New pottery available

Last week, my wife completed some more pottery. This batch included several corked herb jars, as well as a half dozen mortar and pestles. All of these are available for purchase through her Etsy store--Celtic Soul Jewelry and Pottery. At the moment, she is only able to sell stuff to those living in the United States and Canada (someday, we hope to overcome the international shipping problems).

The first video here is two of the small corked herb jars that my wife makes. They are glazed with Oasis Blue and decorated with small jars.

The second video is of two Cobalt Blue Mortar and Pestles. They are food safe, as well as dishwasher safe. My wife has been making mortar and pestles for fifteen years. The mortar and pestles are very durable--I had one that was ten years old (before a certain cat decided to break it). She has several different glaze colors available.

My personal opinion is that a person should have three mortar and pestles: one for food safe herbs; one for poisons (anything that you are not sure about--non-cooking herbs); and one for resins (I prefer smooth bottomed mortars for resins, but have also used grooved for things as Temple Incense).

Truth in labeling

Australian highest court has upheld the law that says that cigarette companies can no longer display their logos on cigarette packages--all cigarette packages will be a drab olive color with great big government warning on it (I would put up a picture of what a cigarette pack will look like in Australia after the beginning of 2013--but it kinda grosses me out).

Now, imagine what would happen if all Golden Dawn Orders had to do this. There would be no struggle over trademarks...because trademarks would be useless. Instead of promotional copy that claimed that an Order was the best and/or the only Golden Dawn Order that was real and/or humane, one would see a giant warning that one should think twice about joining such a group in the first place.

One would end up having to decide what Golden Dawn Order to join based on things like:

Do you want to become more like the worst lunatic in the Order?
Is there a lodge of the Order located within reasonable travel distance of your house?
Are the fees reasonable?
Does their sense of humor actually make sense to you?
Do you think that you are safe in the same room as these people?

You know, common sense things--things that you ask about other social organizations and gathering places. And these questions would be spurred on by the warning labels that an Order would have to put up in the first place.

Here is probably the one that I would use:

I think that it is relatively truthful.

But there are others. Here is the one that one of my critics would love to see everyone use...provided that they did not have to use it.

Sorry, if I am a troll, so are you. I imagine that a warning such as the following would also meet with their disfavor.

Of course, just printing these warnings on our websites and literature would not be enourgh. These warnings need to be on ALL of our materials and tools. For instance, we could print warnings on the Tarot cards and call it truth in advertising.

Of course, let's be honest. No one really needs these warnings, do they? Just like I do not need to see gross pictures on cigarette packages. But hey, some people think that you need to be warned away from Golden Dawn, especially the bad Orders (you all know who they are--all the GD groups other than the one you are in), so let's start doing it. The sooner we can keep people out of the Golden Dawn Orders, the sooner that they can join some reasonable and completely safe group...like the Scientologists.

And the website troubles continue

So I tempted today to fix some of the problems with the new website for Bast Temple. (My regular readers will remember that we were forced to switch website hosts.) And it was one of those days that I feel that the service that the old host is trying to make us switch to is just too much trouble. (Actually, they are owned by the same company...so one could argue that it is just the same host with the just a higher price.) The current problem is that one has to log in through several forms to get to the actual dashboard for the website...and if you forget a password (and they all have to be different), then you have to wait hours for the reset to occur.

Makes me glad that I set up an official blog for Bast Temple because it looks like it is what we are going to be using for awhile...because I am thinking that we need to use a better web hosting service...or at least one that does not make me want to beat it with a stick.

[If you are in Denver Colorado, or thereabouts, and want to apply for membership in Bast Temple, remember that you can apply through the official blog or by sending an email to basttemple at msn dot com. Just because the web hosting service is causing me grief does not mean that the lodge has disappeared--we are still doing initiations and rituals, as well as holding meetings and lectures.]

Breaking News: The Startling Truth about Internet Cat Pictures

Revealed at last--the reason the internet has so many cat photos on it.

Breaking News! This just in. The Amazing Golden Dawn Newshound, Morgan Drake Eckstein, has uncovered a conspiracy that affects all of you. Please sit down as he reveals the shocking truth about why there are so many cat photos on the internet.

This story is being told by a digitual journalist (blogger), erotica writer, and leader of the smallest Golden Dawn lodge in Denver, therefore you know that it is the absolute truth.

"I left the house for awhile. I leave the house often during the day to do other things. And like always I left the cats at home. It is just something that you do. And yes, the computer was on. Sort-of. It was in sleep mode."

"Then I come home to discover that one of the cats is on the computer. And on Facebook. The cat was sharing cat pictures on Facebook using my account. Pretending to be me. The traitor! I wonder what else he does on the internet while I am away. Does he run a Nigerian scam? Does he belong to dog-hate groups? He must be doing other things that I disapprove of when I am gone. Sharing cat pictures on the internet must be only the tip of the iceberg. Here I am, wondering why people keep telling me that I share too many cat photos. And I am like, I don't share that many. And now, I learn that my cat is on Facebook, pretending to be me, sharing cat photos as if he was me. It is wrong, I tell you, completely wrong."

Now, being the fair minded journalist that I am, I asked my cat for a response. And you know it is the truth, because as a digitual journalist, erotica writer, and leader of the smallest Golden Dawn lodge here in Denver, I would never lie and just make something up to make someone look bad--would I?

The cat replied, "You dirty rat! Liar! I was just leaning on the computer key board. You were right there. So was your wife. Quit twisting around what happened to make yourself look good. You know that you spend hours on the internet, cruising Facebook, looking at cat pictures. Don't try to blame me for your cat fetish. And quit twisting my words around. I bet that you kiss dogs with that mouth."

After that I asked the cat if he could forgive me and live in peace under the same roof.

To this, he replied, "Maybe if you buy me fresh shrimp every night, I can. But I don't know--I still think that you might secretly love dogs."

So now, you my loyal readers know the truth. Cats are the ones who are sharing too many cat photos on the internet. Not I. Because I would never think of blaming the type of behavior I do on someone else. And you know that you can trust me because I have a blog.

"You are a dog-kissing liar!" replied the cat.

My favorite charity

We support Trap-Neuter-Return programs.

One of the questions that a global Rosicrucian has to struggle with is: Who should recieve my compassion and charity? We swear to help "heal" the world; but unless we are a member of the medical profession, our oath focuses more on healing the minds and general conditions of the world than it does the physical well-being of individual bodies.

Part of the question that we must struggle with is the fact that the entire world is in trouble. There are more people who need help than there is help available; you will never run out of people who need help. You can always give more...until you have nothing left to give.

(Jeff Goins talks some about this in his book Wrecked: When a Broken World Slams into your Comfortable Life.)

So we must decide where to focus our attention. Some people choose to focus on the global level, or the needs of the citizens of other countries. And that is ok.

I, on the other hand, chose to focus more locally. Part of the reason for this is simply the fact that I grew up poor. I was one of those kids who ended up eating free school lunches, and ate stuff from the local food banks. And if I was not redirected to another charity, I would probably be focused on helping a local food bank.

But I got side-tracked into a different type of charity and healing work. A type of healing work that does not involve human beings. That is right; I ended up working with cats.

How it happened was simple. When my wife and I brought our house, it came complete with a feral cat colony. The problem with feral colonies is that unless someone becomes their care-taker, the cats in a colony will continue to breed and overpopulate an area. This results in many deaths by stravation and disease among the poor cats caught in the situation.

The easiest way to deal with the problem (besides people not abandoning un-fixed and fertile cats in the first place) is to control the colony. Relocation does not work because more feral cats will just move into the area if a colony disappears; the same thing happens if you completely destory a colony. The only way to control a colony is to take care of it. And the first step in caring for a feral cat colony is to neuter and spay the existing members of a colony.

Once my wife and I became aware of the feral cat colony, we started to rescue the kittens who could be tamed, and fix the cats who could not be. Several males had to be put to sleep due to disease. Since then, we had to do several more rounds of trap-neuter-return. We also have to make sure that the colony gets fed--ask me about my cat food bill; it is like feeding a four-legged army.

The two cats in the picture that accompanies this post are two of the cats that we rescued as kittens two years ago when a new round of feral cats came into our neighborhood. They are really sweet cats. You really cannot see it in this picture, but both of their left ears are nipped (this is to let colony care-takers and other people know that these cats have already been fixed). We did not originally think that the two brothers would be tamable, but they seem to like being petted, fed, and allowed to lay on the sofa. I would be hard-pressed to tell that they were originally ferals if I did not already know.

So that is the type of charity that I am involved with--a local cat charity. It is not better than those people who work with people, either locally or internationally. Nor is it worse. It is just the type of charity that I am best suited to work with. And in the end, that is what determines the type of charity and healing a Rosicrucian does--the personality and skills of a Rosicrucian determines the type of healing that they do. Therefore, a difficult question turns out to be very easy to answer once one knows oneself.

Let's be clear about something

I would like to be clear about something. I give David Griffin, the HOGD/AO, and its membership, the same amount of respect that I feel they give me. I do not need to be part of a vast and evil conspiracy to dislike the HOGD/AO; I merely need to read the things that they say about me. And because I never foresee them treating me with more respect, I never foresee myself treating them with more respect either. I am not sure how I can make it any more clearer than that.

Diversity in Golden Dawn and paganism does not mean automatically having to agree with the opinions, official statements and lessons given out by David Griffin, the HOGD/AO membership, and their Third Order. And it sure does not mean that I have to treat with upmost respect those people who treat me like some deranged lunatic and claim that I have done things that haven't even crossed my mind yet.

As I said, I do not need to be part of a conspiracy to act as if I do not like you--I merely have to respond in the exact same manner that you treat me and other people. The simple truth is that there is no need for an anti-HOGD/AO conspiracy; all one needs is a bunch of people who dislike you for being a know-it-all who has absolutely no idea that sugar catches more flies than vinegar. Scary, isn't it?

And then the monkeys took over the Pentacles

Three of Pentacles--Material Works (Monkey Tarot 2012 MDE)

Welcome to the Tarot Blog Hop for Lammas 2012. These readers who are doing the blog hop probably came from Jera Babylon Rootweaver's Tarot Taxi blog. My regular readers...well, let's just say that the Golden Dawn lounge in the Lunar Insanity Ward is quite lovely this time of year.

The theme of this particular Tarot Blog Hop is Pentacles: The Fruits of Harvest.

Lately for me, the fruits of harvest involves a lot of monkeys. First of all, the Sun card from the last Tarot Blog Hop caused a friend of mine to suggest that every Tarot card needed a monkey in it. Second of all, I am helping to illustrate a set of children stories...with monkeys.

The particular card for this post, the Three of Pentacles (Material Works), sums up some of my thoughts about work. The AE Waite/Pixie Smith version of the card shows a craftsman working while a monk and a hooded man look on. I always felt that they were supervising the craftsman.

One of my on-going questions about the Three of Pentacles is how the craftsman is getting any work done at all.

The invasion of monkeys into the Tarot that I am sketching finally gave me the answer. The bosses are too busy fighting among themselves to supervise the laborer.

This may seem strange to some of you, but it makes sense to me. Then again, I am one of those artistic types. A few years ago, I was a member of a crafter co-op. I remember one meeting where instead of discussing how to get business in the door, the discussion descended into how not to upset the customers. (Some of the artists were considering displaying some racy art.)

Let me be clear--they were worried about upsetting customers that they did not have yet. And that they were not going to get because they were more concerned with matters other than getting people into the craft show.

Let's be honest, there are a lot of people who get upset with artists: business-people, religious and spiritual leaders, lawyers, the poor who believe that artists make too much money, etc. And they all want to censor the artist and creative types...for the good of other people.

(No one ever thinks about what is best for the artist. And everyone always know more about what art is supposed to be like than the artist does. Seriously?!)

Even worse is when the artist starts to censor themselves because they fear that they might upset someone. A form of artist (writer) block occurs when a creative person starts to censor their work before it is even created to please the angry masses. And you cannot please everyone.

In the end, the only person an artist can make happy is themselves. One has to let one's critics fight among themselves on what elements of one's art is the most offensive. One should not censor one's work for the sake of one's critics, who are probably going to be unhappy, no matter what one does. And it goes without saying, do not read what your critics have to say...it will just make you feel bad.

So yeah, monkeys are invading my work and telling me that my critics are just unhappy poo-flingers. Who am I to argue with imaginary monkeys?! Needless to say, it is a rather strange harvest this season.

Next up on the Tarot Blog Hop is Andrew McGregor talking about patience and the suit of Pentacles. If there are any broken links in this blog hop, please click here for the master list.

[Update: July 2013: Due to differences in sales expectations and business philosophy, in early July 2013, I ceased to be involved in the Turtle Monkey project.]