Goldsworthy

Gaia

And When He Was Good, He Was Very, Very Good

You have to go read all of Cauldron Born today. It's even a readable length, this time.

Here are a few of my favorite bits:

I am the womb of every holt,
I am the blaze on every hill,
I am the queen of every hive,
I am the shield for every head,
I am the tomb of every hope.

Final verses of "The Song of Amergin"

and

The loss of wisdom among human beings has emptied more than the houses of bees. It has emptied the houses of men and women. Could the Great Mother have called herself "the Mother of Every Family"? Certainly. Today, in Iraq, many houses sit burned out and empty, where once mothers raised children- they are dead now, dead because wicked human beings sent bombs and bullets into their sacred living places. What really sent those bombs flying? Greed, the very antithesis of Wisdom.

I think the notion of greed as the antithesis of wisdom is brilliant, and far too little appreciated today.

The "cure" for the bees is the same as the cure for unjust wars- be a fair and noble sovereign over your own life. Honor yourself and the Land, and by extension, you will honor all life on the Land. Do not tolerate greed and blindness to our duties in this vast web of life that we are all a part of. If you can create a harmony inside yourself, and between yourself and the Land, this will create a healing power which will echo out into the world.

You, like Amergin, are, deep down, the Queen of Every Hive. Her spirit lives through you. Your intentions and actions are sacred, and have power, if you would only become conscious of that fact. One thing is certain- your [remaining] unconsciousness of this fact doesn't stop the great connection you have with all things from being a reality, and it hurts the world when you act unconsciously and unwisely. Open yourself.

Cancer Prevention Cabbage

Thorn has up a brilliant rant today that I think everyone should read. She discusses the problems caused by high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and points out that:

It is also a class issue in that healthier, organic, foods are more expensive these days, as opposed to a few generations ago when simple, non-processed, foods were cheaper. The situation also points to the ways in which our society has shifted to one where most people have to work too much to make ends meet and therefore don’t have as much time to cook nourishing food, so rely on processed, pre-packaged products, or worse, “fast food,” all of which are filled with HFCS. Diabetes is not the only physical problem caused by this.

HFCS is cheap and putting it in food keeps agribusiness rich.

Green smoothies are one easy way to have a quick meal that doesn't include HFCS. Another easy meal that I cook up on the weekends and then have several nights a week is Susun Weed's Cancer Prevention Cabbage.

Place some dried seaweed in water and let it sit. In olive oil, saute shredded cabbage and chopped onions. Add some grated carrots and continue cooking. Chop up the by-now softened seaweed and add that and the water to the sauted vegetables. Add some organic tamari (I especially like the wasabi-flavored tamari I get at Whole Foods). You can serve this alone or with rice or barley. You can top with sunflower seeds, as well. Even if you think that you don't like cabbage, you'll like this.

OHPLEASEOHPLEASEOHPLEASEOHPLEASE

I wonder if the Goddess loves me this much??

Shame On Walter Reed. Again

Really?

And I Feel Fine

She Said

My ratio could be better. i read about this on Echidne's blog, where she said some very interesting things. (Grin).

I Think Josh Has This just Right

Full Moon Bazooms Blogging

Sheesh, I forgot to put this up on the first of the month. Luckily, I have readers who remind me.

The first of the month is a good time for women to do a breast self exam (BSE) to check for lumps. A lump may not be cancer at all, but it could be. BSE can help you find lumps early and get them checked out while there's still time to save your life. It's easy to do a BSE. Here's how.

Guys, are there women you'd miss if they died from breast cancer? How about helping out? Remind them to do a monthly BSE. Clean up after dinner or take the kids to the park so that she has some time to do a BSE.

Go, Edwards! More Like This!

Impeach!

Freeway Blogger's on a roll. What are you doing this weekend?

Schools Apparently Taking Up Where the VA Left Off

Via Witchvox, comes a story from nwi.com (which appears to cover the Northwest) about a teenage Wiccan sent home from school for wearing a pentacle on her cheek at Beltane. My bet is that tattoos, for example, aren't disallowed at this public school, so it's difficult to understand how this is anything other than religious discrimination. As the young woman's father notes, catholics aren't sent home on Ash Wednesday when they show up with similar-sized smudges of ash on their foreheads.

M. Macha Nightmare has a post up discussing a recently-released book about teenage Wiccans.

Aristocrats

What driftglass said.

The Month Of Yes You May

Blessed Beltane

People Of Faith

The term "people of faith" has always been a kind of Trojan Horse, designed to sneak one concept into public discourse while pretending to be another, particularly when it's used as a criterion for public office, as in: Would you vote for someone who was not a "person of faith"? Although it sounds somewhat inclusive, it's always been understood to exclude, for example, Wicca, which isn't a religion based on faith, but on experience. In actuality, it's never really stood for anything other than, at most, the three Abrahamic sects, xianity, Judiasm, and Islam. Since 9/11, it's clearly stood for, at most, xianity and Judiasm. And, as the recent kerfluffle over Barak Obama's religion indicates, it really only includes certain types of xianity, to wit, mainstream (white) and evanglical xinity.

Obama may think that he can win the votes of "people of faith"; he "began his presidential announcement with the phrase 'Giving all praise and honor to God,'" and he's tried in various ways to make himself attractive to evangelicals, but he's mistaken. And, as the picture of Obama's stepgrandmother (that's right, that's how far they're willing to stretch to find the "taint" of Islamic faith, all the way to a stepgrandmother, for Goddess sake) shows, it's not only the fact that he's the wrong type of xian that disqualifies Obama as a "person of faith," it's also the fact that somewhere in his family tree, there may be "people of the Islamic faith."

There are excellent reasons that our Founders wrote separtion of church and state into the Constitution. One reason for that important separation is that no matter what Trojan Horse phrases they may use, the majority religion will discriminate against anyone who doesn't share their "faith" by turning membership into a requirement to hold public office. And that's a big mistake.

Pagans And Sex Holidays.

Great Green Man on a Gondola! These folks sure do know how to celebrate Beltane! Sia has a lovely post up to accompany the calendar and a good discussion of what Beltan's all about.

Now, if I can just find one of those buttons . . . .