Gemini With Mercury Strong: AKA Why I Don't Blog On Time

I didn't forget Lamas, I haven't been terribly busy, in fact I have no real good reason why I haven't updated in almost a month beyond the fact of...that's me. 

So I am going to talk about astrology.  You can look at it one of two ways. Way one I call "Local Newspaper View" and the other I call "Happens To Be Me View".  Let's start by saying even when I was in my 'must be a good christian' era, I loved reading horoscopes and tried with the resources at hand to learn about astrology. The info I got on it was basic at best and then as my nature dictates, I drifted away from it for a while while distracted by other things.  So when I began studying wicca, I found what I consider to be a pretty good book on the subject.

Ruling Planets: Your Astrological Guide to Life's Ups and Downs by Christopher Renstrom

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I really enjoy this book.  I can't say for sure that it is the best one out there (since I have only read one or two others) but I really like it. The descriptions are very detailed and I have gotten a lot of good use out of it.

I remember flipping through it, and becoming very nervous when as I skimmed through the list that it was looking possible that I might not be a Gemini, but as it turned out I am.  (This comes up because I recently looked up a friend of mine at her request, and it turns out she is not a Pisces as she always believed but actually a Capricorn.  Which she still completely rejects.)  Which is all well and good.  I say I have always loved horoscopes and the zodiac, but that doesn't mean I believe every posting I see in the paper.  It all ends up watered down and vague so that anyone could say "yeah that sounds like me right now".  Which was the case today at work when I read for Gemini "Your mind is preoccupied with sex today" to which I immediately thought 'yeah well now it is...'.  

But I digress.  The thing is no one has to believe in astrology, or their horoscope, but I feel that at least based on the book I have been reading that people who study it would probably know me better than some of my close friends.  Because it is the very nature of Gemini to babble away without really giving that much information away.  It is also the very nature of Gemini, specifically with Mercury strong, to bounce from project to project without a clear plan to finish it.  

So long story short... I was distracted by video games, then painting, then video games again, and now I have jumped head first into astrology because that is how the mood strikes me...  Then just as I was about to drift off to sleep, one of those many thoughts that buzz around the back of my head went "remember that blog you were doing" and now I am here typing half awake...

Well... There you go... Goodnight/Morning

Greater Than? Or Equal To?

I have recently (past month or no updates) had a couple experiences at work.  Mostly with one co-worker in particular.  James is an older man who after a life of self-described wild ramblings and cuttings-up, has found his answers in the bible.  Which is fine and wonderful for him, it seems to have brought him a lot of peace and stability to his life.  In general he is a friendly, good-hearted guy, and we've always (and still do) get along.  

In the past month he seems to have taken a specific interest in who believes what.  Which led him to me.  It started with him asking out of the blue one day, "Are you a religious person? Because I can tell by the way you behave and the way you treat people that you probably are or at least were raised in it."  

I told him I was religious 'in a way' but I don't go to church anymore.  I told him a few things about the way I was raised, but made sure to add that I know plenty of people that weren't raised in church that are good and I didn't believe you had to read the bible in order to have morals.  

Ever since then, he has taken to suddenly not knowing what certain words in his bible are or what they mean; which leads him to ask me "what's this word here?" and pass me the bible.  Which, I'm not complaining, I don't mind and who knows maybe he doesn't know the word (there are a lot of complicated/rarely used words in the kj version).  But come on, I know what's really going on there.  And again, I don't really mind it, it's just something I have noticed.  

 So the real point of this is, it's obvious this man cares about me (and my soul) in a platonic "hey you're a good pal and I'd hate to see you burn in hell" kind of way.  As I said he is a nice guy with the best of intentions; but I have heard him speak at length about "people who take and do the wrong thing"  and there is quite a list of these people...

I am one of those people (on more counts that just wicca) and I can't help but wonder how quickly this friendly little game of getting me to read the bible would change if I just up and said, "so when I said I was sort of religious, I am actually very religious, I'm just not in the same religion as you."  It's not something I am likely to find out anytime soon.  It's just something I can't help but think about.  

Also, one of the girls at work lost her bible, and it occurred to me "well duh, how many of those do I have at home" which lead me to remember, "oh yeah, one, I left all the others at my parents house..."  So I brought her my bible so she wouldn't have to shell out who-knows how much the bookstores charge for one these days.  So I am pretty sure this random act of kindness/recycling has single-handedly assured everyone at work that James has me well on the path back to church...

 So no, it wasn't my intention to fool him into leaving me alone (in fact I think this will probably lead to even more "bible time") I just wanted to do something nice for someone at work who's had a lot happen to her in the past few months.

Bette: Sports, Spells, And Superstition

Oddly enough, the first person who has asked me to do anything remotely spell-involving, is Bette. I am not at the point of actually practicing magik, I mostly do tarot and other divination. 

She was talking about how she had a shirt that she couldn't wear because when she wears it (or even takes it out of the closet) her sports team looses.  "It's total bad luck, and I am afraid to even give it away because it's bad luck."  So I jokingly said that I could cleanse it.  She got a lot more excited about it than I thought she would.  I also found out why it was bad luck to start with, from the moment she bought it she was already thinking 'this one won't be as good as my old one'. 

So the first cleansing I have ever done for anyone goes to Bette.  To cleanse the negative energies she has put into the shirt by deciding it was bad luck. 

Now the tricky part is, I can cleanse the shirt, bring it to neutral again (because I'm not putting any actual spell on it) but if she takes it back thinking "oh look, my bad luck shirt that isn't as good as my old one" then it won't matter at all.  So before I even put the energy into doing this I have to know that she believes it will be the best most fantastic shirt the world has ever known when she get's it back from me.  Which she has promised to try to do... 

So now I have brought the shirt back to neutral and feel sure that it has no residual negativity left on it.  All there is to do now is get it back to Bette, the rest is up to her.

Nina Part 2: Magic is not Magik

My husband plays

 

(I play a little too but it's really not my favorite of games.)   Nina's husband Saul was looking for a game to get into and a new store has opened in our town that sells Magic cards.  So my husband was teaching him how to play. 

Saul went home a few nights ago and told Nina that my husband was showing him Magic and she freaked out a little.  My husband explained what it is to her, pretty much like playing a video game with cards.   

A few days later we were hanging out at Nina and Saul's and they decided to play.  Nina began to have a lot of questions again, but she kept directing the questions at me (I wasn't playing).  So again I kept saying "no it's a card game, it's just a game, no it has nothing to do with real magik".  She would smile and say ok. And then a few minutes latter would have a new question.

"You know how Ouija boards are just games, is it something like that?" or "so for real it's not anything but a game?" and so on. Or "Is it like those cards you use to tell the future?"

It really kind of hurt me, I stayed as patient as I could, but I was really close to asking them for a hand full of cards so she could see how ridiculous it was to think these creatures were being summoned from another plane of existence.  She didn't want to get close to the table they were playing at so I wasn't sure if she would even let me show her what the cards were.  

A few days latter and we are still clearing it up and explaining it to her.  It really strikes me that, if Saul was learning the game from anyone else who wasn't associated with me, or if my hubby had started showing him the game a year or two ago she wouldn't have a question in the world about it.  She keeps making a point to say "I think it's so great that we can love and trust each other even though we don't have the same faith" but that's not the way she is making me feel.  I am trying to keep a sense of humor about it; hence this post.

To be clear. Nina's opinion wouldn't matter to me if I didn't think she was sweet, wonderful, kind, and smart woman. So that's not what this post is about; it's not about 'oh look how silly this person is, she must be really dumb' that's not what I'm saying. She is just having a harder time than most letting go of fears that, let's face it, are pretty much supported by society in general (at least here in the bible belt).  I laugh and poke fun at it because that helps me deal with the situation beyond 'wow it really hurts me that she would think these things'.  

Back to business, with the whole Magic misunderstanding on it's way to being cleared up and put aside. I must find a way to introduce Nina & Saul to the mystical, diabolical game...of Uno.