Problematic Perceptions

Walt Whitman writes in his poem, "Song of Myself":

"Have you reckon'd a thousand acres much? have you reckon'd
     the earth much?
Have you practis'd so long to learn to read?
Have you felt so proud to get at the meaning of poems? 

Stop this day and night with me and you shall possess the
     origin of all poems,
You shall possess the good of the earth and sun, (there are
     millions of suns left,)
You shall no longer take things at second or third hand, nor
     look through the eyes of the dead, nor feed on the
     spectres in books,
You shall not look through my eyes either, nor take things
     from me,
You shall listen to all sides and filter them from your self."

The last line sticks with me: "filter them from your self." What a marvelous, potent phrase about understanding

Remember that game of Telephone? I remember how teachers would use it as a way to exemplify how rumors spread. Basically, everyone gets in a circle of five or more people. One person will turn to their right and whisper a phrase. That person will then turn to their right and whisper exactly what they heard. And so on. This process morphs the phrase so that by the time it reaches the last person, the phrase is almost (if not completely) indistinguishable from the first phrase. A phrase like, "I like to buy shoes at the market" becomes "Eyes are hard to mark." This is due to a number of human error problems, like speaking too fast, stuttering, emphasizing some words over others. Etc.

There is a website called Bad Translator that mimics this almost by taking a phrase in English, translating it to a different language, then back to English, then to another language, and so forth for how many iterations you set it to. I typed in, "I like to buy shoes at the market" and it became "I want to buy shoes."

My point is: the further from the source, the more distorted the message.

Slow to Update

Well, almost. I have been busy with a few different projects, most of which actually involve my spiritual craft. Yet that has made updating this blog pushed further and further down the list.

Firstly, I have taken the step to join ADF. I am not sure if I explicitly mentioned on this blog before about my draw to Druidry and Celtic paganism, but both have been on my mind for a couple years now. As I am running out of my own material, I want to take a more academic guided course to learning about both. I believe ADF is offering such a course. I will most likely be posting more about that as I begin my studies as a member (who aspires to be a Dedicant.)

Secondly, I am spending a lot of my blogging time with Seaconjure. This is a personal practice of someone I met through web forums and blogs whose practice intrigues me. I adore the sea, the ocean, and water. I want to continue to explore this type of spirituality. From what I know of both Seaconjure and ADF, neither conflict. Thus, there is no reason I can't be both.

Thirdly, I am doing more things off-line. The Steam Summer Sale has pulled me back into gaming more; I am hanging out with my boyfriend more. I am also cooking more as well. I am trying to take care of my home so that it is clean.

But I do miss writing and keeping myself to an article-a-week schedule. I plan to update tomorrow with a news story from the area.

Druidry, Books, and Reflections

"Berrymore" by Kylie Stillman

This reflection spawned from trying to answer a crowd-sourcing question and spiraled into analyzing what I have so far read regarding Druidry and Celtic neopaganism. Coincidentally, Agora's columnist Nimue Brown wrote a related article yesterday called "Books for Druids." I highly recommend reading Brown's article to get an understanding of what books are relevant to aspiring and current Druids as well as a short overview on how to evaluate books about Druidry. 

However, this article is instead my own reading and what I was able to take out of it. A reflection, if you will, on books and articles.

White Clay, Oglala Sioux Tribe, and My Synopsis

picture credited to Native News Networks

Late last night, a friend posted this video on her Facebook wall accompanied only with, "I am appalled." With that in mind I braced myself, but after watching I was more curious than appalled. The video is not high quality (which is understandable given the circumstance it was filmed.) I couldn't make out most of the words, or what was even going on, other than a confrontation between two men. I had no sense of the context for the footage beyond the title.

So I did some research into articles and learned about the incident...

Occult Store Scoring Guide

In response to my own posts about a local occult store, I am keep an on-going list of occult stores online and local. Similar to how the Human Rights Campaign has a buyer's guide with LGBTQ+ issues, I will keep an ongoing list of scores for occult stores (online, local, or both) based on criteria people look for when shopping.

The stores will be given a percent rating by taking the points earned and dividing that number by the points available. This is because certain occult stores will not be able to be evaluated on all the criteria given and should not be penalized for that (eg: an online store that is strictly items and not services.)

Example: If a store has all possibilities to earn points, the total will be: #/13. If they don't offer any services, then the total would be: #/10.

Here is the form for each store. I will post completed forms on a master lister on a separate page.

Store's Name:
URL: (if available)
Location: (if available)
Evaluated by: (name or online alias)
___ Staff:
     (+1) Friendly
     (+1) Knowledgeable
     (+1) Professional
___ Items:
     (+1) Religious variety
     (+1) Authenticity (eg: no cultural appropriative items.)
     (+1) Supports individual artisans and/or witches (eg: items are handmade opposed to factory made)
     (+1) Includes health warnings for herbs, spices, oils.
___ Services:
     (+1) Variety (eg: not just Wiccan.)
     (+1) Has community outreach and/or classes
     (+1) Promotes an educational atmosphere
___ General:
     (+1) Overall appealing atmosphere (or online readability)
     (+1) LGBTQ and gender identity positive
     (+1) Anti-racism
___% = Score (Points Accumulated/Total Possible Score)

Additional Comments:

If you want to evaluate an occult store you have shopped at, please either comment with this forum completed or email me at omahapaganphilosophy (at) gmail (dot) com. My only requirements to filling out this form is that you are not an employee or owner of the store (ie: if you own your own occult store, do not submit your own evaluation.)

If I missed anything in this evaluation form, let me know ASAP and I will amend it. If there are already forms submitted, they will also be edited to reflect changes in the form.

So, reader, do you have a store you wish to evaluate?

Critique: Next Millennium's Newsletter

taken from the newsletter email

I forgot to unsubscribe from the Next Millennium newsletter that is sent out via email once a month. On June 2nd I saw it in my email inbox and out of curiosity decided to peruse it. Who knows? Maybe they made a mention of my petition and/or boycott.

While they didn't, I found more troubling misinformation being spread. I am spending this email, as well as emailing the store back, with why certain parts of the email are very, very concerning. Even if you are not a customer at Next Millennium, these are still problems to look out for at any other occult store you may shop at.

Review of "An Abundance of Blessings" (and, to a lesser extent, "A Pagan Ritual Prayer Book")

An Abundance of Blessings by John O'Donohue

A fair amount of stress has entered my life within the past few weeks. Among the problems with my immediate local pagan community, there have been very upsetting posts on the Tumblr blogosphere, and as well as my own mental health management. While Next Millennium just provided two more examples as why I should continue to boycott them, I am going to step back from addressing the community and community circles (online or otherwise) to address a collection of blessings I picked up while shopping yesterday.