I always said George Dumb-ya Bush was a fascist. And now Simple Sarah is following in his footsteps by making up words since apparently she doesn’t know how to use the other 250,000 real words in the English language. As for the right-wing nut jobs in the so-called t e a p a r t y (the spaces were added as to not give those ass hats any more search engine exposure), take a look at this site.

Sarah-the-bard Palin, you may want to ‘refudiate’ this post.

Sarah, did you even go to college? And if you did, who did your homework for you? Let me guess, Jorge Dumb-ya Bush did.

I am writing to urge you to take action on renewing federal unemployment benefit extensions. Congress must immediately and pass HR 5618 that extends the deadline for eligibility for Emergency Unemployment Compensation programs and the full federal funding of Extended Benefits through November of this year.

For too long, unemployed workers and their families have suffered the anxiety and stress that comes with all the stop-gap extensions that Congress has been passing, and given the still high rates of unemployment in this country (9.5 nationwide and 10.0 in Georgia), and the 5.3 million people who are receiving federal benefits, especially the 2.5 million who have seen their benefits end because of Congress’ inaction and uncaring. It didn’t seem that Congress was singing the deficit blues when it voted to bail out big business and give billions so that these same companies could turn around and reward the same executives who mismanaged these companies to the point of being too big to fail. Well sir, the American people who need this aid are too big to fail and won’t be using that money for Lear jets and executive bonuses—they’ll be using it to house, feed, and clothe their families. In short, they’ll be using that money to survive until the economy improves. I didn’t hear anyone in Congress making “my grandchildren’s grandchildren’s granchildren” speeches when you were loading up the cash trough to feed your corporate sponsors. The unemployed are not lazy, drug abusers as some in Congress insinuate, but rather your constituents that need your help.

Since the record shows that you voted against the EUC extensions, don’t think that the 982,291 Georgia state residents (that’s the number of people unemployed in your state based on the latest unemployment statistics provided by the Georgia Department of Labor) you in effect told don’t matter to you will forget or forgive that fact. However, with your help, the unemployment compensation programs that need to continue at least through the end of November can be reinstated. And I’m sure then that you would then garner the gratitude of these 982,291 unemployed registered voters. Additionally, even though HR5618 doesn’t address additional tiers of EUC, that is something that Congress should address in the immediate future.

It’s critical that the Congress approve these measures immediately to prevent further interruptions in these important programs. Please act now and make sure that millions nationwide and nearly a million people in your state alone do not face continuing joblessness coupled with an end to benefits that have kept them afloat so far.

Q. How much do classes cost?
A. There is no cost for classes.

Q. Where do I attend classes?
A. We hold both in-person classes (we’re located in Warner Robins, GA) and online classes.

Q. Do I need any books?
A. Both the online and in person classes we use the following books:

The Real Witches Craft by Kate West,
The Inner Temple of Witchcraft by Christopher Penzak,
Buckland’s Complete Book of Witchcraft by Raymond Buckland,
Wicca: the Complete Craft by DJ Conway.

The book list varies by year to year and depends on the degree program. It’s not necessary buy any of the books. I rarely give
reading assignments. While I base my lectures on the above listed books, lecture content is not exclusively from said sources.

Q. How do the online classes work? You just email me a lesson and then maybe I get to hear from an instructor once in a while–
right?
A. No, teachers and students interact just as though they were in a classroom. The online classes use Skype. Skype is a program which
allows student and teacher to converse and to see each other over the internet. To use Skype, you’ll have to download the client
program from http://Skype.com.

Q. When are classes held?
A. The in person classes are held Saturdays at 2:00 PM Eastern Time.

Q. What time are the online classes held?
Online classes are held Sundays at 3:00 PM Eastern Time.

Q. What else can you tell me about the classes?
A. Class duration is usually one to one and a half hours long. The class format is a mixture of lectures based on reading material, and
our own experience coupled with teachings specific to the Dark Moon Tradition, and student participation. Additionally, we try to be
as hands-on as possible when it comes to things like herbalism, divination, and other ‘crafty’ types of activities. Additionally as part
of their training, our second-degree students will from time to time teach a class. One of the students will also be assigned to
mentor you. Not to say you won’t be able to email or call me with questions should you want to do so.

Q. How do I get setup for the online classes?
A. After you’ve downloaded and installed Skype, you’ll also have to register an account with http://skype.com. The software and
registration is free. Once you have your account set up, execute the Skype program and sign in—via the program not the web—and
send a request to add CircleOfTheDarkMoon as a contact. When we receive your request, we’ll add you as a contact and add you to
our class group and then on Sundays at 3:00 PM ET, we’ll initiate the call. So what you need to do on Sunday is load Skype, log in
via the program, and wait for a call from CIRCLEOFTHEDARKMOON and then answer it. After that things work pretty much the same
as any other conference call except we’ll be using computers, web cams, microphones, and earphones or speakers.  computers,
web cams, microphones, and earphones or speakers.

Q. Do I need any special hardware to participate in the online classes?
A. Even if you don’t have a web cam, you can still use Skype with just speakers and microphones or a headphone/microphone combo set.

However, we recommend getting a cheap headphone/microphone combination set available at Best Buy or similar stores for around
$40. The reason for that is with headphones, we don’t have the problem of feedback from the PC speakers.

Q. Does it cost anything to use Skype?
A. No, don’t worry about buying Skype credit or any of the other crap they want to sell you. The part of Skype we’re using is a free
service.

Q. How do I set up Skype?
A. You will need to tell Skype what type of microphone/webcam/speakers you’re using. You do that via the options tab on Skype. The
Skype website has fairly good instructions for setting up your hardware. If you’re having real difficulties, contact us and we’ll assist
you.

Q. Anything else?
A. Be sure to register with this forum. The Wytcheboard page is part of the Circle of the Dark Moon web site, and such is where we put
upload class handouts and where you can ask questions of all the members.

Q. What if I want to attend in person classes?
A. Contact us for registration for in person classes.

Tags: Circle of the Dark Moon Coven & School of Wicca, Free Wicca Classes, Magick, Magick Classes, Wicca Classes, witchcraft, Wytchecraft, Wytchecraft Classes

Last Saturday morning, members of our coven, the Circle of the Dark Moon participated in the Hands Across
the Sands event for restoration, and repair of the Gulf of Mexico ecosystems, and to stand united against further offshore drilling and support of the outdated business models that declare oil must be the basis for the world economy. The only thing necessary about oil is the need for greed by oil company execs and the avarice of congressmen and senators who take oil lobbyist monies.

Saturday morning everyone arrived 30 minutes early for a guided group meditation on building healing energy focused in a thought-form for the Gulf ecological systems. We chose as an avatar for the thought-form a manatee, which we named, Morgen.

At the appointed time everyone arose, formed a line along the lake shore, and recited the incantation which sent Morgen on his way to in our small way try to help the damaged gulf. The spell is listed below this paragraph.

All across this land, hands stretch across the sand.

Our minds reach across time and space,

to harness and focus that energy in this place.

I summon a thought-form made of water,

Your name is Morgen: a healer/nurturer.

You are bound to my will until told further.

Go to the Gulf of Mexico at this time,

waters covered in BP’s oily slime,

to sustain yourself, feed upon the oily rime.

Search out all the wildlife that is injured.

Whether it be reptile, beast, fish, or bird,

Release your energies to heal their hurts.

After the rite, we held a round table discussion beside the banks on how each of us can live lightly.

Additionally, each of us earlier had made a promise to contact our congressional representatives, and senators demanding that clean/renewable energy be a top legislative priority. Furthermore, we demanded that US stop coddling BP and make them pay for their negligence and greed. We also required that the government force the release of other technology the oil companies have been sitting on which would greatly increase the efficiency of the internal combustion engine.

Afterward, all of us met at a nearby restaurant for lunch and further discussion.

It always amazes me that when you call a spammer on the carpet for wasting your server bandwidth, wasting your time, and just being a waste of air in general,  often you’ll get an indignant email back accusing you of being rude and hurting their feelings.

Obviously these poor souls need some love. So, to help them to get the attention they need, and to soothe their bruised feelings which I so callously trampled, I’m going to start posting their email addresses here so that every spam bot and spider on the web can collect their email addresses thus ensuring that they’ll soon have an inbox overflowing with good thoughts, warm feelings, and offers for all the Canadian Viagra they can use.

Please write these people, they desperately want to hear from you.

ASLetts@ameriplan.net

Tags: spam, spammers

Some of you, my infrequent readers, may have noticed that the header graphic for Scrivener’s Scribblings no longer bleeds into the post content area. Took hours to find the bug and minutes to fix the correct CSS class entries.

This small victory came after an early morning interview behind 12 other people for a meter reader job with the MWA.

My unemployment is almost gone; my wife’s unemployment is gone; and I’m about ready to stand beside the road with a cardboard sign that says, “Will Write Hexes for Tips“. All this while the fucking repug-nicans continue to filibuster any new EUC extension payments. But none of those bastards miss picking up their $3300 weekly paycheck for taking lobbyist bribes, and helping big business screw over the working man.

They (the senate) wail, wring their hands,  and gnash their teeth about the deficit. But the deficit didn’t matter when they were giving money to AI, and ilk for million-dollar executive bonuses. Oh wait those weren’t bonuses they were  ‘retention incentives‘. Yeah right. It’s only fitting that the very people who mismanaged the company to point where it was going to fail (so fucking what if AIG went down the tubes–too big to fail my ass), should be rewarded.

I would encourage all of you in similar straits to reach out personally to your representatives and their families and let them know in a very direct way just how you feel. But you better hurry, the senate is about to adjourn for another two-week vacation over the Fourth of July holiday.

And why shouldn’t they? It’s been a whole two weeks since the senate’s  last vacation.

Hooray!

The Circle of the Dark Moon website is back up. Actually it’s been back up for a while I just haven’t had a chance to post the news.

The damn website is down again—sorry for the inconvenience. I am so sick of fighting with MySQL and my POS laptop server but perhaps soon we’ll have a permanent solution. Or maybe I should put whine out on the witches’ meetup board. That’s what C did for her little shop of farces, “oh help l’il ol’ me; the laptop I had isn’t mine to use anymore and can’t all you good-hearted Wiccans come together and give me the equipment I want?”

Guess she’s running low on funds from her small business loan.

Recently I received this letter from a seeker.

Hello,

My name is Gabrielle, and I was just browsing around for Wiccan web sites and found yours. Although I’m not sure that I could believe in Wicca, (I’m an atheist), I am extremely fascinated by your religion. I was hoping to get some tips on how to learn more about your lifestyle etc. I wish that I was able to believe in something so beautiful as Wicca, but it unfortunately isn’t for me I guess. Anything that you can tell me would be great. I have been trying to find some tarot cards that I like because I love the idea of them, and I’ve been searching bookstores for books about witches and haven’t found anything that would jump out at me…of course, I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing.

Â
 

Thank you for reading this, and for your time,

PS: I would say “Blessed Be” but I’m so ignorant to everything that I have no idea if it would be an insult to tell you this when I’m not Wiccan. Like I said…I have NO idea.

 

My reply was as follows this text

Merry Meet Gabrielle:

I usually reply to emails sooner, but two weeks ago my parents were visiting and stayed for about a week, and the following  week I had dental surgery and didn’t feel much like doing anything including chewing.

It’s always nice to hear from seekers such as yourself. Yes, I know you said you’re an atheist, but even atheists want to know the truth about existence and that’s all a seeker is—someone trying to find their true path. Truth is truth no matter whether you ascribe it to a God-form or quantum mechanics.

Faith is another matter. You either believe in something or you don’t and no amount of evangelizing by me or someone else can change your mind if deep down you cannot reconcile the proffered beliefs with your own worldview. However, even a quantum physicist must make a leap of faith; for many of the exotic particles they study cannot be observed directly but rather only as an after effect of a quantum event. Take for instance the subatomic tachyon particle. Nobody has ever seen one or caught one in a Petri dish, but the existence of these particles fill gaps in relativistic equations thus making Einstein’s special theory of relativity work. It was as though the scientists said, “gee, it would be nice to have a particle that travelled faster than light to make these equations come out right.” So the physicist believes in tachyons not because he’s seen one or measure one but because he sees the effect the tachyon has on quantum mechanics. Similarly, astronomers for many years only knew or  ‘believed’ in the existence of black holes not because they could see them but by observing the black holes gravitational effects upon other astronomical bodies.

Thus it is with Goddess and God. Seldom do we feel their hand upon our shoulders, even rarer is the manifestation to the visible or audible. Although once (recently) I did have the Goddess throw a book at me, but that was just to get my attention. I’ve always said that I’m one of her slower students.  Like a whisper of cool silk passing against our skin or a sudden intuition or when reality bends to meet your will, that is the most likely way most of us experience the touch of the Divine upon our lives. When you feel the connectivity of things in the universe, you can’t help but  understand that when we are done with this mortal coil, that what happens to our spirit is something more than winking into nothingness or vacationing for eternity in the Summerland. That somehow our spirits are meant for more than that.

Don’t despair if you haven’t had such an epiphany. There are people far older than you that have  less of a clue. Even a belief in not believing in the gods or even a god is a belief and perhaps as valid a path as any. Only the person walking a path knows whether it’s the right way or not.

Okay, I think we covered faith as well as this space permits. You also asked for any information we could give you.

Our tradition, the Dark Moon Tradition, is based upon Gardnerian and Alexandrian teachings. Gardnerian and Alexandrian are two other traditions—just as Christianity is divided into different doctrines (e.g. Catholicism, Protestantism, etc.)—Wicca is similarly divided. What makes our tradition different from our Gardnerian and Alexandrian counterparts is we emphasize the use of witchcraft, chaos, and ceremonial magick in our practice. Contrary to popular belief, not all witches are Wiccans. Wicca is a spiritual path and witchcraft is merely a system of magick much like Kabala, or Ceremonial Magick.

Our own spirituality is nature-based. We strive to understand how everything is since to us the world is one large living organism. This belief within us is shamanistic. Most of us are rabid environmentalists for by saving the planet, we’re really saving ourselves. While for us Wicca is a way of life and not just a religion, we observe 8 holy days or Sabbats and 24 or more Esbats. Our Sabbats are:

• Samhain (our new year and your Halloween)
• Yule or the Winter Solstice (observed around Dec. 21 not on the 25^th like Christmas)
• Imbolg (Feb 2)
• Ostara or Spring Equinox (around March 21^st  similar to the Christian Easter)
• Beltane (May 1)
• Litha or Summer Solstice (Around June 21^st)
• Lughnasadh (August 1)
• Mabon or Fall Equinox (Around September 21)

We also observe Esbats which are lesser holy days such as the full and dark moon and the occasional blue moon.

Our way of life is initiatory and considered a mystery school where we attempt to learn and understand the miracles and mysteries which everyday life presents.

You also asked me to recommend some reading material. I’m going to list three books. While not an exhaustive study of Wicca, these books give a good basic understanding of the Wiccan way of life. The books are listed below this paragraph.

• A Witch Alone by Marian Green
• Buckland’s Complete Book of Witchcraft by Raymond Buckland
• The Ultimate Book of Shadows for the New Generation Solitary Witch by Silver Ravenwolf (I’m not SR’s biggest fan, but this book is particularly good for would be teenage Wiccans.

Hopefully, the above list will be enough to get you pointed in the right direction. And hopefully, I’ve been of some help also. If you have any more questions or just want someone to point you in the right direction, I’ll be glad to be of assistance and I promise that I’ll answer your next query in a more timely fashion.

Oh and by the way, it’s always okay to say, “Blessed Be” if that’s what’s in your heart. The Goddess recognizes intent and not whether you’re a card-carrying Wiccan or not.

 

Blessed Be and Merry Part,

 

Scrivener

      Â
 

               Â
 

 Â