We are moving deeper into the Kulin people’s season of Waring (the Wombat), and the weather is getting refreshingly cool - this is the time for cultural burns, I have read.
We have no need of such burns in most of the suburb we live, but there are some small flora and fauna reserves which ideally would be tended, but no-one seems to be inclined to do that (and I don’t have the physical mobility to do something like mowing them myself, and would be reluctant to do so without the permission of a Wurundjeri elder [and, secondarily, the local Council]).
Still, it has been pleasant to have ’roos visiting, going from small reserve to small reserve, feasting on the grass in front yards.
They may, I suspect, have moved on, migrating to other pastures, perhaps.
I have incidentally, in recent years moved on from the four centres approach to Paganism to a stance that if it does not include - as a key aspect - reverence or, at the very least, respect/care/concern for, the environment (possibly as well as tone or more of the other centres), then it is not Paganism.
(I have written - mostly in passing [e.g., here] - about the original three and expanded four centres of Paganism, but I have now found a much better approach: see “The Four Centers of Paganism Reimagined” https://worldtreeheritage.wordpress.com/2021/01/24/the-four-centers-of-paganism-reimagined/ . The new diagram is particularly excellent!)
In the imported-from-Scotland Pagan system of seasons, we recently celebrated Samhain - the (to simplify) transition from outer activity to inner reflection & healing, and i was pleased to be able to participate in a global ritual, celebrating Samhain in (the temperate zones of * ) the southern hemisphere, and Beltane in (the temperate zones of * ) the northern.
Personally, I am finding world political and human rights and the state of my personal convalescence from the cluelessly-cruel,-overly-busy,-and-unprofessionally-frenetic-world-of-corporate-“life” far more significant to my internal state than the belated (owing to the climate crisis) change of seasons.
However, being out of the corporate world, I am noticing the phases of the Moon now, and we are - as a household - planning our own celebration for (southern hemisphere) Yule. In addition, I am doing my psychic and spiritual exercises more regularly (and I have settled on the minimum that I must do - alternate nostril breathing for my soul [it leads to everything else], and gentle walking for my body).
And writing - always writing, often blogging, but also activist emails, and, on rare occasions, my book projects. (And I am working on a proposal for a better, but smaller, version of the United Nations ... )
I drew a tarot card today: I am rotating randomly through the various decks that I have, and from Lucy Cavendish’s “Oracle of the Dragonfae” (my version pub. Blue Angel Gallery, 2008, ISBN 978-0-9803983-4-2; one review here; Llewellyn, Faerie, Amazon; and this has lovely artwork - artwork that reminds my partner of the artwork by “The Unexpected Gypsy”) I drew “The Dawn Watcher”, which is about premonitions and forewarnings, with the helpful dragon only waking if her warning bells are ignored.
And that leads us back to world events ...
I already have enough about the bad, dangerous, and threatening events of the world in this morning’s “Post No. 3,108 - Reflections on the past week, and some interesting reading/viewing [Content Warning - oppression/bigotry/hate/violence/abuse/war. Reader discretion is advised]” https://gnwmythr.blogspot.com/2025/05/post-no-3108-reflections-on-past-week.html , so I won’t write more on that here, other than
(a) to link to the following, which will also be in next week’s reflections post:
“I was H_t l_r’s neighbour: ‘If he’d known we were Jewish, we’d have been sent to Dachau’” https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/may/10/i-was-h_t_l_rs-neighbour-if-hed-known-we-were-jewish-wed-have-been-sent-to-dachau “In 1929, Edgar Feuchtwanger was five years old and living with his family in Munich when A____ H_t l_r moved into a flat opposite. At first, his parents thought they were safe hiding in plain sight – until they weren’t”
and
(b) to warn everyone, wherever you are in the world, to take these dangers seriously - work towards a stronger, more inclusive (build a modern, inclusive community - there is not time for outdated forms of amathiac hate such as transphobia), more accountable (conventions of political action/behaviour are irresponsible amathiac <expletive deleted>), more progressive, future-focused (which, yes, means acting on the very real, very existential climate crisis) democracy; reduce your personal vulnerabilities, and work towards your nation doing likewise - the USA is, in my opinion, lost as any source of goodness or safety or reliable decency for many years to come; and, for safety’s sake, avoid going to the USA, and if you live there, consider moving to another nation (which I know not everyone can [especially First Nations people, because of their tie to the land], and some are in positions to stay and help others and are doing so).
But the other significant event this week was the election of a new head of the neochristian Roman catholic church - Pope Leo XIV.
I had suggested to others a Tarot reading on this Pope, which was ignored, but I will do some divination myself over the coming days, and see what I come up with.
Based on what I have read so far in a range of media reports (e.g., here, here), my preliminary assessment of the new Pope is:
- he is likely aligned with the previous Pope Francis on social progressivism;
- he has criticised the current US regime, which Francis had also done;
- he failed to act against at least one child abuser; and
- he has made homophobic/transphobic remarks in the past.
(I have also come across a suggestion that the Pope has some black ancestry: I will not read too much in to that just yet, I want to see more sources on that.)
So what will happen from here is unknown - but I note that there were far more conservative candidates available, and the conclave did not choose them, which is somewhat encouraging.
PS - see also:
- “Many Thoughts About The New Pope” https://youtu.be/YXs1y0ycz4A
- “Good Luck To Pope Leo, But I’m A Pagan” https://www.patheos.com/blogs/johnbeckett/2025/05/good-luck-to-pope-leo-but-im-a-pagan.html
And in terms of encouraging, the extent of the majority the ALP achieved here in last week’s election means they have fewer external excuses to avoid taking strong action on the climate crisis, in support of inclusion (and they already had an excellent start with policy promises, and a commitment to leave no-one behind), and against fascism.
We will have to wait and see on those, to some extent, but I will do what I can magickally and via activism emails to help all that along as well.
I will end with a link to another article which will also be in next week’s reflections post:
“Experience: I walked the length of the UK with a donkey” https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2025/may/09/experience-i-walked-the-length-of-the-uk-with-a-donkey “After a relationship breakup, rambling 700 miles from the Highlands to Dorset with Martin helped restore my faith in people ... My conclusion was that people want to be friendly, but sometimes they just need an excuse.”
... and, a late addition to a song I just came across thought T. Thorne Coyle’s e-newsletter (via one of her subscribers - and I have bought a copy of this song, and will listen to their other material later):
“Tyrants Always Fall” by The Nields https://youtu.be/ubWQHdHTLRI
Lyrics, from https://genius.com/The-nields-tyrants-always-fall-lyrics (I want to learn these words - some of this would make great chants at protests)
[Verse 1]
This is the truth of who I am
And it’s taken me my whole life
To celebrate
I won’t go back
You can give me a number
Slap on a label
Tell me I won’t be welcome at your table
But I won’t bow down to a tyrant anymore
[Pre-Chorus]
I know what to do, I’ve been here before
[Chorus]
Tyrants always fall Always
Tyrants always fall Always
[Verse 2]
This is the truth of where we’ve been
And it’s taken the world till now
To take an honest look around
There are lies on the TV, lies in the paper
Lies on your phone just grown from the vapour
And I won’t be fooled by the liars anymore
You might also like
[Pre-Chorus]
This is the truth that we can’t ignore:
[Bridge]
There are more of us than there are of them
There are more of us than there are of them
There are more of us than there are of them
There are more of us than there are of them
[Chorus]
And Tyrants always fall Always
[Verse 3]
We are scattered and scared
In the ship’s dark hold
But we have a common peril
And we have a common goal
The parents are dead
The leering uncle’s at the prow
There is no one left
We are the grownups now
Think of all those times
We’ve been down and dissed
We are made of strong stuff
We were made for this
[Chorus]
And Tyrants always fall Always
[Verse 4]
This is the truth we’ve always known
There isn’t a lightning bolt
To set things right, to bring us home
It’s gonna take all our courage
Take all our action
Take every heart
In every single faction
And it’s gonna take time
Some of us won’t live that long
[Bridge]
When one gets weak it means it’s your turn to be strong
[Outro]
There are more of us than there are of them
There are more of us than there are of them
There are more of us than there are of them
There are more of us than there are of them
There are more of us than there are of them
There are more of us than there are of them
There are more of us than there are of them
There are more of us than there are of them
Tyrants always fall Always
Tyrants always fall Always
* From here:
In the tropics - well, the tropics are an interesting situation, one that I have personal experience of. You see, between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Antarctic Circle, and between the Tropic of Cancer and the Arctic Circle, the sun comes closer, then further away, once each year, with two days when night and day are of equal length (i.e., the aforementioned equinoxes). But in the tropics, the sun is overhead TWICE in each year, so it gets closer, is overhead, goes further away, then comes back, is overhead, then goes further away - all in the space of one year! ... Maybe the solution is to find what seasons the indigenous people in that zone divided the year up into, and work rituals to suit that - as I am trying to do for Melbourne (see here and here).
Possible flaws
Where I can, I will try to highlight possible flaws / issues you should consider:
- there may be flawed logical arguments in the above: to find out more about such flaws and thinking generally, I recommend Brendan Myers’ free online course “Clear and Present Thinking”;
- I could be wrong - so keep your thinking caps on, and make up your own minds for yourself.
If you appreciated this post, please consider promoting it - there are some links below, and there’s also other options.
Note that I am cutting back on aspects of my posts - see here.
(Gnwmythr is pronounced new-MYTH-ear)
Remember: we generally need to be more human being rather than human doing, to mind our Mӕgan, and to acknowledge that all misgendering is an act of active transphobia/transmisia that puts trans+ lives at risk & accept that all insistence on the use of “trans” as a descriptor comes with commensurate use of “cis” as a descriptor to prevent “othering” (just as binary gendered [men’s and women’s] sporting teams are either both given the gender descriptor, or neither).#PsychicABetterWorld and may all that I do be of value and actively BPM used for and by the nonphysical BPM
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