My Goodness; That's A Surprise. No, It's Not!

The WaPo, which is a piece of crap newspaper whose Sunday readership declined by quite a bit last quarter due, inter alia, to the fact that they have a lying scumbucket for an "ombudsman", reports that -- big surprise -- under the Bush administration, rich women avoid unwanted pregnancies, while poor women increasingly do not.

Because governmental policies designed to do just that have been successful.

The article says: "The abortion rate also rose among poor women while declining among the more affluent.

'Clearly, something is changing, and it doesn't bode well in terms of unplanned pregnancies and abortions for poor women, in particular,' said Heather Boonstra, one of the authors of the report.

Asked what was driving the trends, the authors noted that some state and federal reproductive health programs have been cut or made more restrictive in recent years. State and federal programs have increasingly focused on abstinence rather than contraception, and some analysts have argued that the shift is leading to less use of contraceptives and more unintended pregnancies."

I hate these people.

Culture of Life, my smooth, round, peachy ass.

Through The Looking Glass

There's a natural tendency, I think, to suppose that most others believe what we believe. (You agree, right? See! I told you!) So maybe I'm mistaken, but I've always thought that most Americans generally agreed that there were some things that were best done by the government, particularly the federal government, and that, conversely, there were some things that the government should stay the hell out of.

Examples: Protecting Americans from attacks or natural disasters, building interstate highways, funding research into national problems such as cancer, HIV, or the need for clean energy are tasks best done by the federal government. Deciding who to marry, whether or not to have children, what religion, if any, to practice, and deciding when and how to die are decisions best left entirely to the people involved and the government, particularly the federal government, needs to carefully avoid trampling on the personal liberties involved in those sorts of decisions.

In fact, there was a time, not too long ago, when it was the conservatives who kept proclaiming that government needed to stay out of people's lives. They'd dig up examples of over-zealous Social Service agents who removed a child from her home because her parents sent her to bed without dinner one night to punish her bad behavior and worry that the next thing you knew, Big Brother would have cameras in everyone's home to monitor them 24/7. (OK, we didn't say "24/7" back then, but if the expression had been invented, they'd have used it.)

Now, in George Bush's America (I unfortunately mean that more literally than I'd like), it's as if we've stepped through the looking glass and everything's backward. Our first big clue was the federal government's failure to pay any attention to a Presidential Daily Briefing (PDB) entitled "bin Laden Determined to Strike Within US." The president was too busy taking a month-long vacation in a hell-hole in Texas to bother with protecting Americans from attacks by terrorists. Even after it happened, the Bush administration had to be pretty much dragged, pouting and sticking out their lower lips, into attacking the country that had harbored the Saudis who attacked us. Not much fun for them in attacking Afghanistan, even if that's where our attackers had come from.

Our next big clue -- like we needed another one -- was Katrina. Again, Bush and his administration were on vacation and, even with plenty of advance warning, sat around and did nothing to protect Americans from this natural disaster, nor to help them deal with its aftermath. When pushed uncharacteristically hard about its failure to act by the generally lapdogiscal press, Bush & Co. trotted out an idea that should have shocked all Americans even more than it did: it was the State of Louisiana's responsibility to deal with this problem, size and scope of it be damned. It was a particularly amazing statement coming from an administration that had spent millions and millions of dollars "reorganizing" the federal government around the distastefully-named "Department of Homeland Security."

We got our third big clue just this week. Bush announced that, come the avian bird flu epidemic, Americans could count on whatever help they might get from their state governments, but the federal government -- you know, the people who run the CDC -- wasn't going to bother to get too involved, so don't expect it and don't criticize them when they don't lift a finger because, well, they told us a few months ahead of time not to count on them. A coming world-wide pandemic and the federal government of the United States of America says, "Americans, you're on your own."

Coupled with this stunning abdication of traditional federal responsibilities, we've seen an equally stunning intrusion into American's personal lives. Our fist clue should have been "faith-based" funding of religious activities -- something that would have turned the Founding Fathers' stomachs. From that point on, the Bush administration has been more concerned with legislating how Americans live their private lives than any American government ever in the 200+ years of the Republic. Access to birth control of all forms, but especially abortion, is denied, a particularly odious and distasteful brand of xian fundamentalism is shoved down our throats at every opportunity, right-to-die laws are fought all the way to SCOTUS, gay sex is used as a match to ignite the dry timber of Bush's "base," and Bush flies at midnight back from a Texas vacation -- something he wouldn't do for the PDB or Katrina -- to interfere in Michael Schiavo's decision concerning how his brain-dead wife would have wanted to die.

WTF? WTF? Where are all the conservatives of the 1970s and 1980s who wanted a limited role for government? I'm beginning to think they never wanted to limit the government's role in any aspect of American's lives at all. They wanted to limit the extent to which government could regulate corporations. Period. Because, otherwise, I sure as hell would have expected them to be rioting in the street over some of Bush's intrusions into American's lives.

Sure, we're beginning to hear that conservatives are "upset" with Bush over governmental spending -- which has gone up under Bush while taxes on the rich have gone down. They don't want more taxes, but less spending, apparently on the few social services the government still provides because I haven't heard any of them complain about the cost of our illegal war in Iraq coughHaliburtoncough. Recent polls seem to show that some of Bush's losses are due to people who call themselves conservatives being unhappy with him. Not, I guess, for lying us into a war or turning his back on the traditional role of the federal government, but for getting caught lying us into a war and threatening their control of both houses of Congress.

So get ready to start hearing that Bush was never a "real" conservative and that, in 2008, we should elect a "real" conservative who'll do it right this time. It reminds me of a speech that I heard the now-fired CEO of Reliant Energy give after the California energy debacle. (Maybe that should have been our first clue, when Cheney basically told California it was on its own, even though only the federal government could, by law, regulate the energy prices.) Reliant insisted that the problem wasn't that California had deregulated its energy markets, it was that California hadn't deregulated all the way. True, complete deregulation would, he assured his listeners, fix everything. Shortly thereafter, it was discovered that Reliant had been manipulating California's energy markets and laughing on tape about it.

When Newt Gingrich says that the Democrats' slogan ought to be: Had Enough? it's because Newt plans to answer that question by saying that Bush was never a real conservative, but that a real, true, honest-to-goodness conservative (who'll cut social spending to the bone) would be a real change and great for America.

Goddess, I hope we're now too smart to buy that tripe. But the marketing campaign is coming. You watch.

Thank You Very Much Mr. Colbert. You Rock!

Go here and thank Stephen Colbert for having balls the size of Jupiter.

Beltane and Walpurgisnight!

Scant posting over the next few days. Monday is Beltane -- for me, the highest of high holy days! We celebrate new life, Spring, sex, growth, flowering, potential, fecundity, and -- frankly -- fucking. I love me some Beltane. And, at my age, I take me some time to recover. Also, huge conference that I've organized happening on Tuesday which, by my calculations, takes place precisely one day after Beltane, so I likely won't sleep for about 48 hours.

It's ok. It's worth it. I love to dance and, on Beltane, WE DANCE!

Here's hoping that Spring in all its forms is good to you. that what you've been wanting to see manifest becomes manifest, that all the seeds you've planted, in every area, germinate, and that, to quote the country song, when you get the chance, you dance.

Boobies!

Women! It's the first of the month! STOP what you're doing and go give yourself a breast self-exam!

Men! It's the fist of the moth! STOP what you're doing and get your woman to give herself a breast self-exam!

Here's how it's done.

At the very least, go calendar this so you'll remember to do it at the right time of the month.

I love you. I want you to live long and prosper. Breast cancer is almost 100% curable if found early.

Sunday Akhmatova Blogging

In every revolution, the main issue is power.

V. I. Lenin

"Poetry is power," Osip Mandelstam once said to Akhmatova in Voronezh, and she bowed her head on its slender neck. Banished, sick, penniless and hounded, they still would not give up their power.

Nadezhda Mandelstam

Akhmatova continue to evade me. I think now I've been misguided in insisting upon reading her poetry before her biography. I'll need to read about her life if I ever hope to read her poetry even semi-competently. But how can I give up on a woman who agreed so eloquently that poetry is about power and about revolution.

At any rate, I like the feminist feel of this poem:

Lot's Wife
by Anna Akhmatova
Translated by Max Hayward and Stanley Kunitz

And the just man trailed God's shining agent,

over a black mountain, in his giant track,

while a restless voice kept harrying his woman:

"It's not too late, you can still look back



at the red towers of your native Sodom,

the square where once you sang, the spinning-shed,

at the empty windows set in the tall house

where sons and daughters blessed your marriage-bed."



A single glance: a sudden dart of pain

stitching her eyes before she made a sound . . .

Her body flaked into transparent salt,

and her swift legs rooted to the ground.



Who will grieve for this woman? Does she not seem

too insignificant for our concern?

Yet in my heart I never will deny her,

who suffered death because she chose to turn.

What's Anna saying? That it's ok to want to look back? That it's ok to love the comforts and memory of home? That men and their patriarchial god too often trail off into the desert ignoring the things important to women? Or was this a huge comment upon the Soviets that I fail to grasp because I know so little of her life? Well, Anna, I wish I could invite you over to sit in my yard and have tea and tell me, while we enjoy the herb-scented breezes, what you were writing about. I'd offer you cheese, fruit, bread -- the things that were in such short supply while you were writing. We could talk about women turned into "transparent salt," which sounds to me like as good a description as any I'm likely to read of tears.

Friday Family Blogging

My gorgeous daughter-in-law, who has turned out to be the world's most wonderful mother, and my wonderful grandson, who loves his Nonna sooooooooo much!

Let Us Know How That Works Out, Will Ya??

From the DCPagan Yahoo Group:

"You have to see this one to believe it. Christians praying to the God Gasolina. How about praying for some alternative energy sources?

Article here.

D.C. prayer rally to seek lower gas prices

WASHINGTON, April 26 (UPI) -- A U.S. Christian group has grown tired of escalating gasoline prices and is set to stage a national prayer rally to lower the numbers at the pumps.

Various Christian clergy from around the country will convene around a Washington, D.C., gas station Thursday at noon to pray. For those who can't attend, a live Internet site and toll-free prayer line have been established.

In a release, the Pray Live group said many people are "overlooking the power of prayer when it comes to resolving this energy crisis."

Apart from sending a message to God, the rally had a message for humanity, said Wenda Royster, the group's founder.

"It is our hope that seeing and hearing some of the nation's most powerful preachers gathered around a gas station and the United States capital as a backdrop, will remind everyone who is really in charge of our world -- God," Royster said.

The Web site is at praylive.com. The toll-free phone number is 888-PRAYLIVE."

Countdown

Too long, by any reckoning!

Fear, Thriving, and Money

I'm thinking a lot this year about thriving. How do we thrive in a world in the grip of madmen? How do we thrive on a planet undergoing dramatic climate change? How do we thrive in the waning days of the carbon-based economy? I'm also thinking a lot about fear. How do our fears keep us from thriving? Do they help us to thrive? What can we learn about ourselves by examining our fears?

Both of these issues -- thriving and fear -- are wound up in the issue of money and, more specifically, in the issue of debt. My brilliant friend Katrina Messenger, who cooks THE best greens that anyone has ever eaten, has posted an article on debt, part of a series she's been doing on the psychology of money in the Western world; Katrina kindly allowed me to collaborate with her on this article. Check it out and let me know what you think!

What are your fears about debt? How much of your debt is related to your fears? In what specific ways would you thrive if you were debt-free?

OMFG, You Should Totally Go Celebrate Beltane At Four Quarters

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Four Quarters is incorporated as a Not-for-Profit Church, Monastery and Church Camp celebrating
Earth Religion in the State of Pennsylvania. FED EIN 25-1853964, PA EXMP 75-467-104
::www.4QF.org:: ::www.FourQuartersFarm.org:: ::www.FourQF.org:: © 1995-2006 Four Quarters, The Church of Four Quarters and Four Quarters Farm.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beltaine 2006
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Fri April 28th - Sun April 30th, 2006

Real People, Real Traditions, Real Community.
It's about Spring, it's about Family.
It's for Babies and Children, Maids and Gallants.
Our Aunts, Uncles, Mothers and Fathers, Elders and Ancestors.

Our joyous journey through the Wheel of the Year and the Web of Life.

Children under 16 are Loved, Cherished and Free!
Saturday Evening Feast is free to all attending.

Registrations
Friday Arrival - $65
Saturday Arrival - $55

Meal Plans
3 Meals and Feast; Fri Dinner - Sunday Brunch
$30.50 PreReg Only

FRIDAY
Supper with the Starvin' Artist
7:00 PM - Community Setup of Drum Circle where "we the tribe" come together to clean and prepare the space for ceremony; rake the sand, set the candles, bring small offerings for the Drum Altar or the Ancestor Chair, and help decorate! 8:00 PM - First Fire Ceremony in the Drum Circle - Join us in lighting the first fire of the year. Carry a charged ember from this Fire back to your own campsite to share the community's blessings for the season.

SATURDAY
9-10:30 Brunch with the Starvin' Artist
10:30 Kids meet at Fox Altar to begin Ceremonial Procession through camp 11-12:30 Seeding the Stones Ceremony led by Holly Florczyk; Orren Whiddon will aid the Kids' Tribe in Raising a Seed Stone in the Stone Circle. Spiral Scouts in Uniform, please. 12:30-2 Wreathmaking for the Maypole, Main Stage with Echaria; bedecking the symbols of Beltaine for Raising the Maypole 12:30-2 Making Fairy Houses, Day Stage with Coriander Woodruff; crafting small dwellings for the Little Folk. For all ages.

Also beginning around 12:30 in the Stone Circle, Handfasting of Chris Trembly (who is currently serving in Iraq) and her fiancee Ardith Micheaux.

2-4pm Raising and Dancing the Maypole in the Merchants' Green; Learn the steps and follow the dance! Led by Dan Velleman.

4:00 The Handfasting of the Lord and Lady of Spring Eric Young and Kari Thorssen. Stand with us and witness the wedding of Eric and Kari as they step forward into their life together.

5-7 Feast/Reception by the Starvin' Artist
6:30-9 Members Meeting in the Stone Circle; Questions, comments, and dessert!! 9pm Childrens' Story Time at Bardic Circle 9pm Drum Circle to the Stars!

SUNDAY
10-11:30 Brunch with the Starvin' Artist
11-1:00 Spiral Scouts Business Meeting on the Main Stage. New/interested families are welcome to attend to gather paperwork and information, or to drop off applications and fees. Registered Scouts should wear uniforms! 1:00 Closing Ceremony in the Stone Circle

More about Beltaine at Four Quarters - http://www.4qf.org/_Beltaine/index.htm

Well, A Girl Can Dream

OMFG, You Should Totally Go Celebrate Beltane With the Radical Faeries!!

Sorry for the short notice everyone!

Come to DC and enjoy the height of the springtime with the DC Radical
Faeries!

DC Radical Faeries Present
Beltane 2006

EVENTS:

4/29: Walpurgisnacht Bonfire

Come to Potpourri Sashay's glorious bamboo gardens and share in the
feast, light the fire, adorn the maypole with new ribbon, dance the
dance of sacred embodiment and partake of the rite of lubation.

Where: 306 Carroll St NW (Takoma Park Metro, Red Line)
When: Potluck Dinner 7:00 p.m.; Ritual at Sundown
Bring: Potluck Food and Suggested donation of $5.00 (no one turned
away for lack of funds)
NOTE: Recommended 18 and older


4/30: Maypole Procession and Picnic

Join us at noon at Baba Niko's house for the Maypole Procession, the
blessing of those we happen to run into, share in the picnicy
goodness, share in bawdy song and poetry, and dance the maypole at
Dupont Circle.

Where: 1809 Belmont Rd NW apt. 2 (Adams Morgan, Red Line) to Dupont
Circle
When: Gathering for procession noon; step off (about) 12:30; picnic
time (about) 1:30 in Dupont Circle
Bring: Picnic type finger food to share (nothing too sloppy); Sexy
Springtime Poetry and Songs and Musical instruments to share the muse
with others.
NOTE: As this is an event in a public park it is open to all ages.

Additional Notes:
* All events are rain or shine. There is a potential you might get
muddy so wear appropriate shoes or go barefoot when necessary.
* The Maypole Dance is during the day, and sunblock is helpful!
* Come as yourself, whatever that means to you.

For further information contact Fritter at: info@dcradfeys.org,
202-265-0112.

The DC Radical Faeries is a community-based organization of men and
women who explore queer spirituality. We welcome all queer spirits,
straight, gay, bi, trans, two-spirited or searching. We welcome
people from all walks of life who want to share and nurture their
essential fabulosity. DC Radical Faeries is a 501(c)3 tax exempt
religious organization.

"What makes one step a giant leap is all the steps before." -- Leslie Fish

Cross Burning Still Not OK

Via Witchvox:

Supreme Court refuses to hear an appeal of a creep who was convicted as a result of burning a cross in the yard of an interracial couple. Guess they're saving their docket for abortion cases.

So What's Happening Is Exactly the Opposite of What the Free-Market Advocates Promised Would Happen

From the EEI newsletter:

"Dereg States See Rates Rising Faster Than in Regulated States
Electric power rates in states that have moved to deregulation are "rising faster than those in regulated states," the Christian Science Monitor reported today. "That trend could expand as caps on retail electric rates, which have held prices down, are lifted in at least six deregulated states this year."

The Monitor pointed out that there have not been too many examples to point to how significantly prices are likely to rise "because rate caps are only just being removed. But in New England, where many caps came off last year, retail electric rates surged about 15 percent - except for Vermont, where regulated rates are roughly flat. In the Mid-Atlantic region, rates in deregulated New York have risen 16 percent since 2002, while rates in still-regulated West Virginia were about flat."

John Shelk, president of the Electric Power Supply Association, was quoted as saying: "Competition has been incredibly robust. People believe if prices rise something is wrong ... But the reason is the cost of [fuel] increased." The Electricity Consumers Resource Council, in a FERC filing, said: "There has been and is today no true competition in wholesale and retail electricity markets."

Christie Rewey, an energy specialist at the National Conference of State Legislatures in Denver, said some states are considering re-regulation but getting the "genie back in a regulated bottle" may be difficult or impossible. Wrote the Monitor: "Many states sold their generating stations for a song in the 1990s, she says. Now these same states find that those old plants are a gold mine for their owners and would be very costly to buy back. Today, 16 of 23 states that initially passed electricity deregulation offer a fully deregulated power system, studies show."
Christian Science Monitor , April 25."

They're Putting Crack in the Water Supply -- It's the Only Possible Explanation

From MarketWatch:

"U.S. April consumer confidence rises to 109.6, a 4-yr high


WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- U.S. consumer confidence continued higher in April, reaching its highest level in almost four years, the Conference Board said Tuesday. The consumer confidence index rose to 109.6 in April from a revised 107.5 in March. The increase was unexpected. Economists expected the index to slip to 106.3 on higher gasoline prices. The present situation index rose to 136.2 from 133.3, while the expectations index rose to 91.9 from 90.3. The outlook for the next six months improved moderately."

Legalized Witchery

Via Witchvox comes the news that Romania has legalized witchcraft. Go, Romaina!

People Who Should Have Had Bloggs

Anne Johnson suggested in comments that Aleister Crowley should have had his own blog. It certainly would have made for interesting reading. She also suggested that H.L. Mencken would have translated well to the blogsphere. It got me to thinking: who else would have made a good blogger, were it not for the vagaries of time and technology? And besides, I'd rather list good bloggers than play the latest game going round of listing my odd habits. I'm a witch; almost all my habits would seem odd! So, here, forthwith, is my list of people I wish had had a blog:

1. Oscar Wilde (just imagine the snark!)

2. Dorothy Parker (ditto)

3. Sappho (she could be catty when she wanted to!)

4. George Sand (she loved to write letters)

5. Jack Kerouac (imagine reading his daily posts while On the Road)

6. Carlos Castaneda (it would be fun to guess which posts were drug-induced)

7. Samuel Pepys (shrewd observations)

8. Walt Whitman (even though he'd talk about himself a lot)

9. Thomas Jefferson (he could have used the $$ from the google ads!)

10. Saul Alinsky (wish you were still here today, Saul, helping us figure out what to do about Fox)

So who's up to the challenge? I'm tagging NTodd, watertiger, four legs good, Vicky, Thers, NYMary, Katrina, and Echidne.

Go Listen To This Right Now!

If I've done this correctly, you should be able to go here and listen to NTodd's latest podcast. And you should, not only because it mentions THIS blog (!!!), but also because NTodd does great podcasts, as I pointed out some time ago. He gets this unhip, old lady to listen to some great new music that I wouldn't normally listen to and he's always honest and self-revelatory in a way few guys manage.

Note to any female readers in Vermont: NTodd is a major hottie who loves animals, takes great photographs, has a job, likes music and poetry, and isn't gay. Why are you not beating a track to his door right now??

(Oh, and go vote for NTodd at podcast alley or he'll kick my ass.)

Yet Another Reason Why Birth Control, Including Abortion, Is Good And Fundies Are Sick, Evil People

From Yahoo, via my brilliant friend Elizabeth, swing dancer, marathon runner, and motorcycle mamma, comes an article demonstrating the need for safe, effective, and free birth control -- including abortion -- for any society that claims to care about children. Culture of Life, Baybeeeeeeeeeee!

Turns out that spacing out pregnancies cuts down on infant mortality.

Fox News Makes People Vote Republican

Luckily, when I get swamped with work and too busy to blog, my brilliant friend, Elizabeth, cocktail mixer and tarot reader extraordinaire, usually finds me some fascinating articles. Thanks, E!

THE FOX NEWS EFFECT: MEDIA BIAS AND VOTING

[SOURCE: Stefano DellaVigna & Ethan Kaplan]

Does media
bias affect voting? The authors address this question
by looking at the entry of Fox News in cable markets
and its impact on voting. Between October 1996 and
November 2000, the conservative Fox News Channel was
introduced in the cable programming of 20 percent of
US towns. Fox News availability in 2000 appears to be
largely idiosyncratic. Using a data set of voting data
for 9,256 towns, the authors investigate if
Republicans gained vote share in towns where Fox News
entered the cable market by the year 2000. They find a significant effect of the introduction of Fox News on the vote share in Presidential elections between 1996 and 2000.

Republicans gain 0.4 to 0.7 percentage points in the
towns which broadcast Fox News. They also find a
significant effect of Fox News on Senate vote share
and on voter turnout. The estimates imply that Fox
News convinced 3 to 8 percent of its viewers to vote Republican.

http://elsa.berkeley.edu/~sdellavi/wp/foxvote06-03-30.pdf

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If valid, this study, printed in Benton's Communications Daily (www.benton.org), makes a very strong case for the need to reinstitute the fairness doctrine and extend it to cable tv. It also highlights the importance of the study that Media Matters for America recently completed, showing that shows such as Meet the Press tend to book far more conservative than liberal "guests." The Dems better wrap their brains around this NOW, as the results show an impact on Senate races as well. How many elections are won or lost on a 3% to 8% margin???

Of course, I suppose there could be another explanation; maybe Fox tends to go into markets that are moving in a conservative direction. However, when the authors say that, "Fox News availability in 2000 appears to be largely idiosyncratic," I think that means that they don't believe this is a factor.

For Rebellion Is As The Sin Of Witchcraft ~ 1 Samuel 15:23

I've been in a poetry mood all weekend. Here's one that I really love by Barbara Starrett, from Drawing Down the Moon. I've read it hundreds of times, but it still makes me teary-eyed and gives me goosebumps every time I read it.

I.D.

I am a secret agent
Of the moon

Ex-centric
Extra-ordinary
Extra-sensory
Extra-terrestrial

Celestial subversive
Con-spiratorial
Spirita Sancta

Holy
Holy
Holy

And then some
And I have friends.

Crowley's Hymn to Pan

Listening to the Thelemite podcast made me go and look up one of Crowley's milder sex poems, Hymn to Pan. My favorite lines are: Come with flute and come with pipe/Am I not ripe ?

Hymn to Pan

Thrill with lissome lust of the light,
O man ! My man !
Come careering out of the night
Of Pan ! Io Pan .
Io Pan ! Io Pan ! Come over the sea
From Sicily and from Arcady !
Roaming as Bacchus, with fauns and pards
And nymphs and styrs for thy guards,
On a milk-white ass, come over the sea
To me, to me,
Coem with Apollo in bridal dress
(Spheperdess and pythoness)
Come with Artemis, silken shod,
And wash thy white thigh, beautiful God,
In the moon, of the woods, on the marble mount,
The dimpled dawn of of the amber fount !
Dip the purple of passionate prayer
In the crimson shrine, the scarlet snare,
The soul that startles in eyes of blue
To watch thy wantoness weeping through
The tangled grove, the gnarled bole
Of the living tree that is spirit and soul
And body and brain -come over the sea,
(Io Pan ! Io Pan !)
Devil or god, to me, to me,
My man ! my man !
Come with trumpets sounding shrill
Over the hill !
Come with drums low muttering
From the spring !
Come with flute and come with pipe !
Am I not ripe ?
I, who wait and writhe and wrestle
With air that hath no boughs to nestle
My body, weary of empty clasp,
Strong as a lion, and sharp as an asp-
Come, O come !
I am numb
With the lonely lust of devildom.
Thrust the sword through the galling fetter,
All devourer, all begetter;
Give me the sign of the Open Eye
And the token erect of thorny thigh
And the word of madness and mystery,
O pan ! Io Pan !
Io Pan ! Io Pan ! Pan Pan ! Pan,
I am a man:
Do as thou wilt, as a great god can,
O Pan ! Io Pan !
Io pan ! Io Pan Pan ! Iam awake
In the grip of the snake.
The eagle slashes with beak and claw;
The gods withdraw:
The great beasts come, Io Pan ! I am borne
To death on the horn
Of the Unicorn.
I am Pan ! Io Pan ! Io Pan Pan ! Pan !
I am thy mate, I am thy man,
Goat of thy flock, I am gold , I am god,
Flesh to thy bone, flower to thy rod.
With hoofs of steel I race on the rocks
Through solstice stubborn to equinox.
And I rave; and I rape and I rip and I rend
Everlasting, world without end.
Mannikin, maiden, maenad, man,
In the might of Pan.
Io Pan ! Io Pan Pan ! Pan ! Io Pan !

What CAN'T You Find On The Internets?

Wow, even the Thelamites are into podcasting! Uncle Aelister would have approved, I think, in his own crochety way.

Beltane, Beltane, Beltane!

The BBC has a nice, albeit kind of dry, article on Beltane that stresses the fire-festival aspect of my favorite holiday.

Sunday (Almost) Akhmatova Blogging

"You, Who Was Born..."

1956

You, who was born for poetry's creation,
Do not repeat the sayings of the ancients.
Though, maybe, our Poetry, itself,
Is just a single beautiful citation.


Translated by Yevgeny Bonver, July, 2002
Edited by Tatiana Piotroff, September, 2002

*****************

I took last week off from Akhmatova. I'm reading her and thinking about her, but she's still not really communicating with me. And, yet, Russians adored her. Her latest biography, which I'm longing to read, is called Anna of all the Russias. So I know there must be more there than I'm getting.

A poetess only has one tool -- her language. And Akhmatova's tool was Russian, which I don't speak. But I love the sound of it. You know how some languages just SOUND sexy? For some people, that's French or Italian. For me, it's Russian. I love even the way that the names sound. And, as I've said before, I don't believe Akhmatova translates well.

The translation above is a good example. I can imagine what she was trying to get across, perhaps to a poet with whom she was in love. But it hurts. Why is it "you who was" rather than "you who were"? I'm sure the translator picked the one word over the other for a reason, but it simply sounds so awkward to my ear that I lose the romantic sense of the poem -- a poetess to whom poetry is the highest value, speaking to a lover as one born to create poetry -- due to the dissonance of the words.

I do like "a single beautiful citation." That works and, Bluebooker extraordinaire that I am, I've actually seen and appreciated beautiful citations. It's an art, like poetry. And I can understand why, to one who loves capital-P-Poetry, being a mere citation would seem as if it were, somehow, not enough. Ah, Anna. Am I going to get to appreciate you or will I have to give up, defeated?

A poetess only has her language to wield as a tool. Anna may have wielded Russian so well that only a speaker of Russian can love her the way that I love Mary Oliver, or Dorothy Parker, or Adrienne Rich. We'll see.

Happy Motherfucking Earth Day!

So, it's finally here! All the Earth Day gifts are heaped under the Earth Day tree, while all the old familiar Earth Day songs play softly in the background. In just a little while, the children will wake up and gather round to hear the Earth Day story, unwrap their Earth Day gifts, and look inside their Earth Day baskets to see what Gaia brought them. Then, the whole family, all three or four generations, will head off to church, or temple, or synagogue, or grove and give thanks for our lovely Earth on Earth Day. Finally, everyone will head to Grandma's for the traditional Earth Day feast, followed by naps, football, and lots of happy family time together. Truth to be told, you're almost glad that all the fuss is over. Earth Day ads have been on the radio and tv for months and it seems as if every year, Earth Day gets more and more commercialized and we move farther away from the true meaning of Earth Day.

What? You're kidding?!?! You didn't even know that today's Earth Day? You're not even sure what Earth Day is or what it's for or what you're supposed to do on Earth Day?!?!?! All you have is a vague notion that it's some hippie-dippy tree-hugging relic from the 1970s?!? How could that be? Goddess knows, if ever there were a planet in need of some attention, it's our current Earth. So how did Earth Day turn into a nothing, a non-event, a minor opportunity for politicians to give speeches in the few remaining national parks (after their aides find the one or two vistas not marred by oil wells or old-growth logging -- thanks George Bush, you motherfucker!) about how "Every day is Earth Day!"?????

Well, I suppose there are a number of reasons. But the main one is that holidays in America are only real if someone can make some money off of them. We celebrate Secretary's Day with more consistency than Earth Day because the card companies, florists, and restaurants make money from Secretary's Day -- a holiday that they pretty much invented over the past 20 years or so. Valentine's Day, ditto, although its history goes back a bit farther. Mother's Day, ditto and add the phone companies. Memorial Day makes money for the beach resorts and beer companies and charcoal sellers. And gas stations. Thanksgiving and xmas speak for themselves as orgies of spending and consumption. But Earth Day? I guess the nurseries and environmental clean-up folks aren't too bright because no one seems to make much money off of Earth Day. Hence, it's pretty much gone the way of Arbor Day.

Like so much of what happened back in the early 70s concerning energy and the environment, Earth Day represents, in many ways, a huge lost opportunity. As gas approaches $90 barrel, we can't help but wish that some of Jimmy Carter's energy initiatives, both conservation and development, hadn't been allowed to languish for the past 30 years. Too bad we didn't spend that time getting ourselves off oil and preventing global warming. Too bad we didn't clean up the air, and our water, and our food supply while we had cheap energy to do it with. Too bad we didn't take rational, painless steps to control population such as providing accurate sex education, free safe birth control, and incentives to limit reproduction. As our planet reaches the tipping point in terms of environmental catastrophe, I can't help but wish that the promise of Earth Day had been realized rather than relegated to the junk heap of third-rate holidays.

I was recently re-reading one of my favorite Mary Oliver poems:

Peonies

This morning the green fists of the peonies are getting ready
to break my heart
as the sun rises,
as the sun strokes them with his old, buttery fingers

and they open ---
pools of lace,
white and pink ---
and all day the black ants climb over them,

boring their deep and mysterious holes
into the curls,
craving the sweet sap,
taking it away

to their dark, underground cities ---
and all day
under the shifty wind,
as in a dance to the great wedding,

the flowers bend their bright bodies,
and tip their fragrance to the air,
and rise,
their red stems holding

all that dampness and recklessness
gladly and lightly,
and there it is again ---
beauty the brave, the exemplary,

blazing open.
Do you love this world?
Do you cherish your humble and silky life?
Do you adore the green grass, with its terror beneath?

Do you also hurry, half-dressed and barefoot, into the garden,
and softly,
and exclaiming of their dearness,
fill your arms with the white and pink flowers,

with their honeyed heaviness, their lush trembling,
their eagerness
to be wild and perfect for a moment, before they are
nothing, forever?

I suppose the question that she asks is the most important question that can be asked here at the beginning of the 21st Century: Do you love this world? If you do, how will you show your love? Here's an easy thing to do. Go order some free trees. (OK, you have to pay for the shipping, but the trees are free). Plant them. If you live in an apartment or condo, plant them in a near-by abandoned lot or park or in a friend's yard. Commit guerrila actions and plant them along highways or beside parking lots. Mother Earth needs more trees.

Beltane

>

Well some over-ambitious fool ordered about 50 coleus plants which showed up today, even though I'm still trying to plant a bunch of mint seedlings and hollyhock seedlings that I grew. Oh, and all three moonflower seedlings and some morning glory seedlings. The parsley and lime balm are so far along that they could stand to be cut back, but Goddess knows when I'd find time to cook anything with them since I need to plant like a maniac between now and when the rain (please, Goddess!) starts tomorrow afternoon. I need to get the seedlings planted and off the screen porch so I can clean the screen porch for Beltane.

I adore Beltane. For many witches, Samhein (that's Halloween for those of you unused to the Wiccan vocabulary) is sort of THE high holy day of the Wiccan calendar, but for me, it's always been Beltane. By Beltane, (May 1st) it's really and truly Spring. There are, here in Zone 7 (aka, Arlington, Virginia), azaleas, and violets, and Solomon's Seal blooming. The peonies aren't blooming yet, but they're back up above the ground, promising to make love to the ants very, very soon. Ditto the iris, and I planted loads and loads of black ones (merci, GWPDA!) last fall and it looks as if they all made it through the winter. Merci, also, to the squirrels, who didn't eat them, even though this was a very lean (aka acorn-scarce) winter for them. My lawn looks, if I say so myself, like the softest green carpet you ever saw and all you want to do when you see it is to pull everything off your feet and let your feet and the grass make love to each other.

Beltane is when the ancient Pagans built the Beltane fires on the hills and danced the maypole and ran off into the meadows and woods to perform the Great Rite. The Great Rite is sympathetic magic at its best: Look Mother Earth! We're procreating and being fertile and mixing it up like mad! You do the same, OK?? Babies born in January, Beltane-got, were considered lucky.

Of course, the xians tried to appropriate Beltane, making May Day a feast of Mary. I can remember as a child being fascinated with the altar we set up in our living room to Mary in May and the fresh flowers we picked every day for the plaster statue of Mary, bare foot on a snake. I suppose it's no surprise that as an adult I keep an altar to the Goddess, primarily in the form of Hecate, in my home. The Soviets tried to appropriate May Day from the xians, making it a Worker's Holiday and using it to parade their military might. But, in the end, the Goddess gets back her own. From April 30th through May 1st, Pagans all over the world, including my little circle of women, will celebrate Beltane.

We'll worship Venus, and Aphrodite, and Isis, and Amateresu, and Yemaya, and other Goddesses of love, beauty, sex, sensuality. We'll light the Beltane fire, weave crowns of roses, and lilies, and carnations, and lilacs, throw offerings to the Beltane fire, drink pink champagne, eat lovely food, and dance until we're exhausted. And then . . . .

Appropriate, isn't it, that Beltane comes just after Earth Day? I'll have a bit more to say about Earth Day in the next couple of days.

A Tale of Two Georges

Would George stand for this abuse of power?

God Hates Assholes, But Loves Faeries at a Revival!

As usual, Anne Johnson rocks, while Fred Phelps sucks the big wazoo.

Some Good News About Breast Cancer Treatment

Today's WaPo reports that raloxifene prevents breast cancer in post-menopausal women as well at Tamoxifen, but without some of Tamoxifen's side effects. Good for osteoporosis, as well.

Addressing Global Warming, One Investment Dollar At A Time

From today's EEI newsletter, it's clear that:

SOME PEOPLE GET IT

AES to Invest $1 Billion in Alternative Energy Over Next Three Years

AES plans to invest about $1 billion into its alternative energy business over the next three years, with half of that going into wind-generated power, the Washington Post reported today. William Luraschi, AES executive VP of business development, was quoted by the Post as saying: "Energy consumption is growing and we don't see that changing. Traditional ways of meeting that are not going to be sufficient."

Dow Jones Newswires wrote that AES "said it intends to expand its existing alternative energy businesses in wind power generation, biomass and the development of liquefied natural gas."

The company has earmarked $250 million for "projects that would take advantage of new international regulations on the emission of greenhouse gases under the Kyoto protocol and the European Union's emission trading system."

Wrote the Post: "In 2008, most countries will be required to keep their greenhouse emissions at or below certain ceilings. Companies unable to meet those standards will have to pay penalties or buy credits from companies that have them to sell. AES plans to develop projects that will generate credits to sell, either by reducing emissions at existing plants or by nurturing agricultural or forestry projects considered beneficial for the environment."

AES also has entered strategic partnerships with Los Alamos National Laboratory and XL TechGroup to develop new alternative-energy technologies, according to an AES news release.
Washington Post , April 18; AES news release , Dow Jones Newswires , April 17.

AND SOME PEOPLE DON'T

Newspaper: Media Needs to Relax on Climate Change Issue

In an editorial published in Investor's Business Daily, the newspaper pointed out that not too long ago, the media was reporting on global cooling, not warming. Wrote the newspaper: "The earth warms. The earth cools. Al Gore and his media friends should just chill."

For example, the editorial stated that the New York Times reported Sept. 14, 1975, that global cooling "may mark the return to another ice age" that "a major cooling of the climate is widely considered inevitable," and the Northern Hemisphere's climate "has been getting cooler since about 1950," the editorial pointed out.
Investor's Business Daily, editorial , April 17.

Oh, Opus Dei, I Know What You Should Do! You Should Bite Me

Via Witchvox, Yahoo reports that Opus Dei has their thorn-encrusted garters in a twist over the way that the movie The Da Vinci Code portrays the whack-job fundie Catholic group. They're demanding a disclaimer at the beginning of the film as a "sign of respect." Where the fuck do these people get off? Dudes, you're crazy and your leader is a gay, Hitler-Youth, vampire. No one respects you.

How Not To Take A Deposition

My son suggests they might want to start awarding CLEs for viewing this.

Yeah, Good Luck With That, Wal-Morons

Wal-Mart wants media to focus on customer

By MarketWatch
Last Update: 4/14/2006 5:00:09 PM
MARKETWATCH FRONT PAGE

CHICAGO (MarketWatch) -- Executives at Wal-Mart Stores Inc., facing a rising chorus of criticism about labor practices and efforts to move into banking, will try to shift the focus to customers this week when they make a series of presentations to the media.

Where Are The April Showers That Will Bring May Flowers?

Somehow, in Spring, I never manage to get everything done, even though I work all day. Today I mowed the front yard with my new electric mower -- well I mowed part of the front yard. Apparently you have to charge this mower all the way up and then run it all the way down a few times before it gets "fully" charged and can actually mow the 1/3 acre advertised. The good news is that the lawn looks nice, much neater than when I use my rotary mower. The bad news is that this mower is a LOT heavier than my little tin rotary mower. Hopefully, tomorrow, I can get the rest of the yard mowed.

I planted French Tarragon and Pineapple Sage and I watered the herb bed, which meant digging the hose out of the shed and hooking it up. That led to a partial clean-up inside the shed, but there's more to do. I picked up lots of sticks in the back yard and watered the woodland garden, the azaleas, the roses, and the lilacs. Used the watering can to water the foxglove and hollyhock in the front bed. Goddess, I wish we'd get some rain.

But I've still got aramasias and mint seedlings and black violet seedlings to plant and mulching to do.

WaPo, I know what you should do. You should bite me.

Oh my fucking god, it's a bunch of angry spittle-crazed leftists! And they smoke cigarettes! Run for your lives!. Those dumb motherfucking cocksuckers left out "shrill"! Don't they know that when you're discrediting liberals you have to use the word "shrill"? Their laziness makes me angry!

Women's Economic Power

Via Witchvox, Here's an interesting article from the Economist on women's growing economic power.

The Economist makes a couple of interesting points:

* Back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest that the employment of extra women has not only added more to GDP than new jobs for men but has also chipped in more than either capital investment or increased productivity. Carve up the world's economic growth a different way and another surprising conclusion emerges: over the past decade or so, the increased employment of women in developed economies has contributed much more to global growth than China has.

*Surveys suggest that women make perhaps 80% of consumers' buying decisions—from health care and homes to furniture and food." Eighty percent? Jesus Christ dancing naked under the moon and tattooed w/ blue woad! Can you imagine what we could do with that power if we ever harnessed it and decided to work together? Kali on cocaine!

*At school, girls consistently get better grades, and in most developed countries well over half of all university degrees are now being awarded to women. In America 140 women enrol in higher education each year for every 100 men; in Sweden the number is as high as 150. (There are, however, only 90 female Japanese students for every 100 males.)

In years to come better educated women will take more of the top jobs"

*"[A] study by Catalyst, a consultancy, found that American companies with more women in senior management jobs earned a higher return on equity than those with fewer women at the top. This might be because mixed teams of men and women are better than single-sex groups at solving problems and spotting external threats. Studies have also suggested that women are often better than men at building teams and communicating.

To make men feel even worse, researchers have also concluded that women make better investors than they do.:


For years, my checks have borne the imprint "Feminist Money."

Nice, But Not the Point

The BBC is reporting that "Foetuses cannot feel pain because it requires mental development that only occurs outside the womb, says a report in the British Medical Journal.". It reminds me of the question someone asked about lobsters: do they feel pain when thrown alive into boiling water? Someone answered that they feel all the pain that a lobster can feel. I've got no idea what human foetuses can or can't feel. It's an irrelevant question. No one, and that includes the most adorable, sensitive foetus ever, has a rigth to keep living inside my body unless I want it to live inside my body. I'd hope than an abortion wouldn't cause it pain. But that's an irrelevant question.

The doctor doing the research seems to agree with me. BBC reports that, "Avoiding a discussion of foetal pain with women requesting abortions is not misguided paternalism but a sound policy based on good evidence that foetuses cannot experience pain."

And he said giving foetuses painkilling drugs - which would have to be given through the placenta - involved procedures which may expose the woman to unnecessary risks and distress."

Look, I have a grandson who's less than two months old. i adore babies. I show up at my son and daughter-in-law's house just to hold my grandson, sing to him, and smell him even while he sleeps. But until he was born, it was completely up to my daughter-in-law whether or not to continue to carry him. if she'd wanted an abortion, I'd have supported her 100%. I wish wingnuts could get this through their heads.

Mark, Come On. You Did Better as Governor and You Can Do Better Now.

I like Mark Warner, but as many others have noted, we've heard all we need to hear about how Democrats need [insert you favorite: a plan, a vision, to lead, blah, blah, blah]. If Mark thinks the Democrats need a plan, he should LAY OUT HIS FREAKING PLAN. OK, rant off. Go listen to his otherwise very nice soundbite.

Investing and Living On and Off the Grid

A couple of interesting items from today's EEI newsletter.

First, EEI reports: "Venture Capital Now Backing ‘Green’ Technologies in Energy Sector

The Associated Press examined the viability of the green technology industry and found that venture capitalists now are backing the sector fully. Wrote the AP: "North American venture capitalists invested more than $1.6 billion in clean-tech companies last year, a 35 percent increase over 2004, according to a report by the Cleantech Venture Network."

Network Senior VP Craig Cuddebach was quoted as saying: "It's a strong area for venture capital. It's no longer a choice between whether you will be clean or profitable."

Wrote the AP: "As prices of more traditional energy sources continue to rise, the global market for clean energy sources such as biofuels, hydrogen fuel cells and solar and wind energy rose to $40 billion last year, and is expected to increase to $167 billion by 2015, according to a report released last month by Clean Edge Inc., a Bay Area marketing firm."

The AP also reported that Vinod Khosla, a Kleiner Perkins associate who recently has launched a venture capital firm, "is financing a California ballot initiative that would increase taxes on oil companies to fund alternative energy."
Associated Press via the Contra Costa, Calif., Times , April 12."

No boom lasts forever, but now sounds like a very good time to get in on this boom and ride it for a couple of years. I'm no financial guru, for sure. But clean energy is good business, not the economy-buster that the oil companies and their bought-and-paid-for politicians have tried to tell us it would be.

EEI also reports that: "Grid-Connected Renewable-Powered Homes Gaining on Off-Grid Homes
Households utilizing renewable energy to supply electricity are no longer confined to the traditional off-grid homes, the USA Today reported today. Instead, while off-grid homes still account for a large share of the renewable energy-powered homes, more and more grid-connected homes also are adding solar or wind energy systems.

States are making such ventures more feasible, with 17 states now offering rebates on solar and wind energy system purchases, compared with just three in 2000. Wrote the newspaper: "Despite a hodgepodge of state laws, the trend points up a budding grass-roots movement to displace at least some of the nation's power generation from pollution-belching plants to small, clean neighborhood nodes. That eases strains on transmission lines."

Off-grid homes number 180,000, with the number rising 33 percent each year over the past decade. Wrote the newspaper: "These days, a growing number of off-gridders could link up fairly cheaply but prefer to be untethered for myriad reasons, including rising electricity rates, a desire to cut power plant pollution and concerns about blackouts or terrorism."
USA Today , April 13."

See above re: green energy and good business. Some smart young person is going to become THE contractor to go to for solar panels and other green remodeling in your state. She'll likely make a bundle.

Grrrrrr!

So I'm about two or three years away, finance wise, from doing the landscaping that I knew I'd have to do when I bought this house. My backyard has a terrible awkward slope that will need to be fixed w/ retaining walls and I need to enclose the garden, if not with the (expensive) brick walls that I long for, at least with some very solid, very high fences that I can cover with vines. Need private space for the witches to dance and do ritual, you know.

But this am I'm out on the screen porch and something happened that never happens. My neighbors (and I use that term loosely since I've lived here two and a half years and met everyone else for blocks around but never met this couple) from directly behind me were OUT IN THEIR BACK YARD. With two guys with big scrolls in their hands. Contractors. Architects. So, being a nosy witch, I stretched my ears out and listened to what they were saying. Garage. Grading. Lots of grading.

Shit. Fuck. Damn. Going to need those fences sooner rather than later. Up until now, these folks have never been out in their yard. They do nothing to take care of it or to garden, but there's a big apple tree and some shrubs that harbor wildlife so I've kind of enjoyed it. Now, they're going to tear things up, build shit, and generally make a mess and noise all summer long. Shit. Fuck. Damn.

National CEO Day -- An Idea Whose Time Has Come

We got to chatting over at Eschaton about how the Industrial Revolution has resulted in quite a few of us working even more hours than would have been necessary back in the bad old days of the Middle Ages.

It reminded me that there's one day every year where some group announces that, on that day, the "average" American tax payer has finally worked enough days to pay her taxes and is, only then, beginning to "work for money that she gets to keep." It's a cute marketing trick, designed to stir people up about how they have to work many more days than they otherwise would work just to pay taxes. It ignores how many days they'd have to work to provide services such as a military, environmental protection, and roads for themselves, but, none the less, it's cute.

Some bright soul with a calculator ought to sit down and figure out how many days the "average" American worker has to work to pay the salaries of America's CEOs. You know, CEOs like Ken Lay who make tens upon tens of millions of dollars but then, when the shit hits the fan, swear that they were idiots who knew less about what was going on than their lowest clerk. But their boards of directors never ask for the salary back. I'd love to hear radio and tv stories on, say, May 9th, announcing that American workers have been working ever since January just to pay the salaries of the Ken Lays of the country and can, now, finally, begin working for themselves.

Most workers, I imagine, would rather get the several month vacation.

Just Saying

If you are a seed company and you sold me a package of moonflower seeds with a whole freaking three seeds in the package, do not be surprised if you have a bad day tomorrow.

If you are a lobbyist who gave money to Tom DeLay to buy some votes and now that he's using your money to pay his lawyers you want your money back, don't be surprised if no one weeps for you, Argentina.

If you are building a McMansion up the street from me, in a neighborhood of small bungalows, and you have a freaking turret on your McMansion, don't be surprised if small construction errors begin to multiply.

If you are my diswasher and you work only about one out of every ten times that I turn you on, but work every time that I've called the repairperson, don't be surprised if I eventually take a freaking hammer to your mechanical ass.

If you are the document management software at my firm and you won't let me open up a document from home, don't be surprised if I open up a can of whoop ass on the IT person who is responsible for you and curse your code from here into next week.

Now, all you kids, get off of my lawn!

And He's Telling the Truth, as Long as by "Absolutely Innocent" He Means "As Guilty as the Guiltest Criminal Who Ever Was Guilty of Being Guilty"

Yahoo reports that:

Skilling Says He's 'Absolutely Innocent' By KRISTEN HAYS, AP Business Writer

HOUSTON - Former Enron Corp. Chief Executive Jeffrey Skilling declared he was "absolutely innocent" Monday as he began to testify in his own defense in his fraud and conspiracy trial.

The 52-year-old one-time corporate celebrity whose reputation as a business wunderkind shattered along with the company he once ran also said he "never ... not once" considered making a deal with prosecutors the way more than a dozen other Enron executives did.

Thank You, Harry Taylor

Go here and say Thank You. Do it now. Do it right now.

Sunday Akhmatova Blogging

Our Native Earth

1961

There are not any people in the world --
So simple, lofty, tearless -- like us.

1922

We do not carry it in lockets on the breast,
And do not cry about it in poems,
It does not wake us from the bitter rest,
And does not seem to us like Eden promised.
In our hearts, we never try to treat
This as a subject for the bargain row,
While being ill, unhappy, spent on it,
We even fail to see it or to know.
Yes, this dirt on the feet suits us fairly,
Yes, this crunch on the teeth suits us just,
And we trample it nightly and daily --
This unmixed and non-structural dust.
But we lay into it and become it alone,
And therefore call this earth so freely -- my own.

************

By posting weekly the poems of Anna Akhmatova, I'm trying to understand a poet who is difficult for me. I'm trying to understand her through her poems, before I read her autobiography, which I've added to my wish list. There are two ways to understand poets. One is to first read their poetry, and to then read about their lives. The other, the one I less prefer, is to read about their lives and to then read their poetry. Akhmitova is less accessible to me than many other poets; as I've said before, I think she may not translate well.

What I take from this poem is her allegiance to a sense of space. It's something Pagans understand -- allegiance to a piece of ground. "Yet this dirt on the feet suits us fairly, Yet this crunch on the teeth suits us just." I go out into my herb bed, pick parsley eat it, and get dirt on my feet, crunch soil on my teeth because I eat the parsley before washing it. I will, one day, lay into it and become it alone. Ok, I want some of my ashes scattered on the roots of my lilac bushes, too. I'd be happy, in my next life, to smell of lilacs.

How much more was Akhmatova saying? About country, nation, place, native land? How can an English speaker understand precisely what a Russian poetess was saying? Why should it matter so much to me? Does it matter to you? Why?

Lazy Sunday Blogging

A long, lazy Sunday morning spent w/ my circle discussing where we go from here.

Several of our members have received promotions that, especially in DC, have meant moving out-of-town. And, so, as happy as we are for them, we've been vaguely trying to add some new members, but also thinking about who/what we want to add.

I think in the future, the whole notion of "creating community" will become an academic field, a profession. Community used to simply mean the place where you lived. Now, it means something different, but no one is sure what. How do you create viable communities in today's world? How do the right people find each other and create enough time in otherwise busy lives to actually do the "work" of creating community, even when that work means just clearing time on your calendar to spend lazy Sunday mornings chatting?

I think of the Eschaton community, where this week, two members of the community got engaged and even those of us who'd never "met" them, in real time, were happy and excited or where two members of the community recently had a baby and all of us were happy and felt involved. But what if someone who regularly shows up at Eschaton stops coming? No one's likely to call them up and ask what's wrong. Not too long ago, there was a thread where we listed the people we remembered who used to show up that we hadn't seen in a while. A form of mourning? How is it different when we're trying to create community in the "real" world?

My circle is confronting ourselves. What do we want from each other? How much do we want it? What if someone's life takes them in a direction where they can't regularly "be there"? How, and I'll say "especially" in a group of women, do we confront that w/o causing hurt feelings? Most of us agree; you can't be a magical community if you regularly have a "hole" in the circle. But the reality of life for most women in Washington, D.C. is an overcommitted calendar, a Blackberry-full of obligations, a life that's very, very busy. Getting from the gym, to work, to Whole Foods to buy food for the week, to a political action meeting, to spending family time, to being a witch -- there's no time for sleep. How do you create a "college of priestesses" in the middle of that? We all need it; we need it to be there for us. The issue we're dealing with is --how do we do that? What are we willing to give up in our busy lives in order to have it?

We spent some time today trying to figure out if there are logistical ways to make it all easier for us. That runs the gamut from deciding that for mid-week Full Moons maybe we'll send out for dinner instead of doing potluck, to considering -- horrors for a feminist group that believes in a lack of hierarchy -- assigning certain jobs to certain people, at least for a four-month rotation, to, again, horrors, always having rituals at only one or two homes. It also involves deeply spiritual questions. What kind of magic do we want to do? How much pre-ritual magical time are we willing to spend in order to make the rituals "work"? Are we all willing to do political magic or should that be a subgroup? Do we all seriously believe that a witch who cannot hex cannot heal? If we believe it, how and when will we hex as a group?

Long story, long. We decided that we've been unfocused; we need a several month period of focused meditation and magical working and then a day-long retreat before we think about bringing in new members to replace those who've moved away. We need, no surprise for a magical community, to do magic.

I came home and planted some black hollyhock seedlings and some black violet seedlings. Call it, not in a very far-fetched way, "grounding" -- the witch's most important tool. And then, I sat in the sun in the corner of my yard that's the shady, woodland garden part of the yard, and did what witches do. I sank my roots deep into the wet, hummusy ground and pulled energy up from Mother Earth. I called the quarters, North, South, East, and West/Earth, Fire, Air, and Water, and cast a circle. I called upon Hecate and Diana and Amataresu. I did the Ha prayer and directed energy out into the universe to create the community that we need to have, to call the new members that we'll, eventually, want to have join us. I thanked the energies of the four quarters. I opened the circle.

It's a strange time to be adding to a circle of witches in Washington, D.C. Women with real careers in this town are concerned about being outed as witches. It makes it difficult to, for example, advertise our open meetings where we'd like to meet potential new members. On the other hand, there are more public rituals than ever before and, for many people, that's enough. They can show up at the Radical Faeries and/or Connect DC public rituals, practice the rest of the time as what witches call "solitaries," and that's all they need.

It's, as Bush would say, hard work. It's hard work being in community, fostering community, taking responsibility for growing community. It's never easy. But, for me, at least, it's always necessary, it's always important, it's always worth the effort. I am who I am because I am a member of my circle. I need these women. I need this circle. I need to learn whatever it is that I'll learn by working on fostering this community.

This is my will. So mote it be.