Four Days of Patriotic Kitties are coming

Patriotic Kitty sings better than you do.

Yes, it is time for another round of cute cat pictures...because that is why you subscribe to this blog for, right? And we all know that it is the real reason I continue to blog...to inflict cat pictures upon my regular readers. The information about Golden Dawn, Tarot, Wicca, and magic is to to lure you in; it is the cute cats that make you keep coming back.

Pray for rain in Colorado

There is absolutely no evidence that my cat has a drug problem.

Well, it is official--Colorado is dry and burning up. Seems like a typical summer to me. I am not sure how many wildfires are currently burning in Colorado, but it is definitely one too many.

I meant to do some gardening this year, as in plant some vegetables that my wife would promptly refuse to eat. Unfortunately, my (hopefully last as an undergrad) semester dragged on and was a grueling nightmare clear up to the end, so I did not start to garden nearly as soon as I should have.

Now, I can leave the water on all night and still be working with bone-dry dirt when I attempt to do anything out in the garden. It might be the result of the hundred degree days we are having.

So I am just mainly transplanting a few of the herbs that have proven to do ok with droughts, and seem to have secret plots to take over the world, to different spots. One of which is the Persian Catnip, a plant that my favorite cat has absolutely no problem with.

On one of the news groups that I belong to, a bunch of Colorado pagans and witches are doing a joint project in weather magic to try to bring rain to Colorado. And yes, I am going to be rolling up my sleeves also. If rain comes soon enourgh, I can still get some squash in before winter hits.

Feel free to critize my use of weather magic in the comment section--just remember that part of my training is Pennslyvania Dutch. Weather magic is perfectly acceptable to those who grow up in farming country.

Thirty years of hard work (or Devil Kitty in a Box)

For all your hard work, we are proud to present you with Devil Kitty in a box.

As most people in Golden Dawn know, or you will as soon as you read the internet today, thirty years ago Israel Regardie consecrated the Vault of the Adepti that the Ciceros built. There is an official thanks to the Ciceros for all their hard work floating around the internet today; for instance, there is a copy of it on the official Bast Temple blog. Yes, I signed it, and I am proud of the fact that I signed it.

But I think that the Ciceros deserve something more for their long service to the Golden Dawn community. Therefore, I am pleased to present them with a picture of Devil Kitty in a box. I would present them with the actual cat, but Devil Kitty bites. My lady lodge members think it might be rude to actually gift them with a semi-feral cat (the first cat that my wife and I rescued after buying our house). There is also the little fact that Devil Kitty only gets along with me and my god-daughter.

So the Ciceros are going to have to settle for a picture of Devil Kitty as a reward for all their hard work. I hope that they understand. And if not, they are free to come to Denver and pick up Devil Kitty, who will positively love them to death. Did I mention that she bites?!

Mooning the Sun (Tarot Blog Hop)

BIORC Sun Card--copyright 2012 MDE (All Rights Reserved).

Hi everyone! Some of you are my regular readers--and some of you doing the Tarot Blog Hop (here is a link to the masterlist just in case, there are any breaks in the Hop). If you are coming in from the regular readership, then you are pobably coming here through the padded room at the Lunar Restroom for Retired Secret Chiefs (no, you say--what do you mean when you say that I am making stuff up?!). Those from the Tarot Blog Hop, have came here from Jordan Hoggard's Tarot in the Land of Mystereum blog (or from the masterlist if there is a break in the Hop).

Today's Tarot Blog Hop theme is Celebrate the Sunrise.

For me, a lot of my observances and celebrations of the sun and its cycles are colored by the fact that I am a Wiccan. This is something that extends to the other members of the Order and lodge that I belong to (though the correct label for them is pagan).

I tend to think of this blending as "mooning the sun." For a religion that focuses on the moon, Wicca pays a lot of attention to the sun. There are Wiccans who do the annual drumming up of the sun. Four of the eight big Wiccan holidays are directly related to the main turning points of the sun's cycle, the two Equinoxes and two Solistices.

By the way, three of these four are built right into the Golden Dawn system...all Golden Dawn Orders can claim to be involved in the ancient pagan mysteries if they still observe these three events in their annual ritual cycle.

On the other hand, one could argue that the Golden Dawn pays little attention to the moon...unless you count the number of members who are Wiccan and pagan and/or check the phase of the moon before doing any major magical work.

Life as we know it on this planet would not be as it is if it wasn't for the interplay of the sun and the moon. Our planet has been blessed to have a large moon and a solar orbit that places it in a comfortable (or as comfortable as you can get in this universe) zone that supports life.

The best illustration of the play between the sun and the moon comes from Ancient Egyptian mythology. The original calendar in Ancient Egypt was 360 days, which was divided up into ten day periods (the 36 decans). This calendar would rapidly grow out of sync with the actual seasons of the year. The mythology of Anciet Egypt actually records an attempt to correct the calendar and explain "mytholically" what was happening.

According to the myth, the Earth God Geb made love to his sister, the Sky Goddess Nut. This act upset Nut's father so much that he forbid her to give birth during the days of the normal calendar. Nut. being pregnant with quintuplets, called upon Thoth to aid her. Thoth goes to the moon and plays dice with the moon; in this manner, Thoth wins five extra days to allow for the birth of Nut's children (Osiris, Horus the Elder, Set, Isis and Nephthys). By this act, Thoth starts to become a moon God.

The interesting thing about this myth, besides the interplay of the solar and lunar calendars, is the fact that the moon, over the course of billions of years, have changed the length of the day on earth, therefore changing the number of days in a earth year. Therefore the myth mirrors a scientific truth.

I was reminded of this story when I was creating the version of the Sun card that illustrates this post. Originally, I meant for there to be two cats sitting on the wall (because I have a problem with Sun cards with creepy children in them)--but by the time I was done, they had morphed into monkeys or baboons, a symbol of Thoth. The baboons of Thoth are said to celebrate the sunrise every morning by giving out loud cries. One can say that the Ancient Egyptians celebrated the sunrise by having monkeys moon the sun.

If you are proceeding with the Blog Hop, your next stop will be The Hermit's Lamp (Andrew McGregor).

Happy Solistice!

Pagan kitty celebrates solistice in style.

My cats celebrate the solistices, but they will not let me dress them up. That makes me sad. And this is even after I give them tasty bribes of catnip and tuna. Don't they know people only come to this blog to see the latest kitty fashions?
If you are here from the Tarot Blog Hop, and it is after sunrise at Stonehedge on the Summer Solistice, and this is the most recent post, then something has gone wrong. The masterlist for this Tarot Blog Hop can be found on Inner Whispers. If it is not officially the Summer Solistice yet, then you must wait for the Tarot Blog Hop to begin. For the curious, sunrise at Stonehedge on the Summer Solistice 2012 is 10:15 pm mountain time...provided that the website I was using for conversion is correct.

Preparing for June 2012 Open Full Moon ritual

Over the last couple of days, I have been making some preparations for the Open Full Moon ritual that I am doing on June 29th for Hearthstone Community Church. Much of the preparation is beating out the rough spots in the ritual outline, and trying to figure out what is going to work the best. I have yet to finish the large Death card that I plan on using for the ritual.

Besides the planning and partially work-thurs of the ritual, I have been working on the rough draft of a science fiction crime novel. The dead bodies are just piling up--today another dozen people died in the name of fiction. I am not quite sure where the rage at big business comes from, but it is sure showing up in this particular sci-fi story.

As a break between the two projects, I have been doing some gardening. Mainly transplanting the spearmint, lemon balm, and motherwort that has taken over the one corner of the herb garden.

[The late June OFM is June 29, 2012 at 7 pm (ritual starts at 7:30 pm) and will be held at the First Unitarian Church here in Denver, Colorado (1400 Lafayette)--the ritual is going to be about remembering the dead, both people and animals.]

Humor needs no apologies (Would dad approve)



The truth behind mostly widely read blogs and websites.

There is something in the water today...or is it the air (no, what is in the air is burning forests...at least here in Colorado, that is). Several times today, I have been involved in conversations about comedians having to apologize for making a joke. It has even infected the internet (Nerdist: Comedy Means Never Having to Say You're Sorry...Right?).
A lot of people do not like my personal stance--I never apologize for making a joke, no matter how badly it fails or how offended you feel about it. The only possible exception is if you are a friend that I have known for years...and I must really care deeply about your feelings to even consider apologizing to you. I have been known not to apologize to people that I was having sex with, so the average internet reader doesn't have much of a chance to weasel an apology out of me.

Basically, there are three people in my universe who might be able to get an apology if I offend them with a joke...or at least, there are only three people that I ever remember apologizing to for comedic mistakes.

In fact, I am just the type of person who if I realize that the subject matter bugs you that I will keep pounding that particular drum all night long. Yes, I know it is rude--I don't care. This is something that recently some people did not consider when accusing me of making a particular joke that they did not like...if I was responsible, I would have continued to use the offensive character in question. (Hell, the character had great potential in my opinion.) It might be a family trait.

Occasionally, someone wants me to apologize for something that I found funny. Really? I need to apologize for having a sense of humor that doesn't perfectly match your finely attuned  and much superior sense of humor? Sorry, but that is not going to happen either.

My first role model for comedy was my father. And yes, that is probably the worst thing that could happen to me. Dad worked construction, was a delivery driver, etc., all those manly jobs that I consider to be too phsyically intensive for my tastes.

(On the other hand, I choose to do the mental labor intensive tasks of staring at a blank screen until my forehead bleeds--I am not sure that was a wiser decision.)

Anyways, most of the jokes that my father told involved the Polish. His friends focused on the other races.

This was before the era of political correctness. Today, you would not dream of telling these types of jokes. On one hand, this is a good thing--we now know that we just one big human family, an unhappy infighting one, but still family. On the other hand, it tends to led to the argument that you are not allowed to point out the weird things that anyone does because it might offend them--after all, you do not want a stupid person to realize that they are being stupid.

Would my father approve of my own humor? I am not sure. He would probably groan at the weird definitions that I created for The Zealot's Dictionary. He would probably also agree that some of my jokes work best in person (or video) because discussions of the specialness of OTO is best when accompanied by a hip bop and the Golden Dawn with an Elvis thrust. And he would definitely support my opinion that if one person is allowed to use bad humor about people they do not like, then so am I when I talk about them in return.

Yes, my dad might not have understood my sense of humor or many of the jokes I tell. But he would support my stance that no apologies would be forthcoming just because it just happened to offend you. After all, he never apologized for any of the jokes that he told, no matter how dubious they were.