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Wednesday, August 25, 2004

FantaMagic

Last Sunday my friend Monique treated me to a Fantasy & Magic fair called FantaMagic. It was in a big hall. There were a lot of stalls with all kinds of things that interest me: pagan shops, Lord Of The Rings, Fantasy, SF (Star Trek), etc. I had a great time! There was so much interesting stuff to see and do. Monique had her aura photo taken. At the end of the day I bought a little key ring of Bast, not too expensive and I love it!
During the day there were several performances on the podium. The Dutch Neo-Celtic band Omnia played two times. I like their music very much. If you're ever able to see or hear them, you won't regret it. Irish Dance Group "Kilkenny On Tap" did two amazing shows. It would be great to learn how to do that. There are classes in Haarlem, not too far from here; who knows, perhaps I'll give it a go.

Friday, August 20, 2004

Yay!

The ritual seems to work already. My hopes are up! Nothing final yet, but things definitely start happening!
Ron had another very interesting and positive job interview this afternoon. The company's boss called him this morning. It is a job he'd really like and a nice challenge.
He got a second call for yet another interview on Monday. Not for a specific job, but at a mediation office. The mediator found Ron's CV on the internet and seems very interested.
So... fingers crossed again! The green candle is still burning.

Thursday, August 19, 2004

Job ritual

Last month Ron's boss went bankrupt due to a stupid action by the owner. It was quite a surprise and the news got even worse. He won't get much money from it. We haven't received any money since June and the reserves are going down fast... The bank is very understanding but still, the mortgage has to be paid. So he is looking very hard for a new job. No luck yet, but tonight at 8.30pm (CET) he has a very important job interview. I'm thinking about doing something while he is there. I'm looking in books, on websites, in my own archive. I still have trouble to write something from scratch, so I like to have something to begin with to make it my own eventually. Tips are welcome!

UPDATE
Well, I did it! I've kept it simple. A lot of green on the altar (cloth, candle, incense + burner, etc.) and on me. In the middle of the ritual I carved runes in the green candle and lit it. Then I wrote something down about Ron and the job, lit it with the candle and burned it in my cauldron to send it to the gods. Meanwhile I meditated on Ron and a new job, said some things aloud. I'm content. It felt good. Ron came home and told me he had a very positive feeling about this job interview. We'll see, I believe in a good outcome!

Tuesday, August 17, 2004

Museum of Witchcraft needs help

URGENT APPEAL ON BEHALF OF THE MUSEUM OF WITCHCRAFT

On 16th August 2004 the Museum of Witchcraft in Boscastle (Cornwall, UK), which holds one of the most significant Pagan and Witchcraft collections in the world, was seriously damaged by flash floods which have devastated Boscastle.
Graham King and all the Museum staff are safe. The building is still standing, but there is serious damage to the collection. We will not know the extent of this for a while yet.

The Museum is appealing for help from the Pagan community. They would like to assure all their friends and supporters that the Museum will be back.
The friends Of The Museum and the Pagan Federation Devon and Cornwall are co-ordinating the appeal for help. Two kinds of help are needed:

Donations
If you are able to send donations, please make them payable to: Pagan Federation Devon and Cornwall and send them to: PO Box 314, Exeter, EX4 6YR, UK. Please send cheques, postal orders or IMOs (not cash) and mark the envelope "Museum Of Witchcraft". All donations will be acknowledged (eventually!).

Practical help
All kinds of volunteer help will be needed to clean up, save the collection and re-build the Museum. This help will not be needed for a few days yet, but if you can help, please email your details to Crowman or Levannah . Someone will contact you when we know what is needed. We will also email updates as we get them.

Many thanks and Goddess Bless to everyone who has already been in touch to offer help and support. The Museum will not be beaten by this.

Please circulate this information as widely as you can.

Blessings of the Old Ones

Levannah Morgan and Adrian Bryn-Evans
(Friends of the Museum Of Witchcraft and Pagan Federation Devon and Cornwall)

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UPDATE Aug. 18:
Message received this morning:

"If you are passing stuff on: people can now make online or credit card donations if they wish (good for people in the US) on this website. This is the Children of Artemis site; they are working with us on this. Updates can be found here for the next few days. The museum site cannot be updated just now, due to the situation in Boscastle."

Monday, August 16, 2004

Witches of the Rose

I work solitary, but I like to have contact with other witches/pagans. I'm a member of some Dutch forums, e-mail lists and I read a lot on the WWW. Those forums organize meetings and I regularly visit the Heksencafé (Witches' Cafe) in Amsterdam and sometimes Utrecht.
On one of the forums someone asked if others wanted to meet somewhere in Amsterdam (Heksencafé didn't exist yet). As I live not that far from Amsterdam, I decided to give it a go. We met in De Roos, Centre for Creative and Spiritual Development next to the Vondelpark. We started of with 5 to 8 people (1 male), who met every few weeks. We just talked and drank tea in the sunroom. That went on for some months. Slowly only a few regulars remained. We had nice and interesting discussions.
Four of us wanted more than talking and tea so we formed our own little group. In honour of our first meeting point we decided to call ourselves "Witches of The Rose" (I use WotR for short). To keep in contact online we started a Yahoo Group. It's a closed group, but you can see a pic of the basket of roses we made for Midsummer weekend, which we celebrated with a mixture of other Pagan groups (a druid grove, a wicca coven and several others). The rituals felt great and the power was overwhelming. We had a great weekend! WotR started off almost a year ago. I won't post their names, but as we all chose an element I'll call them by theirs if I post (I am Water). We celebrated the esbats together. One of us (in turn) is the host for the meeting at her home and we mostly do self-written rituals. In the beginning a bit insecure and giggly, but the more we worked together the better it felt.
At our last gathering (Blue Moon) we talked and decided to change some things. Meeting every moon has become more difficult because of moves, work and study. So from now on we'll be a sabbath group. Our next ritual will be for Mabon. Up until now the host did most of the work in making a ritual. The others had their own input though. Next time we want to make the ritual more together, in our group chatroom and using the e-maillist. It's a challenge, but I like it! I'm doing some more research and meditation on Mabon to come up with my part.

Wednesday, August 04, 2004

WW: Summer





What do you like most about the summer season?
Certainly not the heat! I like nice weather, but too hot is not my cup of tea (for sure over here in The Netherlands with the high humidity). I like the summer season because it gives its own different touch to nature (as do all the seasons). People are happier, more joyful in summer.

How does weather affect your spirituality? Are you more active in the summer with pagan activities or less? Do you meditate outside or inside depending on weather?
I'm not more active on my own, and there aren't many get-togethers in summer also. If the weather allows it I love to meditate outside. If it's hot like today, I don't do anything, spiritual or other! ;-)

What's your favorite summer ritual? (Lughnasadh, Midsummer, whatever you celebrate)Midsummer / Litha is special because of the very short time of darkness that night. If I can I stay up all night and celebrate, preferably with others.