Collage work As within, so without

I am going to ramble on now about a thing that drives me stark raving mad.  Its a thing in myself, so noone's fault really, not even mine that I can see.  I have extreme trouble with things that are in harmonious in my environment, but only some of the time.  I see them sometimes, but not others.  I guess i see them more when things are either really going well, so they jar more, or really going all to Hell, so its one more thing.  To soothe my world along more agreeably to me, I like to, whenever practically or realistically possible, fix these things. House isn't perfectly clean and people are coming over, dim the lights and light some candles.  The annoying neighbor (even if in the next room) is playing an idiotic t.v.show with a laugh tract, play music so that it smooths over it.

One of my points of annoyance, for sometime really, is the art on tarot cards, and how rarely I like the art on ALL of the cards in a deck.  I might have even talked about this before, but the trick memory, you know how it is, so you get to hear it again.  Say The Gilded Tarot By Marchetti.  Very colorful, vibrant. I liked most of the cards, and the images would stand out from the darker background, just delightful to me.  Until, trouble in paradise, the Lovers Card.  A fully armored man is playful hoisting a semiclad woman up, presumably to then scootch her down his front for a snuggle.  The Woman has a Belly piercing!!! Armor, Belly piercing- this doesn't say romance to me, this says a quick trip to Urgent Care.  A reall Buzz kill for a romantic mood if ever I had to imagine one.  But I am not trying to be critical of an otherwise beautiful deck, and its not my only example...Wait, there's more.  Consider the World Spirit Tarot.  Linoleum print which looks like woodcut, dark and jewel tones.  Good so far.  People of lots of different colors and bodytypes living in peaceful kumbaya harmony.  Great.  I would like the tarot I choose to reflect the world I would prefer to have.  fine and Good.....Wait for it.... The Sun card.  Looks like a George W. Bush baby chariceture.   AARRRGGHHHH.  Bought the Wildwood Tarot, as i missed out on the Greenwood Tarot, and i don't have a couple of extra hundred dollars to spend for it now.  Made by the same author, different artist, the cards are named the same, the court cards are beautiful animals as intricate as an Audubon bird print.  The Major Arcana are majestic and imposing.  I bought it for the card images I could see on aeclectic tarot, I had learned my lesso from buying decks just based on their description or the cover of the box,,,And.... some of the minors have art that looks like it comes from a throwaway crowd scene in a comic book.... Sigh
So what I would really like is either many tarot decks printed by one publisher so that you can pick and choose your individual cards and print the deck with all the cards you want, or get better at collage, and just damn well make my own world, you know, like we do with magick :)

Travelling without leaving my room

I have very much become enamored of a post over in Cabinet of Enchantments, by Kylara.  I'll link you, but you really should go over there anyway
http://cabinetofenchantments.blogspot.com/

I have never really tried the experiment before, as, sad to admit, it wasn't within my usual favorite flavor.  I am a witch.  I will play around with chaos magick, sorcery, Ceremonial Magick, and shamanism, but I am embarrassed to admit it, if something seemed New Age 60/70's I usually try to avoid it, or run the other way. I am alright if there is an analog in witchcraft, or if I can rename the thing to fit my flavor- Not that fond of Chakra work, I would rather do Middle Pillar, 3 cauldrons, or The Witch's Ladder using Elemental energy and my spine, so a flaw in my being, I'm sure, but there it is.
So even though Remote viewing had even been explored by the US military, I though it was too cheesy for me.
I read Kylara's post, and it was the height of sanity, and with instructions so easy, I would have to be even more foolish than usual to not attempt.  I have a picture, of a location I have wanted to revisit since I was there, just after high-school, "Merlin's Cave" underneath Tintagel in England.

I took the picture myself, and it reminds me also of the first time I felt free, away from my family, making daily decision for my self, using my own judgement.  Also, I felt the energy of the place, before I could completely understand about magick, but had book studied it for quite awhile.

So my experiment includes a rewrite of Kylara's instructions, almost like a pathworking induction, a studying of the picture in detail, and doing this both while awake in meditation, and also attempting it using dream protocols ( Strange that i don't have much trouble with the term 'lucid dreaming'.  Perhaps because I was one naturally, so didn't have to read explanations first? )

I'll report back.  Or better yet, you pick a place, or even Merlin's Cave, and you report back, too.

My house lacking in Perfection, but Still Perfect

I love that I live with Fellow Experimenters ! I really don't know how the rest of the world gets along!  If I was forced to watch Jersey Shores, I think I might have to off myself!  Not that I live a Luddite existence, just that what people are wanting to sell for most tv, i have FAR better things to do!  So, with my fellow Housemates (Who am I kidding, they did most of the heavy lifting on this one)  we installed shelves in my bed-rooms walk in closet.  2 sets all around the perimeter above head height, and all down the back wall.  Bought plywood, had it cut by Lowes to approximate what we would need, hauled it home,  got them painted (that was me) and then fastening up supports to the walls, I now have a place to lay my vast fabric stash out where it can be seen and handy, without being annoying, or a hazard to walking.  This is pretty common at the Secret Lair, although the projects can vary widely.  Janos caulked all around the exterior windows, James refitted the derelict hot tub that was here when we got here with new PVC plumbing so it would work, some reloading goes on, lots of recycling, both the for money and the making things into other things variety, Why am I rambling on about how awesome we are?  Well, because we Are awesome, but that wasn't really the thing I wanted to get to.  I hear people often wondering enviously how come we are so talented, or them wishing they had people in their lives who could do these things or help them with these things.  The thing they might not have thought of, is while we wish we were, we are not Always triumphant, or talented, or even really having a clue.  The shelves we misscut, so had to cobble them together in spots from other pieces.  I trash about 1/4 of all fabric experiments.  If a dinner experiment goes awry, there is always pizza (though Dominos changed there delivery area so that we are no longer in it, but that's a different story).  Carpentry is reasonably forgiving.  My front porch is spattered with the paint of my shelves.  BUT I now have AWESOME shelves, the paint can be sanded off the deck, and pizza is a perfectly good reason to fail on purpose.  What we are is buoyant in our thinking, not concerned with perfection, and FEARLESS!  You can do this!! Tell me about your successes!! Let's cheer each other on! Lets mutually appreciate each other.

Divination Study

I am continuing my deeper tarot/divination study.  I have come to some of the same conclusions as I did about magick in general.  You can read books, and see what other people are up to for only so long.  And then, you have to decide.  You have to decide which of the things you have seen works for your personal version of the world.  You have to make a plan for yourself, and start using it in reality before you can see if the plan works.  You also have to then decide what you think divination can do for you and how it does it.  Our theories will doubtless be different.  I think the future is in motion,(Yoda-"Ever in Motion is the Future") and an instance of divination is a snapshot of the current trends at that moment.  I think the trends can be observed for hazards, and then either mundane or magick methods can be used to hopefully skate across the danger.  I also sometimes like to draw a card to check the temperature or atmosphere of a room and its inhabitants.

a little witchy music for your enjoyment

witch

Bought a 35mm camera!

Haven't been using one since college, when I studied photojournalism.  Exciting times!  There are things, activities, actions that bring you back to who you are or move you further away.  I sometimes don' t notice when I am less myself, except by contrast when I am more myself.  What are some things that make you more yourself?

Review- Lon Milo DuQuette's "My Life with the Spirits: The Adventures of a Modern Magician"

There are some people who’s brains just fascinate me.  Even trickier to get a good look at a brain, when I don’t know them personally, and just know them by there writing.  Lon Milo DuQuette is on of those people who I would desperately like to know.  This book recounts amusing, frightening, enlightening, embarrassing anecdotes in a way that it seems like he is telling the stories to you in person over coffee. There are some fascinating cautionary tales, that still manage to make magick still seem amusing anyway.  He tells you the story of his life and how he came to be a magician, and then relates some stories of magickal events.  He adds enough details to these incidents that they are useful in seeing magick done by people in the current world, with everyday tools like cardboard to draw sigils on and clothesline rope to form the circle with.  I was also fascinated by the way that he can write about those events that are true and crystal clear in magick when you are doing them, but when you get done, seem crazy, even though you were there at the time.  This book was such a good read I couldn’t stop. 

If you like it, also read by him “Low Magick: Its All in Your Head…You Just Have No Idea How Big Your Head Is”

A little introduction

I don’t believe I every really properly introduced myself, just started talking at you as if you would understand straight from the beginning.  I am writing to you as Greyer Jane, A Mad Scientist Probability Engineer Conversationalist.  I believe in living an experimental experiential life. Think of it as bizarre art motion study.  I started life off of center, as I expect most occultists and maybe everyone if we would just admit it starts.  I liked to figure out how to do things, or just absently speculate or observe or daydream.  One of my early learning treasures was being taught to read by my Nama, before I was old enough to go to school, reading a Koala book over and over again.  My first book that I chose for myself was a Guide to Birds of North America.  I was a champion daydreamer in class, since I already knew how to read, living my life in school in my world and in the classroom by protest.  I read everything I could find, whether it was approved of by parental types or not, and found out some mysterious things really early. I was abetted by helpful Librarians, who in a very real sense raised me. I had the notion that anything labeled as History was true, and so became fascinated with the accounts of the Witch trials in Europe, especially accounts of evidence given.  Some of the first occult books I can remember reading from our Public Library were Arthur Edward Waite’s “”Book of Black Magic” and “Illustrated Anthology of Sorcery, Magic, and Alchemy”, by Emile Grillot De Givry.  I also discovered The Greek Myths as recounted by Edith Hamilton about the same time; in particular I was charmed by the stories of Athena. I lamented that we no longer had equality, Goddesses in our religion.  My own family was very laissez-faire Christian, mainly going to Church or believing or talking about religion at all on Holidays.  I read and studied all I could about the Craft of the Witches on my own.  This being the 70’s /80’s in Kentucky, it was very hit or miss in the bookstores.  That taught me discernment among the information I did find.  I went away to college, ostensibly to study History, but really regretting that I couldn’t study Occult.  At Westertn’s library, I discovered “Drawing Down the Moon” by Margot Adler and found that in the modern world there were actual functioning adults who considered themselves Witches and worshipped Pagan Gods.  It was a revelation to me.  The Advent of Amazon books and the Internet let me now live in a candy-store worth of information, and has also brought me the pleasure of the company of other Witches.