Wondrous Apparitions, Provided by Magicians.

I was having a conversation with druidevo in which I was pointing out that I am easily the only pagan on the planet who doesn't have a totem animal. Oh, sure, I like birds and dogs and foxes and things, and if pressed, I can probably give you at least one way in which I am like any animal you care to name, but I don't have any special relationship with any of them. I can probably also give you at least one reason that I'm like any given car, or breakfast cereal, too. That doesn't really mean anything.

Now, druidevo was not buying this story. He says, "You do too have a totem. Hello, monster." And I thought, "Hrm. Is monster a totem? Monster's sort of, well, unnatural for a guiding nature spirit, isn't it? But hell, maybe that works. I don't know."

So I'm thinking about the whole business. The totem thing is rooted in identification, which is to say that the person who has the totem thinks of themselves as being like the totem in some significant ways, but also about guidance, which is to say that the person who has the totem feels that they are being taught important things by observation of the totem. I am certainly like a monster. That part's easy. But what, if anything does monster teach?

1. Not everything fits neatly into one of any given set of pigeonholes. Some things are built haphazardly from a motley collection of organs and systems. And really, isn't that more interesting and impressive?

2. Think long term and practice patience. When you can sleep beneath the vasty deeps for aeons uncounted, or survive for hundreds of years in remote arctic research facilities, before emerging again into the daylight of human consciousness, you understand that not everything has to happen right at this very moment.

3. Sometimes, you have to rampage in order to get what you need. Had Frankenstein's monster stayed quietly in the castle minding his own business, the doctor would never have needed to build him a Bride to placate him.

4. Looks can be deceiving. Gamera, despite his fearsome appearance, is a friend to children everywhere.

5. Never accept limitations. There's always something out there that you can use to rebuild, enhance, or mutate yourself into a more capable form.

6. Be adaptable. Really, where would The Blob have been if it could only engulf and eat a limited range of Earth substances?

And of course:

7. History shows again and again how Nature points up the folly of men. Godzilla!

So there you are, seven valuable lessons from monster. Now, you might also say that monster runs rampant all over everything, indiscriminately killing everything it encounters, and doing vast amounts of damage to perfectly innocent superstructures. You would, of course, be correct, but hey. Crows steal shiny things, wolves terrify the populace, and bears shit in the woods, but you don't hear anybody bringing that stuff up in totem discussions, do you?

Tonight, EHQ is hosting the Mabon ritual for Wild Hare Protogrove. This is a public ritual, so if you are local and have an interest in ADF-style ritual, you're welcome to attend.

Autumn Equinox is a sort of odd holiday for me, particularly in this context, because there really isn't a lot of historical background for things that were directly related to the holiday. That's fine when I'm working on my own or with Gaia Community, because if there's something that I don't have any trouble doing, it's making things up, but Wild Hare is a little different. So, in this ritual, we're sort of celebrating the lack of context, as well as working the other end of some work we've done earlier in the year.

See, ADF works within an Indo-European cosmology, and makes a lot of offerings and agreements with various gods, spirits, ancestors and whatnot. All of which is good times. In the Spring, we did a ritual that was about connecting with Proto-Indo-European powers, which was also good times. So now, in the Fall, we're working the other end of the timeline. See, some of us have noticed that we don't exactly live in Europe anymore, and we've got generations of ancestors who didn't, either, but we sort of think that they might have brought some IE religious concepts over on the boats with them. Maybe. So in tonight's ritual, we're making a connection with the gods they built or contacted or found when they got here. We hope that this, too will be good times.

If this sounds fun/interesting/useful to you, we hope you'll join us. EHQ, 7 p.m. gathering, 7:30 ritual. ADF ritual style includes a place for people to make offerings to just about anybody, so if you have a deity or power you'd like to make an offering to, please bring your offering with you. Offerings do not have to be 'things'. :)

Four from capriciouslass:
1. Besides Eris, Lugh, and Oshun (sp?); what, if any, other patrons do you have? ( Read more... )
2. I have problems keeping up with the 2 patrons I have, how do you manage with at least 3 rather disparate ones?( Read more... )
3. What would be your ideal job?( Read more... )
4. I believe that whiskey and rum are not allowed on your diet. What sorts of alcohol, if any, are you able to drink on the new diet?( Read more... )

So it went down like this:
The big winner was jackbabalon23, who got 5 votes for his mojo shop jingle answer (I suspect that the energy drink made of powdered Shoggoths was at least partially responsible).

Next, adammaker picked up three points for the CB cross-talk of the gods, and malvito snagged three for the unfortunate troubles of Gerald Gardner's cat.

At two votes apiece were saffronhare's invocation of the Rock Lobster, ceruleanst's explanation of the secret alphabet of the Anglo-Saxon witches, catvincent's condemnation of the horrible bastardization of different cultural memes, and fionnabhar's pseudo-Proto-Indo-European scholarship.

Also, hekatatia got a vote for the bit about the embarrassed priest who tried to cover having shouted "ECHO!" down the well, and 8elements picked up one vote for her haiku-like answer about the beginning and the end.

tryst_inn also wrote in with an answer that was one of the more believable explanations I'd discovered in my research on this question, which I quote below: ( This might well be the actual answer )
( Total points after six rounds: )

I just got done with 5 or so hours of making itty bitty tiny hairbrushes and mirrors, and then making itty bitty tiny clay roses to go on them. For this, I get paid. Unreal.

In other news, the Parade of Beltane continues. Tonight triadruid and I lead the WH Beltane, and then, Sunday, we finish off the extravaganza with Gaia Community's Beltane. There are advantages to knowing a lot of pagans and being involved in a lot of groups, but also, there are so many Sabbats to manage. And, really, Autumn Equinox, you can skip some, but Beltane? By the gods, no, you will go to every available Beltane. Why? Because, as rio_luna would have it, Beltane is the dumb blonde of the Sabbats, but she's also the best dancer, and the one most likely to go home with you afterwards.

In other other news, people who say things to me like "I know very little about you -- tell me something about yourself that I don't know" deserve what they get. Particularly if they follow it up with "Tell me something unusual, not run-of-the-mill." I mean, really. This is your warning shot.

Of course, what I'd really like to do (and what kittenpants would like to do) is a big Dionysia gathering. Have I talked about this before? We'd want some sort of a venue in which we could do workshops during the day, and big concerts and ecstatic ritual in the evenings, in a big multi-day event.

Also, art, theater, music, and other creative endeavors. Something between Burning Man, Ye Olde Paganne Gathering, and a Peak Experience Production, but dedicated to and focused around Dionysus.

It would, of course, be the sort of event for which waivers would have to be signed.

Apparently, saffronhare will be out of town on the date set for the Wild Hare Beltane. That means that I'm doing the priesty bits all by my onesies. And that means you can more or less loook forward to it being all Welsh and whatnot. You know why? Because I want to get to say "Agorer y pyrth!", that's why. "Wele'r tân cysygredig" is fun, too.

Of course, there's always the possibility that someone will volunteer to help lead the rite. That would reduce the chance of Welsh by 50%, according to my calculations. (motivate, motivate, motivate)
:)

I am not usually of the opinion that imagination is a resource that one can become depleted of, but after this weekend, I'm reconsidering that possibility.
( The Amnesia Game )( The Wheel of Time Game )( The Choose Your Own Adventure Ritual )( Ghost Rider (motorcycle hero) )
That was my weekend, how about yours?

Today, my how-to of the day (courtesy of Google) is How to use your iPod as a tarot deck. I haven't got an iPod, of course, but the concept is entertaining enough to me that I want to play with it.

The core of the exercise is this: Assign a song to each card in a 78-card tarot deck (the original poster is using a Rider-Waite style, but one imagines that the Thoth and its descendents would work just as well). The original poster's playlist is here.

I'll probably drop my complete list in a post in a few days. For now, there are some possibilities floating about in my brain. If you were to compile such a list, what might be on it?

EDIT: Also, [attention whore] Love me! [/whore]

( The Good )

( The Surprising )

( The Not So Much With The Good )

( The Exciting (but not in the happy fun way) )

So, how was your weekend?