G'day, hello,
howdy, hi, zdravstvujtye (some of my work colleagues are Russian, including an
absolutely invaluable administrator who has recently taken maternity leave -
may she and young one and family be blest), guten tag (where I have connection
owing to a recent past life), sveiki, czesc (I have friends, not just
colleagues, at work who are Polish), bonjour (colleagues at a former workplace
were French, and we practised and tried to extend my woeful and limited range
of this language), selamat pagi (one of the best junior engineers I ever worked
with was Malaysian, and she taught me a few words), annyeonghaseyo, pryvit, bitaem,
como vai (a friend of mine a few years ago, although not Brazilian, had
Portuguese ancestry), ¡Hola (a former work colleague and friend, a VERY
talented artist - with a Mexican sensibility to her artwork, particularly
around the Day of the Dead - used to teach me Mexican Spanish), Selamat pagi,
ni hao (ah, my work trips to Asia, and the many wonderful, wonderful people I
have met there - and some excellent work colleagues and friends here, as well),
bongiorno (my current home city of Melbourne has lots of Greeks and Italians,
who have made our culture far richer - and made us coffee snobs :) ),
hoschakal, hejsan, ciao, jo napolt kivanu, chào bà, chào ông, yiassou (from the
city which has, I understand, the largest collection of Greek people outside of
Greece), ceau, salam wa aleikum, sawas dee ka, dia duit, hoi, hei, namaste,
marhaba.
As an initial comment, it is disappointing to see so many promising
blogs fall into disuse – particularly when there is a dearth of good pagan
blogs (in my opinion) in Australia.
That’s not to say there are none – I enjoy the good ones there are, but it would
be nice to see more … hope they’re not just all using Facebook :(
- PAN have announced this year’s Witches Ball, to be held during July for those in – or capable of affording to go to – central NSW: http://www.paganawareness.net.au/PAN/events-mainmenu-85/witches-ball;
- whilst for those in or able to afford to get to central Victoria, the 31st Australian Wiccan Conference is being held in September this year at Marysville (see here and here [2]): nearly $300 for adults, but seems to include accommodation, and does go for three days (note that I don’t know if they’ve been or had transphobic, homophobic or other inclusivity problems): http://www.paganawareness.net.au/PAN/events-mainmenu-85/victoria-mainmenu-80/987-awc-2014-ye-olde-ways;
- meanwhile for those in South Australia, The Goddess House is holding The Rite of Her Sacred Fires this month, in honour of Hekate;
- for those who enjoy poetry: Enchanted Fey Dreams;
- http://wildhunt.org/2014/05/into-the-traumatic-breach-radicalism-paganism-and-sexual-liberation.html#comments (the comments are quite interesting, both the historical ones and the astrological ones);
- http://wildhunt.org/2014/04/guest-post-a-new-sourcebook-for-counseling-pagan-clients.html, which is an excellent source for those interested in counselling Pagans (I’ve added it to my extraordinarily long Amazon wish list … );
- http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2014/04/16/heathenisms-battle-with-white-supremacists/ (found via The Wild Hunt);
- http://www.patheos.com/blogs/agora/2014/04/wyrd-words-drawing-the-line-revisited/ (found via The Wild Hunt);
- http://witchesandpagans.com/Pagan-Paths-Blogs/what-odin-doesn-t-stand-for.html (found via The Wild Hunt);
- https://www.facebook.com/norsemythology/photos/a.130109523685391.17678.129784597051217/875232105839792/?type=1&stream_ref=10# (found via The Wild Hunt);
- this boils down to collective responsibility and caring vs. stuff-off-I-want-to-try-to- get-rich-any-way-possible: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/may/01/piketty-capital-panel;
- this is much better: http://www.theage.com.au/comment/how-fat-cats-are-advising-us-on-the-richpoor-gap-20140430-zr1qz.html.
[2]
Please see here and my post "The
Death of Wikipedia" for the
reasons I now recommend caution when using Wikipedia. I'm also exploring use of
h2g2, although that doesn't appear to be as
extensive (h2g2 is intended - rather
engagingly - to be the Earth edition of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to
the Galaxy").
Love, light, hugs and blessings
Gnwmythr
I started this blog to cover karmic
regression-rescue (see here and here), and it grew ... See here for my group mind project, here and here for my "Pagans for Peace" project (and join me
at 9 PM on Sunday, wherever you are, to meditate for peace), and here
for my bindrune kit-bag. I also strongly recommend
learning how to flame, ground
and shield, do alternate
nostril breathing, work
with colour, and see also here and be flexible.
- One size does NOT fit all.
- Don't be mediocre - seek to excel.
- Gnwmythr's Stropping Strap: Occam's Razor only works if the simplest solution is actually recognised as being the simplest, rather than the one that best fits one's bigotries being labelled 'simplest'.
- Our entire life experience, with all the many wondrous and varied people, places and events in it, is too small a sample for statistical reliability about Life.
- May the world of commerce and business be recognised to be a servant, not a master, of the lives of people.
- Ban the dream interpretation industry!
- A home is for living in, not feeling, becoming or being rich or a “better” class than others.
- Housework is for ensuring a home is comfortable to live in, not competing to outdo or belittle others.
- Being accustomed to interacting via certain rules makes those rules neither right nor universal.
- Like fire to the physical, emotions to the soul make a good servant, and a bad master.
- Expertise at intimacy and emotional happiness is generally not the same thing as spiritual growth.
- Any person, male or female, who has neither a serious health issue, dependents nor an agreement about study. yet expects their partner to work to support them, is, spiritually speaking, little more than a parasite.
- "Following the crowd" is not "going with the flow".
- Armageddon is alive and well and happening right now: it is a battle between the indolence of "I only ..." and/or "I just ..." and/or "Everyone knows ... " and/or "they can ..." and what Bruce Schneier calls "security theatre" on one side, and perspicacity and the understanding that the means shape the end on the other. Indolence vs. perspicacity, and expediency vs. honour.
- The means shape the end.
- BPLF restraint of uncooperatives is NOT an opportunity for revenge or getting even - even unconsciously.
- As words can kill, the right to freedom of speech comes with a DUTY to be as well-informed, objective and balanced as you can be.
- My favourite action movie of all time is "Gandhi", although I've recently come across "Invictus" and might put that one in to that category. However, I loathe the stereotypical action movie - and, for similar reasons, I loathe many dramas, which are often emotionally violent, more so in some cases than many war films.
- All of the above - and this blog - could be wrong, or subject to context, perspective, or state of spiritual evolution ...
Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be
stronger [people].
John F. Kennedy (who was
quoting 19th Century Episcopal Bishop Phillips Brooks)
Jesus loves you. Odin wants you to grow up.
We make our decisions. And then our
decisions turn around and make us.
F.W. Boreham
Females, get over 'cute'. Get competent.
Get trained. Get capable. Get over 'cute'. And those of you who are called
Patty and Debby and Suzy, get over that. Because we use those names to
infantalise females – we keep females in their 'little girl' state by the names
we use for them. Get over it. If you want to be taken seriously, get serious.
Jane Elliott
The only thing necessary for the triumph of
evil is for good [people] to do nothing.
(based on
writing by) Edmund Burke
The significant problems we face cannot be
solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.
Albert Einstein
We didn't inherit the Earth from our
ancestors, we only borrowed it from our children
Antoine De Saint-Exupéry
Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the
personality and eats away its vital unity.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
True compassion is more than flinging a
coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an
edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Those whom we cannot stand are usually
those who we cannot understand
P.K. Shaw
Few men are willing to brave the
disapproval of their fellows, the censure of their colleagues, and the wrath of
their society. Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or
great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential, vital quality for those who
seek to change a world which yields most painfully to change.
Senator Robert F. Kennedy (US
Attorney General, 1966 Speech)
Too much and too long, we seem to have
surrendered community excellence and community values in the mere accumulation
of material things. Our gross national product ... if we should judge America
by that -- counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to
clear our highways of carnage. ... Yet the gross national product does not allow
for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of
their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our
marriages; the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public
officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage; neither our wisdom nor
our learning; neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country; it
measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile."
Robert F. Kennedy 1968
There are risks and costs to a program of
action. But they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of
comfortable inaction.
John F. Kennedy
Tags:children, coming events, divination, economy, growth, Hekate, Odin, Paganism, poetry, power, racism, reading, risks, safety, silence, society, Wicca,
First published: Wodansdagr, 7th May, 2014
Last edited (excluding fixing typo's and other minor matters): Wednesday,
7th May, 2014
