Blog | Deborah Lipp | Author, Priestess, Witch

Wish my sister a happy birthday

April 25, 2008 / Deborah Lipp / 3 comments

If you don’t read Roberta’s Voice, you should try it. My sister’s blog is primarily a personal journal, talking about her love life, her back aches, her commute, that sort of thing. But how she gets perfect strangers to read that is that the blog is really about consciousness. She’s bringing self-awareness to all her little moments, and asking herself about the nature of her interactions with herself, others, and the world. It can be compelling reading.

So stop by and wish her a happy birthday. Oh, and you can visit Basket of Kisses to see the present I got her.

Friday Catblogging: The Scritch

April 25, 2008 / Deborah Lipp / One comment

Mingo in Mommy’s lap, awaiting scritch

» Read more..

I like dandelions

April 24, 2008 / Deborah Lipp / 5 comments

I like dandelions. I do. I mean, not when I’m trying to grow a delicate herb garden and their mad hot root systems are invading from like, three houses down. But I like their little yellow awakefulness.

Sometimes it’s hard to be conscious of the seasons changing. I do the rituals, and yet I don’t feel the passage of time. Or maybe it’s that spring is always a surprise. Maybe it’s that winter is a hunkering down, a forgetting that there is spring.

And February was so long that it lasted into March
And found us walking a path alone together.
You stopped and pointed and you said, “Thats a crocus,”
And I said, “Whats a crocus?” and you said, “Its a flower,”
I tried to remember, but I said, “Whats a flower?”
You said, “I still love you.”

A crocus is nice. It’s a flower. It emerges. And I feel…a glimmer. Like maybe it’ll happen. But y’know, maybe it won’t. At Spring Equinox, we do a ritual where we plant seeds, and I see my sprouts emerging from their ritual pot, and I think, that’s nice. That’s a sign.

But then I see dandelions.

Maybe because they are unwanted, unplanted, unloved. So stubborn in their bright lovelines. Look at me, I’m here anyway. And did you notice how YELLOW I am? I’m YELLOW. And there’s never one. It always starts as three, and that’s before it really gets going. Yesterday, I saw dandelions next to my ritual seed pot, and I thought that was nice. Today, I saw hundreds of dandelions all along the Palisades Parkway. Thousands. A sea of yellow parkway. A profusion.

And today I know that spring is a true thing, and not a glimmer. Thank you, dandelions.

Movie lines

April 23, 2008 / Deborah Lipp / 42 comments

The ones you say all the time. I mean, not your favorites, but the ones you actually say. Because sure, I’d like to say “We’ll always have Paris” is something I say all the time; I’d like to be that cool, but not so much in real life. I’ve said “You know how to whistle, don’t you?” once or twice, but it doesn’t come up all that often, conversationally.

While waiting for our Chinese food last night, Arthur and I strolled over to the pet store, and seeing a birdcage, I said “Boids. Filthy, disgusting, disease-ridden BOIDS.” Bizarrely, that is a line that comes up often.

“I’m using the word hate here. About…” Fill in the blank. The voice of that line just works when you want to underline that you hate something.

“That’ll do, pig.” Virtually any time I finish anything.

Arthur also uses “You might, rabbit, you might” rather more often than you’d expect.

So, here’s a quick compensation for yesterday’s non-trivia: Name the movies I quote, and give me the quotes you like to use (the ones you really use, in conversation. Not the ones you wish you were cool enough to use, and not the ones you only use when you’re being movie-quotey).

Big Thanks to Cathy

April 22, 2008 / Deborah Lipp / Comments Off

My step-sister Cathy taught me how to search Google Cache. And I’ve restored 3 of the missing posts. The cat-blogging isn’t there and of course my saved-for-the-future posts are gone, but I feel so much better!

I lost last week

April 22, 2008 / Deborah Lipp / 6 comments

I lost The Kite Runner review (which I can get back, because I cross-posted at IIRTZ). I lost Cat-Blogging. I lost the Sunday Meditation, which was one of the best things I’ve written in ages, and which I’d planned to save for a book I’m writing. Plus two or three posts I’d written and saved for the future, including a really fabulous one about a conversation with my mother.

Since my web host does a daily backup, I don’t worry about backing up my posts. In fact, he told me not to bother in so many words. Because of the backup. But his hardware somehow ate a week’s worth of backups. They’re all corrupt and cannot be restored.

I’m more than a little upset. And this effects the James Bond blog as well (same host). I actually lost more writing, more pre-saved posts, over there. Did I mention upset? I just can’t believe…I mean writing is what I do. In some ways, it’s what I am, and to see it die…

Oy. No trivia today. Can’t deal.

Monday Movie Review: The Kite Runner

April 21, 2008 / Deborah Lipp / Comments Off

The Kite Runner (2007) 8/10
Amir (Khalid Abdalla) and Hassan (Ahmad Khan Mahmidzada) grew up together as boys in Afghanistan. Now, a young writer in California, Amir returns to Afghanistan to pick up loose ends left behind. Directed by Marc Forster.

The problem with heartwarming movies, or indeed any drama that looks back to childhood, is that it is hard to create a preview that doesn’t make it seem like one of “those” heartwarming movies. You know what I mean; where you sit there in the theater and think, “Oh, no, it’s heartwarming. Guess I’ll skip it.” This movie reeked of that sort of heartwarming, the preview tugged at sentiment shamelessly. But it was also widely praised, and since Marc Forster is directing the next Bond movie, I was interested in seeing some more of his work. I’m glad I did.

First of all, The Kite Runner is a movie that reminds me how much I long for a Best Titles Oscar. So many great title designers, from Saul Bass to Maurice Binder, have gone sadly unrecognized. The title designer for this film is uncredited as such (there are all these credits for graphic design and animation design and other visuals, and I can’t tell who is who) but the flow of Arabic script into English language and back again sets an unforgettable mood.

The movie is nothing like what I expected, because the boys are nothing like what I expected, and most of the film is spent with them. Amir (played as a boy by Zekeria Ebrahimi) is the son of Baba, a wealthy intellectual (Homayoun Ershadi). Hassan is the son of Baba’s servant. Hassan is fierce, Amir timid, and Baba is ashamed of Amir’s timidity. He wants Amir to be brave, and as the boy’s life unfolds, bravery will be required of him.

Rarely in films do we see bravery fail when it is desperately needed. Heroes may be allowed to show cowardice, but in the crucial moment, they will come through. In a crucial moment in his life, though, Amir runs away. It’s devastating to see, and it’s devastating to see how he behaves afterwards, how he will do anything to cover up his shame.

When Russia invades Afghanistan, Baba and Amir escape to America, leaving Hassan and his family behind. It is in California that the adult Amir’s story is told, and to a certain extent, this weakens the movie; the boys are simply more interesting. But eventually (as you saw in the preview, if indeed you saw it), Amir is called back to Afghanistan by an uncle. Hassan is long dead but his son is in need and only Amir can help him.

Even typing the plot makes it sound cliché, but it’s not, it’s just simple. It’s straightforward in plotting because the real story is happening behind the scenes; with Amir as he is forced to wonder if he will ever find his own courage. Some unnecessary back story is given to Amir to help motivate him, but ultimately we have a delayed coming of age story rich in a culture alien to most Americans and free of too much plotty encumberance.

Sunday Meditation: Happy Passover

April 20, 2008 / Deborah Lipp / One comment

Passover is a celebration of freedom. I have a few thoughts about today that are ripe meditation subjects.

First is the notion of freedom. Passover is primarily a holiday of political freedom; as we contemplate freedom from slavery, we are obligated to contemplate those who are not free. Wherever anyone is enslaved, we are taught, we ourselves are not free. We must meditate
upon those who suffer so we can understand their suffering, but meditation is not enough. We should be prepared to act.

There is also inner freedom. Passover is a time wherein we can contemplate that which enslaves us. What binds you? What are you stuck with? What are you slave to? What runs you? What conditions, habits, addictions, relationships, needs, and desires do you have that prevent you from being truly free?

Passover is also a descent and resurrection. This is a universal motif in religion and myth. A god or goddess or hero descends into hell, suffers trials, and is miraculously able to return from hell after a harrowing journey, to be reborn in a way that redeems his/her people.
This is true of the descent of Inanna, of the abduction of Persephone, of the descent of Hercules, of the Wiccan tale of the Descent of the Goddess into the Underworld, and of the death and resurrection of Jesus. The Jewish version is unique in that it is the entire Jewish
people who descend and are resurrected, and therefore it is the tribe of the Jews, not any one person, who embody the redemption of the Jewish people. Perhaps this is why Moses does not enter the Holy Land; because there cannot be a single Savior of the Jews (except the Messiah); the Jews must save themselves.

The Jews journey to Egypt in pride and success but are enslaved. Slavery, symbolically, is Hell. Through a series of miracles, the Jews are led out of slavery, and in their long and arduous journey they are reborn as a new people, newly monotheistic (after that little calf
business) and with a set of laws. Thus resurrected, they enter the land of Israel.

So, resurrection. That’s a big one. But more important is the journey into and out of hell. Our lives follow trajectories of darkness and light. We are going one place la la down the road. Then we are in some other place, and it is hell. What the fuck happened? Our lives are
utterly unrecognizable. Yet we continue to journey. We can resist or accept but there we are. In Wicca we are taught that embracing the darkness leads to transformation; that only when we embrace Death can we know Rebirth. So it is a good time to ask: What do you resist? What embrace do you refuse? Is that refusal preventing you from moving on?

May your resurrection be blessed, and may you be truly free.

Elemental Relationships

April 17, 2008 / Deborah Lipp / Comments Off

There’s a section in The Way of Four in which I talk about how a relationship flows through the four elements. This came up in my talk at Halcyon Moon and I’ve been thinking about it.

One way to characterize it is like this:
Air=Crush
Fire=Sleeping With
Water=Romance
Earth=Relationship

Truly, until it’s in Earth, it’s not a relationship.

Now, if you look at those love aspects, you can see how they’re kind of chronological; first you meet and crush on someone, then you sleep with them, then fall in love, then form a commitment. Of course, that’s cultural and individual. Some people fall in love before they
have sex, but I sort of think that unless you’ve gotten down and dirty, your “love” is still partly a crush; it’s still what you imagine your romance to be, and imagination is Air.

In some cultures and religious communities, there are arranged marriages, so Earth comes first and everything else follows. Your crush phase is part of childhood, and is disconnected from the relationship you eventually have. I don’t actually think arranged marriages are a bad thing, provided they’re freely chosen (as in the marriages of my Indian co-workers), but they’re based in a culture that has completely different expectations about marriage than our own. You grow up believing certain things about marriage, and then you fulfill those beliefs.

Anyway, I suspect that even an arranged marriage, starting in Earth, will cycle around back to Earth. Getting-to-know-you is Airy, and at the same time you’re discovering your and each others sexuality (Fire) and learning to love (Water), and eventually settling in (back to
Earth).

None of this means anything except as it pertains to self-knowledge. Who am I in my relationships, in my life? What is going on in this relationship? What energies influence it? Certainly relationships need spiritual balance just as individuals do, and using the elements is a good way to achieve that balance.

Deborah Lipp