I have an interview in Mystic Wicks Magazine that just went up. I did the interview several months ago—after October ’07 (because it mentions Basket of Kisses, which was founded then) and before March ’08 (because I say Arthur is 17, and he turned 18 in March). I just re-read it, because I’d honestly forgotten about it, and hey, it’s pretty good.
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I’m back. Phew.
Exhausting, rewarding trip. Did I mention exhausting?
No Monday Movie Review today; I’ve been in a lovely campsite with no television or movies for a week.
Arrived at FSG on Tuesday morning in 95+ degree heat. Got set up. Complained about heat. Said hello to old friends. Complained about heat.
At dinner time a tornado warning caused an evacuation of the entire camp into buildings. Which is, by the by, not the safest tornado protocol, but hello? Tornado! Warning! I also discovered that, despite my efforts to let go and treat my son more like the grown man he’s becoming, when there’s a Tornado! Warning! and I don’t know where he is, I am scared and cry.
Wednesday I had two classes to teach, and no one showed up for the first. Which I understand was widespread across camp; people wanted to play after a miserable Tuesday. Shame, too, because it was a good class. Also on Wednesday I got an absolutely amazing massage. Like, unbelievable. Holy cow. My body!
Thursday I took Arthur to Baltimore to his Freshman Orientation, which is a weird thing to do in the middle of a festival. Set an alarm, get to Baltimore in rush hour traffic, all that. Mostly relaxed and visited during the day, because I knew I had to leave site to pick him up in the evening and it was hard to commit my time to anything.
Thursday night this amazing band, Incus, performed. With bellydancers. Just thrilling.
Friday I taught a very well-attended class on The Study of Witchcraft and got really good feedback on that. After that we did sacred tattooing. Only not me this time. For his 18th birthday, I got Arthur his first tattoo. It was very…continuous and symmetrical to have Abraham do it, and Abe is someone who totally embraces that the role of tattooist is that of initiator and priest. It was really beautiful. At Arthur’s request, I was with him, helping him ground (and by the way, he was awesome; brave, centered, focused, peaceful), and then at the halfway point, Abe asked Arthur if he’d be willing to have me step out, and have this be about himself as a man, and not have his mother there, so that’s what we did. It was a beautiful experience, and Arthur has a small but extraordinary tattoo that reads
The First Amendment
Congrefs shall make no law…
Friday night (aided by the miracle of the nap) I attended the Alchemical Fire Circle, which is really quite a thing. The commitment to energy flow is so high; it’s not a fire circle-cum-party, it’s the real deal.
Saturday, though, my class was at 10am, so I didn’t stay at the fire all night. I was pretty damn tired. I’m in the midst of a massively changing sleep cycle, which made FSG kind of challenging. Up at dawn sort of thing. Anyway, that class went well, and I enjoyed teaching it. At one point, Arthur walked past and I pulled him in and showed everyone his tattoo and then resumed teaching.
In the afternoon I was again really tired, so I took a shower and lay down for a nap. I napped through an awful lot of noise; kids playing loudly next to the cabin, shouting, cheering, whatever. I slept. And then the storm came. Now, I knew a storm was coming, and I figured, good time to be in the cabin; it reinforced the nap concept. So I slept for about 45 minutes to an hour, and then the storm came. And this was a rattling, shaking, booming, banging thunderstorm of epic proportions. It woke me up, so I decided to read, and then it immediately knocked out the electric. Turns out that was because trees went down and pulled down power lines, and also landed on THREE CARS in the parking lot, two of which were totaled. Holy cow! I could feel the cabin shake. Tents blew away. I drifted in and out of sleep (since I couldn’t read and it didn’t seem wise to leave).
Since the camp was kind of blown away, I ate dinner in the dining hall sans electricity.
The fabulous magic show of Jeff McBride and Abby Spinner was delayed by the electrical problems, but finally began a little after 9:30, and was certainly worth the wait.
After that I attended a wine and cheese and chocolate “Sacred Decadence” tasting hosted by Arianna Lightningstorm of the band Kiva. From there I went to the fire circle and stayed up way too late. Making the ride home Sunday kind of grueling, because I was REALLY flippin’ tired. But here I am.
Going away!
Wow, I didn’t post all weekend. I suck.
I’ve been busily preparing for Free Spirit Gathering, during which I will be teaching or facilitating four different workshops. None of which will be on Thursday, because on Thursday I’m leaving the festival to take Arthur to his college orientation!
I will be gone from tomorrow morning until Sunday night, and I will not be bringing my laptop. No! Computers!
Also, Arthur will be “collecting” his 18th birthday present at Free Spirit, which is his first tattoo. I’m…not like other mothers.
Anyway, Tom will be minding the store and hosting the trivia, and that always works out.
Thank you to Halcyon Moon
On Sunday, I did a talk, book-signing, and readings at Halcyon Moon in Beachwood, NJ (near Toms River). It was a pretty good turnout, and the people were focused and interested. My talk on “The Elements of Ritual” covered basic qualities of the elements (Air, Fire, Water, and Earth), occult history, the way that the elements have manifested in different kinds of ritual and occult groups, the nature of the magic circle, how and why Guardians of the Quarters can be called, and the presence of elemental symbols on the altar. Among other things. It was wide-ranging and fun.
Halcyon Moon is a lovely little store with lots of things like rattles and jewelry that are made by local artists, as well as more typical things like crystals and wands. I was pleased to see a lot of altar basics in stock; so few stores these days carry the Wicca 101 things like athames and pentacles, but Christina had them.
I certainly would be happy to visit there again, despite the long drive!
Here’s what my next few days look like
Tomorrow morning I am at a course in Manhattan. This necessitates catching a 7 a.m. bus. The problem being I don’t normally get out of bed until 7:30. Oh, well. I’m actually looking forward to the course, which should really contribute a lot to my day job. And in the evening I’ll be meeting my sister, sister-in-law, and nephew for eats.
Saturday morning, part two of the course. Same damn early rising, but driving because no bus runs from my home on weekends.
Sunday morning I have to leave at 9 a.m. to get to my lecture in New Jersey at 11. Readings to follow. So that’s a busy day.
But wait, there’s more!
Monday morning I have to be in Baltimore at 8:30 a.m. So I’ll drive straight from Halcyon Moon to my hotel and arrange my bright and grumble grumble wake up call.
Monday afternoon I drive the 3 1/2 hours home from Baltimore. Undoubtedly chipper as a gorram puppy.
I’ll have my laptop with me but I don’t guarantee blogging.
Lecture, book signing, and readings down the shore
Advance notice: I’ll be appearing at Halcyon Moon in Beachwood, New Jersey on April 13. That’s a Sunday morning at 11am. I’ll be lecturing on “Elements of Ritual” and doing private tarot readings afterwards. (Contact the store, not me, for reading appointments and ticket information.)
Site of the Week
I have mentioned before that my sister and I have a Mad Men blog. Nice little sideline? NOPE! We are AMC’s Mad Men Site of the Week.
Yay us!
Polish!
For the second time, foreign rights to one of my books have been sold. The Elements of Ritual will be published in Poland. In Polish.
Sooo cool.
Coast to Coast AM
So, I was on Coast to Coast AM radio for three hours this morning. PHEW.
The show was absolutely fantastic. Rollye James was a terrific host to work with, she asked smart, complex questions and really listened to the answers. You’d think that’s a given, but I’ve done a lot of radio and it definitely isn’t always the case.
The listeners who called in were fantastic too. I was expecting to get slammed, just because I figure that when the phone lines are open, that’s who’s going to call, but that didn’t happen at all. I spoke to several Wiccans, some people dealing with psychic phenomena, and everyone was warm and engaging. The whole experience was excellent.
The down side? It was from 2 am to 5 am, my time. And somehow the communication lines got messed up in setting up the show, so I thought it was one hour, not three. I’d have taken a better afternoon nap if I’d known.
I’ve gotten thousands of hits on this little blog since the Coast to Coast schedule went up announcing my appearance, all referred through Coast to Coast. So hi to all my new visitors!
I don’t know if my Monday Movie Review will go up. I did manage to watch a movie last night but I didn’t write a review yet, and I suspect I may get punchy today.
