeks were capable of generalization. Aristotle has well emphasized this when he records as a great step the enunciation by Xenophanes of the Unity of the Universe. Again, it is certain that whilst in the latter part of the fifth century before Christ, a few philosophers at Athens, such as Socrates and his school, were discussing the One in the Many--the Universal and the particular, the great mass of the Athenians had exactly that attitude towards Nature and its phases as that set before us by Aristophanes in his Clouds in the person of Strepsiades, the elderly Athenian gentleman, with his simple theological beliefs and his crude and very concrete ideas respecting the causes of rain and other physical phenomena. The late Dr. R.F. Littledale dealt a crushing blow to the Sun myth theory when he proved that Professor Max Mller on his own principles was only a Solar myth, whilst the late Sir Alfred Lyall delivered a still stronger attack on the same theory and its assumption that tribal gods and heroes, such as those of Homer, were mere reflections of the Sun myth by proving that the gods of certain Rajput clans at this present hour were really warriors who founded the clans not many centuries ago, and were the ancestors of the present chieftains. Many examples of the same kind, not only from India, but from Burma, China, and Japan, will be presented in the course of our inquiry. The theory, however, was not killed, but only scotched, for there is an inexpugnable love of what is false and fantastic deep down in the hearts of the great majority. It would therefore have been strange if this moribund theory had not sought a fresh lease of life by obtruding itself into fields hitherto immune, and accordingly in the last few years it has again reared its head in alliance with Mannhardt's Tree spirit, that other darling of the Folk-lorists, and also the manifold speculations that have sprung out of Totemism.

I may at once state that whilst Sir James Frazer holds that Vegetation spirits and the phenomena embraced under the term "Totemism" are primary and absolutely independent of the belief in the existence of the soul of man after death of the body, the present writer has strongly maintained elsewhere [1] that Vegetation spirits and Totemic beliefs are merely secondary phenomena, all depending on the primary belief of mankind in the continued existence of the soul after the death of its carnal covering. It is with extreme reluctance and with genuine sorrow that I have found myself compelled to differ on this fundamental question from one of my oldest and best friends. It is sufficient at this stage to point out that the main object of this investigation is to test by means of the Inductive method the truth or falsity of our respective theories, for if my view should turn out to be right, it will follow at once that my theory of the origin of Tragedy is also true.

Sir James Frazer takes as his starting-point [2] the little lake of Nemi, near Africa in Alban hills, on the northern shore of which stood the grove and sanctuary of Diana Nemorensis (who, however, was not the oldest personage here venerated). In this precinct there grew a tree in charge of a grim figure armed with a sword and ever on his guard against surprise. [3] He was both a priest and a murderer, and in his turn would meet a violent end. The priest who slew the slayer And shall himself be slain. From that tree no branch might be broken save by a runaway slave, who, if he could, might do so, and thus be entitled to challenge the priest to mortal combat. If he slew him, he reigned in his stead with the title of King of the Wood (Rex Nemorensis). There was a legend that this barbaric custom was Scythian [4], since Orestes after slaying Thoas, the Tauric king, had brought hither the image of the Tauric Diana, to whom in her old home every hapless stranger was sacrificed. In one of his freaks Caligula hired a stalwart ruffian to kill the holder of this grim priesthood, and it is known that the succession continued at least into the time of the Antonines. The Dianeum itself has been excavated in modern times, and proved by the relics to be of great antiquity. Two other beings shared the holy spot. One was the hero Virbius, identified with the Greek Hippolytus, killed by his horses on the shore of the Saronic Gulf. To please his patroness Diana (so went the story), Aesculapius brought him back to life, but Zeus was so wroth with the bold leach that he condemned him to Hades, whilst Diana surreptitiously bore her favourite to this sequestered spot. The other was the nymph Egeria, whose name is that of a great local family, one of whom, Manius Egerius, first set up the cult of Diana in what may have been his own family sanctuary. From him sprang a long and distinguished line. Hence the proverb, "There are many Manii at Aricia." The connection of this family with the sacred grove may not be without some importance for our investigation.

The branch which the candidate for the ghastly priesthood had to pluck was said to be

that golden bough which Aeneas under the monition of Sibyl had culled to be his

passport to the abode of the dead, but it is important to note that there is no proof that

the candidate was restricted to any one bough. Sir James Frazer [5] holds that this

golden bough, which Virgil likens to the mistletoe that grows on the oak, was the

mistletoe itself "seen through the haze of poetry or popular superstition," and thinks

that he has shown grounds for believing that the priest of the Arician grove, the King of

the Wood, personified the tree on which grew the Golden Bough. "Hence if that tree

was the oak, the King of the Wood must have been the personification of the oak tree

spirit. It is therefore easy to understand (writes he) that before he could be slain it was

necessary to break the golden bough.

As an oak spirit his life or death was in the mistletoe on the oak, and so long as the mistletoe remained intact, he, like Balder, could not die. To slay him, therefore, it was necessary to break the mistletoe and probably, as in the case of Balder, to throw it at him, and to complete the parallel it is only necessary to suppose that the King of the Wood was formerly burned, dead or alive, at the midsummer fire festival annually celebrated at the Arician grove. The perpetual fire which burned in this grove, like the perpetual fire under the oak at Romove, was probably fed with the sacred oak wood, and thus it would be in a fire of oak that the King of the Wood formerly met his end. At a later time, as I have suggested, his annual tenure of office was lengthened or shortened, as the case might be, by the rule which allowed him to live so long as he could prove his divine right by the strong hand. But he only escaped the fire to fall by the sword. The rite was probably an essential feature of the ancient worship of the oak." According to Sir J. Frazer, Virbius was a tree spirit and must have been the spirit of the oak on which grew the golden bough, for tradition said he was the first of the Kings of the Wood, whilst he holds Balder to have been an oak spirit. "It is at least highly significant (he continues) that amongst both the Greeks and Italians the oak should have been the tree of the supreme god, and that at his most ancient shrines both in Greece and Italy this supreme god should have been actually represented by an oak, and that so soon as the barbarous Aryans of Northern Europe appeared in the light of history they should be found amid all diversities of language, character, and country, nevertheless at one in worshipping the oak and extracting their sacred fire from its wood. The highest place (he holds) in the Aryan pantheon must certainly be assigned to the oak." He concludes that "Down to the Roman Empire and the beginning of our era the primitive worship of the Aryans was maintained in its original form in the sacred grove of Nemi as in the oak woods of Gaul, of Prussia, and of Scandinavia, and that the King of the Wood lived and died as an incarnation of the supreme Aryan god, whose life was in the mistletoe or Golden Bough."

The reader will observe that these conclusions are largely built upon "supposes" and

"suggestions," whilst at least one of his fundamental propositions--that in his most

ancient shrines both in Greece and Italy the oak was the tree of the supreme god--is

contradicted by the well-attested facts that at Olympia, the chief seat of Pan-Hellenic

Zeus, the sacred tree of that god was not the oak, but the wild olive, and that in the

sacrifices to Zeus and also to Pelops "the wood of the white poplar was used and no

other." [6] Moreover, this belief, so prevalent among folk-lorists, that the oak was the

only or chief sacred tree amongst European peoples is at variance with another well-

known fact. In ancient Ireland, although St. Patrick is said to have had a sharp

controversy with a Druid who lived uner an oak, yet of the five famous sacred trees

mentioned in the Book of Leinster, which fell or were destroyed in the seventh century

of our era [7], only one was an oak [8], the others being a yew, and three ashes. The

reason why certain trees and other objects were held sacred may be found in beliefs

still common in Ireland itself. Any day in St. Joseph's cemetery, Cork,

people of both sexes may be seen passing to the solid stone tomb of Father Mathew, the apostle of temperance; some of them are rubbing off the dust from the tomb, and applying it to rheumatic parts of their body or taking it internally. In lonely country churchyards people may likewise be seen taking earth from the grave of some pious priest, sometimes even eating it on the spot. The reason is that the spirit of anima of Father Mathew and other holy persons permeates not only the clay, but the massive tombs under which lie their mortal remains. The Greeks held exactly the same belief, as is clear from the following story. Not far from Libethra, on Mount Olympus, was the tomb of Orpheus. One day a shepherd lay down upon the grave about noon and went to sleep. But as he slept he was moved to sing verses of Orpheus' in a strong sweet voice. So the herdsmen and ploughmen in the neighborhood left every man his work and hastened to listen to the song of the sleeping shepherd, and with their jostling to get near the shepherd, they overturned the pillar and the urn that was on it. Whether this story is true or not matters not for my purpose, but it demonstrates that the Greeks believed that the anima of the dead was in his grave and could enter into one who lay upon it. [9] But what holds true of graves of earth and stone, holds no less true for trees.

In parts of Ireland no one will use for firewood, even in places and seasons when fuel is very scarce, a tree which has grown in a churchyard. I know of a case where such a tree lay untouched for seventeen years. Again, in another part of Ireland there stood by the roadside at a dark and dangerous corner an ash tree on which were cut a rude cross and heart, and at the food of which lay a small heap of stones continually added to by fresh pebbles cast on it by wayfarers. The reason was that one dark night a miller named Ryan had upset his heavily laden cart and was himself crushed against the tree. Hence it had become, if not sacred, at least sacer. If it can be shown that in other parts of the world trees have been and are still held sacred because they grew or grow on or near the remains of a dead man, or because some one has been done to death upon or near them, we may arrive at a very different solution from that of Sir James Frazer and his school respecting the strange rite at Nemi. But ancient Greece and Rome again come to our aid. Every one knows the story in Virgil's Aeneid in which he relates how Aeneas and his followers landed on the coast of Thrace and proceeded to kindle a fire; how to their horror the bushes plucked from a mound oozed with blood; how the hero himself on going near found that it was the barrow of young Polydorus, Priam's youngest son, murdered by the Thracian king Polymnestor, and how the lad's ghost spoke to him from out a tree. Again, when Hyrnetho, the daughter of Temenus, king of Argos, and wife of Diphontes, died, her husband took up her dead body and brought it to the spot which was afterwards called Hyrnethium, and they made a shrine for her and bestowed honours upon her. In particular a rule was made that of the olives and all the trees that grew there no man might take home with him broken boughs or use them for any purpose whatever, but they leave the branches where they lie because they are sacred to Hyrnetho. [10]

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Again, in the front of the king's palace at Benin [11] stood awful juju trees on and near which human sacrifices were continually made. These were not to strengthen the spirit of a supreme god who dwelt in the trees, but they were to appease the spirits of the king's ancestors who lay buried there, and who had to be propitiated with constant draughts of human blood. Let us now return to Nemi and the golden bough, which Aeneas plucked to protect him as he fared to the abode of souls, a legend which seems to point to some connection between the sacred oak and the dead. Moreover, the oak had the right of sanctuary, for the runaway slave who succeeded in grasping a branch of it could not be summarily dispatched, but might challenge the priest to mortal combat. Elsewhere the present writer has shown [12] that in Greece as well as in other countries sanctuaries and asylums arose, and still arise, round graves from fear of the anger of the mighty dead within. If the suppliant can reach the tomb or sacred spot wherein the soul of the dead hero or dead chief is supposed to dwell, he remains in safety until he be tried or otherwise disposed of. Now as such sanctuaries, e.g. that at Taenarum in Laconia, were largely resorted to by runaway slaves, and as each claimant for the Nemi kingship was such a fugitive, there seems a prima facie case for inquiring whether this oak was regarded as the residence, not of the supreme god of the Aryans, but of some disembodied human soul. Now as in this grove there was worshipped a personage who bore the name of Egeria, that of the great local family who had there set up the cult of Diana, may not this oak have been held sacred and have had human blood shed beneath it from time to time, because it grew on or near the graves of the Egerii, and was thus thought to be the abode of some departed spirit of that house?

In our investigations, which of course will be mainly concerned with Tragedy, we shall be obliged to test Sir James Frazer's hypothesis here given and also his doctrine of Totemism, because the latest theory of the origin of Tragedy is based on his doctrine that Vegetation spirits and Totem animals are primary phenomena and stand rigidly apart from any belief in the existence of souls after the death of the body. A further fundamental principle of his Vegetation spirit doctrine is the assumption that Dionysus, Demeter, Osiris, Adonis, and Attis and such-like personages had never been human individuals, but always Vine, Corn, and other Vegetation abstractions. Finally Sir James Frazer makes dramatic performance arise in the dramatization of the

seasons by primitive men. "The spectacle of the great changes," writes he, [13] "which

annually pass over the face of the earth, has powerfully impressed the minds of men in

all ages, and stirred them to meditate on causes of changes so vast and wonderful. Their

curiosity has not been purely disinterested, for even the savage cannot fail to see

perfectly how intimately his own life is bound up with the life of nature, and how the

same processes which freeze the stream, and strip the earth of vegetation, menace him

with extinction. At a certain stage of development men seem to have imagined that the

means of averting the threatened calamity were in their own hands, and they could

help or hasten or retard the flight of the seasons by magic art. Accordingly they

performed ceremonies and recited spells to make the rain fall, the sun to shine,

animals to multiply, and the fruits of the earth to grow. In the course of time the slow advance of knowledge, which has dispelled many cherished illusions, convinced at least the more thoughtful portion of mankind that the alternation of summer and winter, of spring and autumn, were not merely the result of their own magical rites, but that some deeper cause, some mightier power, was at work behind the shifting scenes of nature. They now pictured to themselves the growth and decay of vegetation, the birth and death of living creatures as effects of the waxing or waning strength of divine beings, of gods and goddesses, who were born and died, who married and begot children, on the pattern of human life. "Thus the old magical theory of the seasons was displaced, or rather supplemented, by a religious theory. For although men now attributed the annual cycle of change primarily to corresponding changes in their deities, they still thought that by performing certain magical rites, they could aid the god who was the principle of life in his struggle with the opposing principle of death. They imagined that they could recruit his failing energies and even raise him from the dead. The ceremonies which they observed for this purpose were in substance a dramatic representation of the natural processes which they wished to facilitate; for it is a familiar tenet of magic that you can produce any desired effect by merely imitating it. And as they now explained the fluctuations of growth and decay, of reproduction and dissolution, by the marriage, the death and the rebirth or revival of the gods, their religious or rather magical dramas turn in great measure on these themes. They set forth the fruitful union of the powers of fertility, the sad death of at least one of the divine partners, and his joyful resurrection. Thus a religious theory was blended with a magical practice." On these assumptions, Miss Harrison, Mr. F.M. Cornford, and Professor G.G. Murray have based the latest theory of the origin of Tragedy. It may at once be said that Sir James Frazer has not been able to make good his propositions, that magic is a stage prior to religion, that men began to dramatize natural phenomena, and to set forth the fruitful union of the powers of fertility, and the sad death of at lease one of the partners and his joyful resurrection before they had long been dramatizing human life, for in the course of this investigation it will be shown that religion is as early as magic and that the dramatizations of such as those just cited only make their appearance at a relatively late period, and long after dramas based on human life and its sorrows have been in vogue for generations.

CARING FOR YOUR BODY Posted by Kate

"The Angels urge you to care for your physical body. You are asked to eat healthful foods, to exercise regularly, and to avoid toxins." Your Angels are asking you to pay attention to your physical body, after all, you are here to have a physical experience. Perhaps you resist this guidance, and the Angels have repeatedly come to you about this topic. They remind you that the body is an instrument that, when well tuned, emanates greater harmony. Your spirit is like the music of a grand piano, and the Angels ask you to maintain that piano. Your Angels know that if you follow this guidance, you will feel better. Your increased energy and happiness is your reward for following the Angels suggestions. They will help you find the time and motivation to exercise. The will also help you lose your cravings for unhealthful substances. And, the Angels will help you enjoy the new found pleasures that come from purifying and maintaining your physical body.

Assembling an Herbal First Aid Kit Posted by Whispr

I've always been fascinated by first aid kits. As a child I loved going to sporting goods stores where I would run to the camping department and would (clandestinely) open the first aid kits. I was always amazed at what was inside, and what wasn't inside. Always, the kits had Band-Aids, surgical tape, bandages, and an ointment. Some kits had a razor blade and suction cup for snake bite (I never met anyone who had used this). Some kits had aspirin. First aid seemed to mean cuts and scrapes and possible snake bite. I'm still fascinated by first aid kits, but have changed my question from "what's inside?" to "what do I need to be prepared?" Things I needed to be prepared for have included: * Cuts and scrapes * Burns * Bug bites * Contact rashes * Upset stomach * Diarrhea * Muscle aches * Bleeding and Bruises * Poison Ivy and Poison Oak rash * Sore throat, colds, upper respiratory problems * (So far, no snake bites) A great first aid kit, would handle more than just cuts and scrapes. Ideally, I would not include any chemical preparations. The medicines would be all-natural, potent and effective. I would include the following: 1. Antimicrobial healing salve. A comfrey based salve, including herbs such as plantain, St. John's wort, calendula and echinacea, will soothe, accelerate healing, and disinfect. Essential oils such as lavender and rosemary strengthen the effects. Use for any breaks in the skin and for burns. (Do not use initially on puncture wounds, use an antiseptic such as echinacea tincture instead) 2. Insect repellant. Essential oils (lavender, citronella, eucalyptus, cedarwood, lemon grass, pennyroyal) suspended in a base of water and alcohol, are pleasant smelling to humans and noxious to bugs. The combinations work better than the single oils. Make your own or use the all-natural commercial preparations.

Note that eating sugar and sweets increases your attractiveness to many insects! (Caution: Although pennyroyal essential oil is widely used for insect repellants, I recommend against this use. It can be toxic even in moderate doses and is specifically contraindicated for so many people - especially pregnant women. It is powerful and can effect people and pets in the vicinity of the user.) 3. Muscle aches and pains liniment for external use: Arnica, witch hazel and St. John's Wort tinctures in combination and essential oils of camphor, eucalyptus, rosemary and clove bud are all excellent. Note that some people are sensitive to arnica: STOP if adverse symptoms result. Do not use arnica on broken skin. 4. Poison Ivy and Poison Oak liniment for external use. Jewelweed (impatiens) specifically neutralizes the Rhus toxin and works well. Use fresh or tinctured, but jewelweed can be hard to find. Other remedies include grindelia, combined with echinacea, calendula and white oak bark. 5. Echinacea tincture. Don't leave home without it. Internal and external antibiotic, provides temporary boost to the immune system. Good in case a cold threatens. Antidotes poison. 6. Ginger capsules. Great remedy for tummy upsets, including motion sickness, morning sickness and gas. Helpful for menstrual cramps. Alternatives: fennel and peppermint. 7. Bentonite clay or charcoal tablets, for diarrhea. These are to assist with detoxification, in case of poisoning. (Of charcoal, take 4 every hour, of bentonite clay, take 1 teaspoon in water, 3-4 times per day). Drink a lot of water. Helpful herbs include blackberry root or leaf (root is preferred for its greater astringency: simmer root for 20-40 minutes or steep leaf for tea for 10-30 minutes). Similarly, use wild strawberry root or leaf. Raspberry leaf provides a very mild remedy for diarrhea. Slippery elm tea also provides a fine remedy (but is still an endangered plant!). Blackberry and strawberry root and leaf also will reduce internal hemorrhaging. Cooked white rice works wonders at reducing diarrhea. 8. Meadowsweet tincture or aspirin. Fast acting, anti-inflammatory, pain-killers. Willow bark tea works well. 9. Thyme essential oil. A "must bring" for camping. Two drops in 4 ounces of water for mouthwash for toothache or sore throat. Same recipe used externally for crabs, lice, and all external parasites. Two drops placed in recently boiled water, inhale the steam for cold, flu, or bronchitis. 10. Rescue Remedy or Five Flower Formula. Outstanding emotional support for all trauma. Very safe. Don't leave home without it.

11. Cayenne capsules. Proven styptic. Open and apply externally to stop bleeding. (Yes, it does burn, but it works). It will also warm cold feet, sprinkled inside your boots. Alternative styptics: comfrey and yarrow. Comfrey is perhaps the finest internal anti-hemorrhage we have and is great externally as well, but it recently has come under FDA criticism (read some good herbal texts and decide for yourself. Me, I think it's a great herb). 12. Bug bite and itch relief. Witch hazel, plantain, grindelia, comfrey and St. John's Wort all provide relief from insect bites and general itching. Tinctured combinations of these seem to work best and are applied directly to the skin. Juice from the plantain is mildly effective and it grows throughout this region (just crumple the leaves and rub onto the skin). Lavender essential oil may be applied directly to the skin and works well. It enhances any tincture combination. 13. Relief from bruises. I think of these as wounds where the skin is unbroken, often accompanied by discoloration. Useful herbs, typically applied topically in tincture form, include Tienchi ginseng, hyssop, myrrh gum, prickly ash bark, cayenne, calendula, comfrey and arnica. Make your own, use the all-natural commercial preparations, or obtain a "dit dat jao" from a Chinese herbalist. Helichrysum italicum essential oil, applied neat, works very well and is non-irritating. Application of the tincture combination, jao, or essential oil immediately following the bruise may prevent the bruise from forming. Do not use these remedies on the eyes or mucous membranes and wash thoroughly after use. 14. The hardware: Band Aids, Bandages, 1/2 inch surgical tape, small scissors, single edged razor blade, tweezers, cold pack (cools on impact), ace bandage, bandana. Eye cup (or shot glass). Carry case (soft sided, waterproof) for the kit. So go ahead, assemble a kit for yourself, your friends, or your family. They make great gifts. Remember, these are suggestions only and are based upon the assumption that any first aid kit will have space and weight limitations. There are other choices for all of the categories given. If you are sensitive to any of the suggested remedies, don't use them. Read, listen to your body, and educate yourself. Use common sense and seek additional assistance when necessary. (Oh yes, the echinacea is helpful when it comes to snakebite.)

THINGS I HAVE LEARNT Posted by Kate

People who want to share their religious views with you almost never want you to share yours. You should not confuse your career with your life. No matter what happens, somebody will find a way to take it too seriously. When trouble arises and things look bad, there is always one individual who perceives a solution and is willing to take command. Very often, that individual is crazy. Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance. Never lick a steak knife. Take out the fortune before you eat the cookie. The most powerful force in the universe is gossip. You will never find anybody who can give you a clear and compelling reason why we observe daylight savings time. You should never say anything to a woman that even remotely suggests that you think she's pregnant unless you can see an actual baby emerging from her at that moment. "The one thing that unites all human beings, regardless of age, gender, religion, economic status or ethnic background, is that, deep down inside, we all believe that we are above average drivers. The main accomplishment of almost all organized protests is to annoy people who are not in them. A person who is nice to you, but rude to the waiter, is not a nice person. Your friends love you anyway. And the thought for the day: never be afraid to try something new. Remember that amateurs built the ark. Professionals built the Titanic. Author unknown

POSITIVE ENERGY Posted by Kate

"Surround yourself with positive people and situations, and avoid negativity." Your manifestation work is going wonderfully well. You're encouraged to take the process to an even higher level by going on a 'negativity diet'. This means avoiding negative influences as much as possible. Avoid negative discussions with yourself or others. Turn off television and radio programs with negative themes, and stay away from violent movies. Don't read pessimistic headlines and steer clear of gossip-based magazines. This negativity diet slow down the manifestation of your dreams - or prevent them from coming true at all. Affirm daily:" I am surrounded by positive, loving and peaceful energy and situations at all times." Another thing you can do is to apply Feng Shui, the ancient Chinese art of placement, to your physical environment, which will help enhance the positive energy in all of your surroundings. You're also asked to donate or sell items that are cluttering your home. This helps you bring in new energy and opportunity, and will also establish an environment that promotes creativity, health, and abundance. With love, the Angels

JOY IS A PIE WHICH TASTES EVEN BETTER...

Posted by Kate

when shared. Is that saying true do you think? That's not to say that one cannot be joyful when alone - certainly not. I love spending time alone and finding joy in nature, life and the world around me. But think about it for a second, when someone tells you a joke that you find really funny, do you keep that joke to yourself or do you really enjoy telling it to others and seeing them enjoy it too? It's like most things in life, we can really enjoy experiences alone, but we also get a real buzz from sharing them with other people. When my clients come to see me, I really enjoy hearing about how they've moved forward, or dissolved a fear, or faced a challenge. It's great to see the joy on their faces reflecting my own. You can see that they feel good having shared their experience with someone else. Someone who appreciates them and shares in that joy. So whilst they may also feel more validated and good about life, they also feel good about putting a smile on somebody else's face. Now the thing to be careful about, of course, is that you don't become so obsessed with sharing your joyful experiences with others that they don't get a chance to share their own! Remember, joy is a pie better shared and that means allowing others to have their piece of it too! The other thing to remember as well is that sometimes, sharing something joyful that's happening to us, can really help to lift someone else who may not be having such a good time. Sharing your happiness (and the vibration of joy) can be just the right catalyst to help someone else lift themself up and begin to move forward again. Have a joyful week, month, year, (and life!), and don't forget to share your joy with others without fear of seeming bigheaded. Remember to listen and share in others' joy too as their experience could be the happy potatoes to go with your fun pie. The more joy and happiness there is in the world, the nicer place it is to be for us all to live in. Let's raise the joy vibration just a bit more! By Alun Jones

THE WOODEN BOWL Posted by Kate

I guarantee you will remember the tale of the Wooden Bowl tomorrow, a week from now, a month from now, a year from now. A frail old man went to live with his son, daughter-in-law, and four-year - old grandson. The old man's hands trembled, his eyesight was blurred, and his step faltered. The family ate together at the table. But the elderly grandfather's shaky hands and failing sight made eating difficult. Peas rolled off his spoon onto the floor. When he grasped the glass, milk spilled on the tablecloth. The son and daughter-in-law became irritated with the mess. 'We must do something about father,' said the son. 'I've had enough of his spilled milk, noisy eating, and food on the floor.' So the husband and wife set a small table in the corner. There, Grandfather ate alone while the rest of the family enjoyed dinner. Since Grandfather had broken a dish or two, his food was served in a wooden bowl. When the family glanced in Grandfather's direction, sometimes he had a tear in his eye as he sat alone. Still, the only words the couple had for him were sharp admonitions when he dropped a fork or spilled food. The four-year-old watched it all in silence. One evening before supper, the father noticed his son playing with wood scraps on the floor. He asked the child sweetly, 'What are you making?' Just as sweetly, the boy responded, 'Oh, I am making a little bowl for you and Mama to eat your food in when I grow up. ' The four-year-old smiled and went back to work.

The words so struck the parents so that they were speechless. Then tears started to stream down their cheeks. Though no word was spoken, both knew what must be done.

That evening the husband took Grandfather's hand and gently led him back to the family table. For the remainder of his days he ate every meal with the family. And for some reason, neither husband nor wife seemed to care any longer when a fork was dropped, milk spilled, or the tablecloth soiled. On a positive note, I've learned that, no matter what happens, how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow. I've learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he/she handles four things: a rainy day, the elderly, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights. I've learned that, regardless of your relationship with your parents, you'll miss them when they're gone from your life. I've learned that making a 'living' is not the same thing as making a 'life..' I've learned that life sometimes gives you a second chance. I've learned that you shouldn't go through life with a catcher's mitt on both hands. You need to be able to throw something back I've learned that if you pursue happiness, it will elude you But, if you focus on your family, your friends, the needs of others, your work and doing the very best you can, happiness will find you I've learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart, I usually make the right decision. I've learned that even when I have pains, I don't have to be one. I've learned that every day, you should reach out and touch someone. People love that human touch -- holding hands, a warm hug, or just a friendly pat on the back. I've learned that I still have a lot to learn.

FREEDOM Posted by Kate

"The Angels guide you to freely express your true thoughts and feelings with love." You may feel trapped right now by life conditions. The Angels ask you to realize that you are the only jail keeper that ever surfaces in your own life. Whenever you realize that you have the power to be free, freedom follows. Everything that you do in your life is by choice, and you are free to choose again. Even prisoners are free to choose their thoughts so that they feel peace and happiness under any conditions. The next time you begin a sentence with the words. "I have to ______________." Please stop. Ask the Angels to show you some alternatives. They will either help you complete the task from a loving mind-set so that you don't feel trapped, or they will guide you to do something else that you will love.

BEDSIDE PRAYERS Posted by Kate

"It is better to light candles

than to curse the darkness.

It is better to plant seeds

than to accuse the earth.

The world needs all of our power

and love and energy,

and each of us has something that we can give.

The trick is to find it and use it,

to find it and give it away.

So there will always be more.

We can be lights for each other,

and through each other's illumination

we will see the way.

Each of us is a seed,

a silent promise,

and it is always spring."

- Merle Shain

UNLIMITED BEINGS Posted by Kate

That there are more things in Heaven and Earth than are dreamt of, Horatio, is absolutely so, and yet those words don't begin to say enough. You would have to dream much bigger than you presently do in order to begin to glimpse the Truth. You are on the ride of a lifetime, and you don't even know it. You think you are plunked on Earth, and that's it. Yes, you are plunked on Earth, and you also visit in Heaven, and there is nowhere you have not been, even "places" that you do not know exist. The whole known universe and unknown universes exist plumb in the center of you. You, who may often lack energy, are a powerhouse of energy. You are powerful and unlimited. When I say you are an unlimited Being, I mean you are an unlimited Being. You experience otherwise only because you have honored limits and taken them as gospel. You portray and believe in yourself as a limited Being, and therefore you live as a limited Being. If you really let yourself out of the prison of false belief, you would know the Truth about you. As it is now, you fear that, if you believed that anything and everything were possible, you might be considered off your rocker, even by yourself. You stop yourself too quickly. You discount yourself, and you discount others, and you discount your own ideas. "That will never work," you tell yourself, and so you never find out. There are many untold stories in your life that have not been completed. You may have discarded them. I am requesting that you open yourself to new and greater possibilities. Even if you open yourself a little, you will have opened yourself a lot. Let the light in, beloveds. It has been said that Rome was not built in a day. That is not so. Rome was built in an instant. It was built when the thought of Rome was first thought. Rome was built in the mind of man. What have you not dared to think about? Don't think I'm saying that it is easy to be out of the limits of time and space while you are on Earth. You have been locked in, and it's not so easy to get out. Yet that does not mean you can't step out of limitations, for, of course, you can.

You are not truly indentured to time and space. What other limits are there anyway? Whenever you say that something can't be done, you are looking at a small framed picture. Within the limits of the framed picture, there is no further you can go. But frames are a contrivance to keep your eyes fixed in one place and not further. There is a greater horizon beyond the frames of the world. I am speaking of you as a freewheeling being and the unlimitedness of yourself. When I say anything is possible, I do not suggest that you intrude on anyone else's life and have them fulfill your desires. No, not at all. Others' lives belong to them. You are not to exert your desires onto others. You are not to turn others into what you may prefer them to be. Let others follow their will, and you respect their will. Follow your own will in respect to you. If a loved one of yours wants to be unhappy, then you must allow them even that freedom. Hands off other people! Within the realm of your own life, you have many untapped resources. If you want to be happy, you can be happy. If you want to create beauty, you can create beauty. If you want to invent something for the good of mankind, you can invent it. If you want to move somewhere, you can move somewhere. If you want to stay where you are, you can stay where you are. You are a freewheeling unlimited child of Mine. You are even capable of creating limits...

Create Your Own Ritual Posted by Whispr

One thing that has been lost in many modern religious traditions is the powerful experience of the personal ritual. It is one thing to know a religious or spiritual truth; it can be another to actually experience the that truth in a deep and meaningful way. Ritual is perhaps the oldest and most successful way of bridging this gap. Too often today when the importance of ritual is recognized, it is seen with a sort of superstitious awe - as something far removed from the average person and available only through the meditation of professionals. While the sense of tradition and community that can be invoked with these formal rituals should not be discounted, should be the personal ritual. To design a ritual for yourself, first start with a goal - healing yourself, the Earth, celebrating and event or achievement, seeking strength for the present or the future, improving your relationship with the Divine, removing yourself (temporarily) from the hustle and bustle of life, deepening your own spiritual understanding - any of these or a thousand of others is fine. Decide what form of deity you want/need to invoke. What do you need from Her/Him/It/Them ? - healing? strength? support? a chance to experience them? to explore them? to exult before them in your moment of achievement or seek solace in your moment of despair. Then, consider the physical space you will use. This can be anything from your desk to your room to a park or a mountain retreat, depending on your ritual, your needs, and their availability to you. If at all possible, designate a sacred space for ritual. This can be as simple as envisioning a protected circle around you as you sit at your desk or closing the door of a room or as elaborate as a circle physically inscribed on the Earth or in the Air with candles or incense. The space need not be permanent - it only need last as long as the ritual itself - but make a point of designating the space sacred with you begin and releasing it back to the world when you are through.

What will assist you in your invocation? Words are powerful, and will work alone - extemporaneous prayer, recited poetry or prose - but consider trying some more physical ritual elements in addition to (or replacement) the words. If you have little experience with these, you may feel silly when you first start. Don't. Remember that there is a good reason that these aids have been used by many different cultures for thousands of years - they work. They can be an invaluable in removing you from the world of your everyday life and involving you directly in the ritual. There have been many types of ritual items that have been used over the millenia - incense, flowers, stones, food, drink, clothing - when possible, always look for connections that are meaningful to you. There are many different reference works on symbols that list the associations that various cultures have made with colours, scents, and shapes over the centuries. If these work for you, fine - but don't be afraid to designate your own meanings or to change them as appropriate. The important thing is what meaning does it have for you? I have mention some of the more popular items here. But remember these are only starters. It is vitally important to add your own items and make your own combinations. Ritual is not a matter of reading "light 3 sticks of sandalwood incense and 1 blue candle" and following the instructions. The real power of ritual comes from what you bring to it. Be on the lookout for possibilities that will have specific meaning for you. If you notice a particular stone, one that seems to "speak" to you in some way or that serves as a reminder or symbol of something for you, pick it up. Use it in ritual - hold it in your hand as you pray or rest your incense on it. If you are looking for strength and courage in a new business venture, try placing a business card on the altar as you pray. if you are trying to remove emotion, influence or person from your life, try writing the name or worn on a slip of paper, concentrating all your feelings, entanglements, worries, and temptations on it, then burning it and watching the connection to you float away on the smoke. So take some time to design and carry out a ritual, no matter how short or 'trivial'. Have some fun with it if you like, ritual need not be serious to be meaningful. And ritual need only to be meaningful to be effective.

TOTALLY UNIQUE THOUGHTS Posted by Kate

The baby steps in the beginning of a journey, (your name), always seem inadequate compared to the brilliance of the dream that inspired them. This is natural. If the dream wasn't so far "out there" and dazzling, it wouldn't be

worth dreaming! Just don't be led to think that the physical ground you cover with your baby steps is all that they accomplish. Because for every mortal step you take, another cog in a giant wheel behind the curtains of

time and space advances, and with it, 10,000 new possibilities.

Better than Star Trek, The Universe

Thoughts become things... choose the good ones!

THE UNICORN Posted by Jacqueline Essex

When the night draws near at the end of the day Weary children climb stairs to go into their beds

They lay down sleepy heads without having a fear riding into sweet dreams that draw softly near

Their heads rest on pillows so fluffy and soft

Snuggling beneath covers, their thoughts drift aloft Safe in the knowledge that in a stable faraway There is a milk white steed preparing his way

He lifts his head and shakes his soft downy wings And takes to the clouds with the greatest of speed For he knows that below there are many that need

His power to dispel all evils from their nightly sleep

From their beds the children give the gentlest of smiles And in the merest of whispers they say just one word

Neither mother nor father can hear this soft sound But to the ears of the steed flying high like a bird

comes this quietest of sounds of just one word The Unicorn!!!!

By jacquei essex 23 May 2009

Power of the mind. Posted by Eternity

Part one It has been proven we only use a portion of our brain, can you imagine being able to access other areas of your brain, could you concieve that? Well such things we witness most often...just some are not aware, an example: Have you ever experanced a dream so real it stayed in your mind? It may be a day then again it may be five years down the road and this dream you have had you find happening around you..or another example: say you have a friend,partner,ect... to whom you are very close to and you have things happen such as you mean to say something to them but before you can they answer you or begin to speak about the subject themselves. Linked on the same wave level but not all can do this it requires access to a different portion of the brain to do so. To have the abillity to focus energy on something it is like placing a code inside a string of energy the code being as such a spell or a suggestion in order to change happenings or the opinions of others, (magic) maybe then again maybe not... another example of power of the mind: A woman and her children are in a car accident say, one of the children are traped, the mother panics and without thinking or debating whether or not she can she moves the heavy car in order to save the child. This has happened, The will of wanting to move the car was stronger than the need to doubt that it was possible. something I wittnessed was my own mother I was seven years old, mother woke in a panic saying something is wrong with the baby, we ran to check on my eleven month old sister, she was laying inside her baby bed looking at a fist sized spider inches from her face. Now could it be possible that the baby without knowing or understanding how to just made her mother aware something just isnt right here? (Mothers Intuition) a psychic power In order to acheive these powers in normal surcumstances one has to free their mind of all doubt, balance ones chaos and sirenity the balance is the key, meditation and ritituals can help acheive this. How? well meditation can bring a person to balance through focusing on one certain thought or object. Ritituals use chants and tools aswell as symbols as a means of placing focus and ones energy on needed areas in order to acheive the set forth goal. To be able to access the minds power one must first know that they in fact can, all doubt must to be sat aside a level of balance must be acheived , once at balance ones mind is open to the possibilities, Much like steel benders these people use the power of their minds they have an understanding that the mind is infact stronger than the steel thus giving them the strength to bend it. The abillities your mind has are so simply obtained, you however must be willing to accept this fact though.

During my research one person described his mind as being made up of many doors along a dark area, this is true in a sense the mind has many levels to it that is only the surface what lies beyond the doors and the darkness are deeper areas. Lets take a moment to separate these areas to give a better understanding of how it works. 1. The surface of your mind (Consciousness) This is the level of ones self awareness it contains things such as dicission making, sensations, emotions, states of an individuality. 2. The level just beyond, (Subconcious) This area is made up of things existing in the mind but not immediately available to consciousness ones subliminal self. 3. The next level the (Unconscious) This is the source of both creativity and distructiveness, where what influences ones mind forms a system of beliefs, in turn developing the strengths and weakness of the subconscious. Now to go deeper into oneself the Spirit/Soul/Eternal Conscious, I believe it to have the same three levels aswell as others, I believe we it holds memories aswell as knowledge of our past lives and so on. Such areas have been accessed through hypnosis some claim to have memories of past lives durring dreams, I personaly believe this is possible. In my opinion I would say this is where ones inner power comes from the very base of knowledge one posesses so to speak the greater the knowledge the stronger the power of the mind, everytime we obtain and understand knowledge a step has been taken (Mental Evolvement) from there we thrive to obtain more of an understanding of all that we know hence giving us the desire to obtain more knowledge and expand our minds. I think all the levels of the mind are linked and all that we learn are stored in them in some way or form.

CHOOSING A NEW RESPONSE Posted by Kate

Common Fears Everyone has fearsit is a natural part of being human. Fear can protect us from harm by sending a rush of adrenaline to help us physically deal with potential danger. But there are times when fear may keep us from participating fully in life. Once we realize that fear is a state of mind, we can choose to face our fears, change our minds, and create the life we want to live. Our minds are powerful tools to be used by our higher selves; like computers, storing and using data to make certain connections between thought and response. We have the ability to observe these and choose differently. No matter where the fear came from, we can create new connections by choosing new thoughts. When our souls and minds are in alignment, we create a new experience of reality. This journey requires many small steps, as well as patience and courage through the process. Heres an example: You decide to overcome your fear of driving on the freeway. Your plan of action starts with examining your thoughts and finding a new way of seeing the situation. When youre ready, you enlist a calm companion to support you as you take the first step of merging into the slow lane and using the first exit. Your heart may be racing, but your confidence will be boosted by the accomplishment. Repeat this until you are comfortable, with or without help, and then drive one exit furth! er. When you are ready, you can try driving in the middle lane, for longer periods each time, until you find yourself going where you want to go. This gradual process is similar for conquering any fear, but if you find it overwhelming, you can always seek the help of a professional. You may think that you are the only one with a particular fear, that nobody else could possibly be scared of ordinary things such as water, heights, public speaking, or flying. These types of fears are very common, and you can have great success overcoming them. Remember, it is not the absence of the fear but the courage to take action anyway that determines success. When we learn to face our fears, we learn to observe our thoughts and feelings but not be ruled by them. Instead we choose how to shape the lives we want.

Check out Mystical's Themes in her group she has added so many different kinds and she adds the CSS code to each one and the

Instructions on how to do it with screen shots step by step..

basicly copy n paste her codes save and done.. Unless you want to manipulate some boxes around she can help you with that.. I

usually share her themes as they come out but is so many figure is best just to explain a little about the themes and they are made by

Mystical.

Heres the link to her group and the link on how to add the CSS is there also so you can see how easy it actually is..

Mystical's Themes group

http://enchantedforrest.ning.com/group/mystical-s-themes

INVITING YOUR FRIENDS

To invite your friends to the Enchanted Forest go to the INVITE TAB at the top of the page.

You can INVITE all your friends from either your hotmail,

gmail or yahoo account by simply entering your email address and password from your messenger account then

click IMPORT ADDRESS BOOK

this will list all your messenger account contacts select all the contacts you wish to INVITE then select SEND.

To INVITE your friends by EMAIL simply select enter

EMAIL AD