Greetings to all Full Circle friends and members,
In this May edition of our newsletter we have:
The sap is rising!
Okay, I’m not talking gardening here. The Freesearch Dictionary defines “sap rising” as “a feeling of increased interest in and energy for romance and sex.”
Beltane is a’comin’, loud sing the cuckoo! This is the time for love and lust, a time for good sense to give way to even better sensuality. If after an exhausting day filled with Maypole dancing and other activities that undoubtedly help the plants grow you find yourself hankering for an nice, tasty aphrodisiacal dinner (yum!), try Millennium Restaurant, a vegetarian eatery with an amorous attitude. They offer a special five-course meal capped with a secret Chinese herbal love potion specifically designed to set your loins on fire!
Perhaps you’re past the random itch phase and planning to spend Beltane plighting a year-and-a-day troth to someone you’re more than merely smitten with. Take a look at Handfasting and Wedding Ritual: Inviting Hera's Blessing for helpful hints to make this special couples ritual truly memorable.
No matter how you spend it—rolling in the hay, or just baling it—Beltane is a time to notice the fertile energy all around us, the un-slakable desire that life has for itself, the deep yearning for growth and the rage for conception and creativity that course through all our veins. There are many ways to express it, but on Beltane we have license to enjoy a lust for life.
Sia’s Note: Our thanks go out To Snakemoon for her lovely evocation of this splendid holiday.
Some of us celebrate Beltane as May Day on the 1st, or use Beltane Old Style (May 5th) or Lunar Beltane. Whatever your spring festivals and rites may be, we wish you all the joy of the season.
We would also like to wish everyone a Happy Mother’s Day! For those of you who are interested, I’ve written an essay on Reclaiming Mother’s Day for our friends over at The Witches’ Voice. It has an extensive Book List at the end.
Blessings to you and yours this season,
Sia, Snakemoon & the Full Circle staff
Delicious, startling, lovely words: Yum. Words like gossamer (“Anything that is light, delicate, and flimsy …”) can be found at the Cool Words page which is filled (brio, talion) with the sort of words (cadre, hoary) that just beg to infiltrate your vocabulary. If you want more, try the Wikipedia; it was the recent subject of an article in the Christian Science monitor which attempts to explain the concept of a this free content encyclopedia. How about clever words? (That darling Dorothy Parker on reading material: “This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force.”) Try the Quotations page for more wit and wisdom.
Bookaholic: Can’t get enough of the printed page? Here are some recent offerings:
§ Perfect Madness: Motherhood in the Age of Anxiety looks at the demands placed on modern mothers. (Finally!)
§ Cakes and Ale for the Pagan Soul is a collection of essays from Jamie Wood (The Wicca Cookbook), Margot Adler (Drawing Down the Moon), Starhawk (The Spiral Dance), Raymond Buckland (Buckland's Complete Book of Witchcraft), and many others.
§ Wild and witty San Francisco Chronicle columnist John Carroll discovers Terry Pratchett. (If you have yet to discover this zany Brit, get thee to a bookstore! Good Omens is a nice place to start …)
Role Playing: Heliograph publishes role playing games, including Space: 1889 and the upcoming Zeppelin Age. Another variation on these are Mystery Games in which guests become suspects! (I hosted one of these parties, and it was incredibly fun!)
Movie News:
Sing Faster documents Wagner’s Ring from the viewpoint of the stagehands.
The sequel to Pirates of the Caribbean is offending locals over the issue of cannibalism.
A blogging we will go: Wildhunt offers an eclectic compendium of Pagan Blogs and online sites.
Still Walking? In January, the Full Circle Newsletter Staff encouraged you to get moving by joining the America on the Move program. This month we invite you to keep going and/or get started … If you’re looking to find other walkers to connect with, visit the Weekly Walker Web Site which provides a weekly guide to everything from hikes to waterfalls to dog walking groups in the San Francisco Bay Area and surrounding counties.
Or Trailing: Investigate the famed San Francisco Bay Trail which provides easily accessible recreational opportunities for outdoor enthusiasts (including hikers, joggers, bicyclists and skaters). Depending on the location of its segments, the Bay Trail consists of paved multi-use paths, dirt trails, bike lanes, sidewalks, or city streets signed as bike routes.
Crone? Who are you calling a crone? Urban shaman Donna Henes considers her role and role models for midlife in an interview in the Village Voice about her new book The Queen of My Self: Stepping into Sovereignty at Midlife. Henes discusses the topic in an essay for Soulful Living.
Jogging instead of Botox: An article from iVillage identifies ten aging behaviors and how to fight them.
Yogurt may be the new mouthwash: Japanese researchers found eating sugar free yogurt reduced levels of hydrogen sulphide - a major cause of bad breath - in 80% of volunteers.
Put an end to snoring: This potentially marriage saving website describes 12 approaches to snoring reduction—from throat sprays to surgery—and lists more than 75 remedies and procedures that cure snoring. It also provides a detailed questionnaire and information about dangerous conditions of which snoring is sometimes a symptom.
An ironic tale of starvation: While certain political groups promoted Terri Schiavo as a martyr for the pro-life movement, USA Today notes that we might use her life as a teaching tale about the dangers of unrecognized eating disorders.
§ Spring Pagan Garage Sale
§ Pagan Psychotherapist
Spring Pagan Garage Sale:
Saturday, May 21st from 10 am to 3 pm
The last one went so well; we're doing it again and with different stuff! This time we'll be joined this time by The Daughters of Divination who are taking a table.
Come shop for PAGAN GOODIES like: Books * CD's * Ritual Items * Jewelry * Costumes & Clothing * Knickknacks * Puzzles * Crafting Supplies * Incense & Candles * Tarot Cards & Texts * Sculpture * Art * & More!
Full Circle will again have a table and will use this as our Benefit Sale. Do you have something Wyrd and wonderful to donate? Then write to us at info@fullcircleevents.com. Paperback books are 50 cents each. Trade paperbacks and hardback books are 1/3 off the cover price. *** Directions & details are listed here. This sale benefits Full Circle & The Daughter’s of Divination.
Pagan Psychotherapist Practicing in Mountain View
Stacey O’Leary says, “I work collaboratively and actively to help clients resolve their issues and be more present and grounded. As well as drawing on several psychological orientations, I also focus on clients’ spiritual beliefs and the healing qualities of nature. Some of my interests include helping clients who are healing from abuse and trauma, grieving past losses, resolving sexual and gender identity issues, building relationships/community and increasing genuine communication. Because I know it is difficult to begin therapy and choose a therapist, I offer a complimentary consultation session so that you can come in to ask me questions and decide if our work together would be helpful for you.”
Stacy O’Leary, MFT
Phone: (650) 965-1336,
(Lic. #
MFC 40414)
Gosh, sometimes it seems that technology makes it possible to cram more and more into our same old 24-hour day!
Laundry Technology: Sure, technology beats the pounding-cloth-on-the-river-rock routine, but when you were hating the Laundromat quarter-gobblers and longing for your own washer and dryer, didn’t you assume that having your own would cost much less? Better check it out; because if you own an energy gobbler, it can eat more than quarters.
Cellular: Now update your knowledge on the technology that made quarters nigh obsolete—the cell phone. Calm that urban legend-fueled phone phobia with info from this study. Your real fear may be that the only way to stay connected is through that phone. (Is life so busy that the dial up is our only link?)
Music: If the link you crave is the soothing sounds of an iPod, make sure it conforms to the needs of Mother Earth.
Tech-Art: Some of us “tree huggers” may need to confront our inner technophobe at the Silicon Valley Art Museum. Technology really can be our friend, and it can help save treasured art as well, including Australian aboriginal art. Plus, a virtual revolution is taking place in art reproduction and preservation, with London’s National Gallery is leading the charge.
If that last segment didn’t get you all warm, fuzzy, and plugged in, maybe you crave magic with a heartbeat instead of a plug.
It’s Raining Kittens! Sia writes: It is kitten season, folks. According to Town Cats this means “female cats that are not spayed can deliver several litters each summer, so ‘Kitten Season’ explodes every year starting in late March and normally lasts into November, with just a few late arrivals in December. So when searching for that special new addition(s) to your household, adopt when there is an abundance of kittens waiting for homes!”
Groups like Town Cats, Pets in Need & The Humane Society all perform Kitten Rescue this time of year. According to a recent article in the San Jose Mercury News, “Last year, the Santa Clara Animal Shelter cared for more than 10,200 kittens and cats, with as many as 100 brought in on any given day … The shelter is looking for volunteers for its foster care program to care for kittens until they are old enough to be adopted … The program prepares volunteers by training them and providing them with cat food, cat litter, ongoing advice and veterinary care for their kittens.” Contact your local Humane Society or Rescue Group if you can be a Foster Mom or Dad. Local Shelters and Rescue Groups in your area also need donations of items like bedding, towels, kitten food, and funds. Contact one of these groups if you can help:
California Directory of Companion Animal Rescue Groups
Wildlife Rescue Centers in California – this is a list of contacts in California.
To find groups outside of California search under these keywords: “companion animal rescue” and/or “wildlife rescue” + your city. Sia writes:
As we speak, my partner and I are hosting two foster kittens for the Humane Society of Santa Clara. They are Wild Willie Wonka, a 5 week old short haired gray tabby with green eyes and a curious disposition and his larger brother Max (AKA Maximus The Destroyer), a black, gray and white fluffy bundle of energy with deep gray eyes. Both kittens are loving, playful, and fearless. These little guys will be available for adoption at the Santa Clara Humane Society starting on Friday, May13th (I know, I know. They are Witch Cats, after all). They are healthy and come fixed, with their first set of shots. Both would do well in a household with other cats or dogs. These kittens are now ready to serve as spoiled Familiars to a lucky home.
Why not do something really special this Beltane? Help a baby animal in need. Please send a donation or bring supplies to an animal group of your choice.
Pet World: Good people the world over love felines. (Heck, the states of Maryland and Maine have even lent their names to breeds …)
Cat lovers have long known that their pets suffer stress and now they have the research to prove it.
Dog lovers share stories and concerns at iDog.
As more pet owners take their “furbabies” along at every opportunity, knowing if the welcome mat is out is vital.
Is your pet multi-lingual? If it’s a rat, it just might be!
…and then there’s the popular parlor game, Cat Buckeroo, an activity that proves once and for all that some people have too much time on their hands!
Spring and Birds: Our feathered friends thrill us in the wild, now an English project will thrill them back: a new habitat reconstruction on a wetland there will make more than birds sing.
Endangered Pets: The problem of pets that make the endangered lists is addressed in an amnesty on gray parrots in Uganda that will include a breeding program to build wild stocks back up.
Red State, Blue State—Green State: Nature, with its beauty and its beasts, is bringing together some strange bedfellows in our politically polarized America, as folks all around the country find common ground to protect the environment.
Pagan Day: The 4th Annual Pagan Festival, formerly known as the Interfaith Pagan Pride Parade and Celebration, will be held on May 7th at the Berkeley Civic Center Park. This year’s theme: Weaving Traditions. There’ll be prizes for the Best Float and Best Costume!
Saved? Jon Carroll considers the Rapture Index: “This is a real thing prepared by serious people. If it makes you laugh, you have not gotten the memo.” His article will make you both laugh and cringe.
Lifestyles of the Witch and Famous: The Pagan Travel Network offers cruises throughout the year for holiday celebrations, education vacations, and opportunities to meet prominent members of the pagan community.
Axis of Logic: Bill Moyers Speaks on Journalism Under Fire "I believe democracy requires ‘a sacred contract’ between journalists and those who put their trust in us to tell them what we can about how the world really works." Thank you, Bill!
Call for Essays: The Witches Voice notes that “Abusers come in all sizes, shapes, colors, genders, and religions. Our communities are not immune from the predations of people who will harm others to fulfill their own needs and desires. The question we ask this season is: How should we handle cases of abuse—physical, sexual, emotional and spiritual—within our community?”
We have hundreds of events listed on our California Community Calendar.
Here is just a handful:
· An abundance of May Day, Rite of Spring, and Beltane celebrations, including one with Morris Dancers
· Le Bal du Moulin Rouge
· Mother’s Day Garden tour (and other garden tours)
· Flower Essence workshop
· Scottish Games, Celtic and Greek Festivals
· Workshop on Pagans and the Law
· BayCon Science Fiction and Fantasy Festival
· Orisha Worship Service
· Red Road Pow Wow
· The Pagan Garage Sale
New events are added every day. Click on the Full Circle California Community Calendar to access the list. If you want your event listed, please go to our calendar page and click on the link that says “Submit Event.” The on-line form is simple and very easy to use. Questions? Please contact our Networking Coordinator ScoutGhost at scoutghst@sbcglobal.net.
Finding Instruments of Change under Every Tree and Bush
The definition of magic is different for every Pagan, and the tools to work that magic come from a grab bag of practices both traditional (ceremony, invocation, trance, altar work, spells, music, movement) and personal. My definition of magic is one shared in our community—the act of changing consciousness at will—but I add an extra dash of flavor by defining consciousness as both “an alert cognitive state in which you are aware of yourself and your situation” (the sort of condition you surrender, slightly, when you go into trance) and “the state of being characterized by sensation, emotion, and thought (or, for want of a better word, your mind).” I often use magic to transition into other states of consciousness, but most of all, I use it to alter, modify, and otherwise tinker with my state of mind to sort through and discard beliefs that impede my growth, to shift paradigms, to change my slightly hazy lens of perception for one that renders a clearer view of life rather than more obscured one. In doing this, I hope to set up a ripple (me) of hope, humanity, and health that spreads beyond my own life.
Just as our handheld magical tools can have mundane origins (a beloved athame that had a former life as a paring knife, a bubble glass chalice once used to hold your grandmother’s button collection), our more ephemeral tools—our practices—sometimes have an interesting provenance outside the Pagan world. The Enneagram is just such a tool for me. Often assumed to be an analog to Astrology and occasionally confused with the Myers-Briggs personality profile, the Enneagram is a system of psychological development that provides deep understanding of our fears, desires, and motivations - all that unconscious stuff that lives in the trunk of the car, but nonetheless does most of the driving. There is wisdom stowed back there as well: a memory of the sweet, loving self untouched by life’s buffeting; a recognition of the heart’s true desire; an openness to others that we seldom feel, much less demonstrate. Heck, there are a lot of reasons for stopping the car and popping the trunk.
As a tool for both enlightenment (bringing illumination to the soul) and endarkenment (exploring the soul’s dark corners in search of hidden treasure), the Enneagram operates as a map for personal transformation— which is also one of the purposes of magic. (It’s not a coincidence that Tom Condon, one of my favorite Enneagram mentors, calls his organization The Changeworks. Working change, indeed.) Admittedly, it can also be easily subverted into a parlor game (“What’s your Type?”); a method of categorizing and dismissing people (“Oh, Sevens! They’re all flakes!”); a collection of psychological arcana (some writers definitely take this approach); or a mystic symbol from the ancients. In fact, this typography method originated with Oscar Ichazo in the 1960s (only ancient to my teenager!) and was brought to Esalen by Claudio Naranjo.
When I first encountered the teachings associated with this nine-pointed symbol, I focused on an endlessly fascinating subject: my Type (or Point), the Four. Descriptive names vary from teacher to teacher, but Fours are referred to as The Artist, the Romantic, the Individualist, and the Original Person. Later, I began to glean insights about other points, those of my family members, co-workers, and friends, boosting the development of what had always been an elusive quality for me: compassion. Just realizing that an assertive person roughly wielding power was employing a strategy formed in childhood to survive situations where she had no power—and suffered because of it—made it easier to see that child in the bossy person in front of me.
Well, great, you say. It’s a nifty tool, but how is it magic? Well, honey, as Maria Muldar once said, “It ain’t the meat, it’s the motion.” The point is not the tool, but what you do with it. Any practice you have has the potential to become a magical tool if you use it that way. As a Pagan, I merge what I know about ritual and ceremony with what I know about the nine types to create practices that help me maintain my equilibrium and sift my way through illusion to get at the truth.
One of my favorite practices is an Enneagram meditation in which I walk the shape the way other people walk the Labyrinth. I focus on a problem and start on my own point, allowing the full weight of my personal lens of perception to settle in front of me: how I see the situation, how I feel it, what’s in my way, where I experience support. I notice anger, sadness, loss, and resistance. Once I have the full Four experience, I move to another point, and try on that lens of perception: If I were a Two (or a Six, or a Seven), how would I see this situation? Once again, I immerse myself in the experience, but from an entirely different perspective, getting fresh insights and perceptions that are not available to me when I’m squinting through my own smudged spectacles. Around the points I go, invoking new layers of personality with all the benefits and liabilities of each. In the process, I peel back my personality’s fondly held, slightly erroneous, very limiting worldview. So simple, and like any good practice, so effective.
So I ask you: What fires your interest? What gives you insight? What precious activity can become a tool for transformation? Are you able to open yourself up to self-knowledge and compassion when you garden? Dance? Woodwork? Work the Spiral Steps? Sing arias? Read Rumi? Listen, people: Paganism is not just a collection of 20th century writings and occult gewgaws. As practitioners, we’re fortunate to participate in one of the few spiritual movements in which we can—and should—customize our practice in every way possible.
Every part of your life is your path, and everything that feeds or delights or moves you is a magical tool. Start looking for those handy instruments of change in the least likely places …
SnakeMoon
FCE Newsletter Staff:
SnakeMoon is the Editor-in-Chief of the Full Circle Newsletter. She can be reached for comment at snakemoon@comcast.net.
Sia is the Publisher of the Full Circle Newsletter and the Council Leader for Full Circle Events. She can be reached at info@fullcircleevents.org.
Arianna G. is our Copyeditor. Thank you, Arianna!
Once again we enjoyed the assistance of contributing writers Arianna G, Labrys, and Nualilith. Thank you all!
ScoutGhost is the Networking Coordinator for Full Circle Events. She can be reached at scoutghst@sbcglobal.net.