Burning ring of fire.

I fell in to a burning ring of fire
I went down,down,down
and the flames went higher.
And it burns,burns,burns
the ring of fire
the ring of fire.
( Johnny Cash Lyrics Ring Of Fire Lyrics)

 

image link

I love that song and what's happening this Sunday May the 20th 2012 reminded me of that song.
This Sunday coming is the rare "ring of fire" solar eclipse.
Sadly with the weather here lately I might not be able to see it naturally, and even if I could at my latitude I would only see between 40-60% of it though for some of our neighbors in the southern United States , Japan and some parts of China the view will be 100%.
Why is it called "the ring of fire" solar eclipse?
Because the distance and angle of the moon is just far enough away from the earth that the moon will not be able to completely cover the sun. This results in what looks to be a "ring of fire" in the sky when the eclipse is in full swing.
To find out how much you will be able to see, I suggest going here and for those who are unlucky enough to be at a latitude or live where the weather will hinder you view that link also has sites where you can view a live stream.

Now what are my plans for Sunday?
No not a ritual though one that combines both the god and goddess might work well, or some sex magick.
I plan on doing one of 2 things.
Either I'm running a pathfinder game with L playing his holy paladin escorting the princess across strange and dangerous lands, I might even add in the eclipse because it would fit into the story line oddly enough.
Or L is going to run a game with me and C with both C and I playing our evil characters trying to find a dragon werebunny of doom called miss hophop.
I'm secretly hoping for the hilarity of miss hophop, because it brings more people together and I can taste the innuendos our dirty minds will inject into the game about the "ring of fire" eclipse. A bunch of pagans with dirty minds can be a fun thing at times, though not appropriate for here.

Anyways I'm off to find a recipe and will be posting again today as I have promised a friend to try and share one recipe a week to help her learn to cook.

Blessed Be
~Flaming



Sources
the image -> https://encrypted-tbn3.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQLDXdpbLxj958fqeQwYKuZamvKlVvREaK4iMYujfNrZUjsOJ1_
the lyrics -> http://www.lyricsondemand.com/j/johnnycashlyrics/ringoffirelyrics.html
the info -> http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/18/11746807-how-to-see-the-eclipse-anywhere?lite

Birthdays and yoga

Good day, good day
Today is L's birthday and he is turning 26 today.
He feels old apparently, so what do we do when we feel old?
Throw a party!!!!
Actually it's only 5 of us poking a fire and having a BBQ with steaks, chips and dip and maybe a salad.

It's going to be a fun fun night.

---------------

I went to my first yoga class today and I have to say it was a very good idea. I learned to stretch my body in ways that i have never stretched before and was able to concentrate, gain energy and ground myself better than I could ever do in a circle.
I think I might have to Incorporated some yoga into my rituals now just to get that build up and grounding that is most often needed. But I have to learn a bit more first before I try it in ritual. Maybe towards the end of classes in June? That sounds like a good amount of practice first.
-----

Anyways I have to feed Calluu the snake and prepare more food for L's birthday.

Blessed Be
~Flaming

same sex marriage and the christian church (Touchy)

Yeah I know that this is a very touchy subject but honestly living in Canada I feel sorry for those in the states that cannot have access to their basic freedoms and rights.
Most of the time the fight has to do with the christian community and the complaint is that it is against their religion and is wrong.
Odd though that if the Christians were to read up on their own religious history they would see that in previous centuries gone that the idea of marriage was very much different than they see it today. It was not always reserved for just a man and a woman but also for a man and a man and a woman and a woman.
Often saints were given the ability to marry the same sex and some of these ceremonies were even preformed in the Vatican itself.  There are large portraits of ceremonies allowing man and man to marry being bless by Jesus himself. 
Want to read an actual study on this?
here is the study

The church use to be more tolerant and focused more on "love thy neighbor" than it does today. What happened recently that changed that?

I could go on and rant about religion in politics and how other religions that actually allow same sex marriages are not being heard but that would be both extremely long and boring.
I don't like boring and I don't have the time to write 20 pages of rant, so I'll leave you with this.

*directed at the United States as a whole*
If you praise yourselves on having separation of church and state then why allow close minded views from the larger and louder religious crowd to influence your laws and take away others freedoms?

*directed at those who oppose gay marriage*
How does Mary and Sue down the road sleeping in the same bed having the same freedoms as a married couple take away your freedoms?
And don't use the "it's not natural" argument as it has been scientifically proven for decades now that most if not all animal populations on earth have a natural 6-12% homosexuality rate. (Cats and dairy cows have higher)
1,500 animal species practice homosexuality
above are the proven ones.

I'm leaving comments on today and will check them when I get home tonight. If all goes well they can stay on.
Please be civil and polite as I'm sure all human are capable of being.
Homosexuality may not be a choice, but being polite and not being provocative is a choice I expect you to make.
I'm holding you to your morals.


Bye bye for now
~Flaming

Ginger

Ginger is my root of choice this week because of it's healing properties and it's also one of the very first things I teach my students how to use. Why?
Because ginger is a very versatile little root and if you use too much of it the side effects can be hilarious but relatively safe. (except to pregnant women)

Ginger affects and can stimulate soft muscle tissue, this makes it good for settling a bad stomach, getting rid of constipation, easing menstrual cramping, shortening or scheduling the menstrual cycle (you can use it to restart your period as close as one week after your last one. great for planning vacations) , shortening menstruation (my shortest was 3 days), fresh ginger is known for aiding in easing respiratory ailments.
it is also a decent anti fungal, antibacterial, antiseptic, anti viral aphrodisiac, ...*digs out my herb book and jaw drops*
I don't actually know everything about this plant as it has 2 large pages with small print dedicated to it while others herbs in this book only have a few paragraphs. The book in question is hand written by a long deceased auntie of mine.

Though I do know that if you are pregnant you should not have too much of it. My auntie wrote less than 1 gram a day but I would be on the safe side and say not to touch it at all while pregnant. If it affects smooth muscle tissue of your womb then best not to mess with it while carrying a baby. 

I mostly use it for it's digestive and menstrual help as those happen to be the most common upset I'm faced with. 

When teaching students I warn them about the pregnancy danger but after that they are usually encouraged to find out other uses on their own. (yes I also warn them to turn safe search on. Though I forgot with one person and they now blame me for images they cannot get out of their head.) Most of these students then go on to give themselves explosive diarrhea. The kind you get from eating too much spicy food. 

Now to back up my auntie's knowledge I have done research on my own and loved the book  "The Desktop Guide to Herbal Medicine" by Brigitte Mars, A.H.G.

This herb although does not grow near where I live is still great as I am mostly a kitchen witch and ginger can be found in most if not all grocery stores. My cupboards are never ginger free.

I cook with it and am even as I write this sipping on some ginger tea to help my menstrual cramping.

It's a great over all root and I wish more people knew what to do with it and have it on hand.



Blessed Be ya'll

~Flaming

Full moon tonight and Smelly phallus flower

It the full moon tonight, while some people will be having rituals and others treating like a normal night I will partake in a family tradition. Watch the crazy people.
I think family traditions are the best especially if you come from a funny family like mine, some days just turn into random nights of enjoyment and gruesome obsession. I live on a main road in this city and very close to some not so welcoming areas of town, we have crazy people walking by the apartment nightly but you know what they say about the full moon.
I'm charging my video camera as I type because my dad wants to see the videos and compare later.
Last month we saw everything from people on stilts wearing wolf costumes to random zombies...yeah you read right zombies. Add in a few drunks and people on random drugs or yelling about the end of the world and you start to wonder why anyone would want a television.

Another odd thing happened today, near Niagara falls, a plant shaped like a phallus bloomed for the first time ever in Canada the story can be found here . Apparently it smells like rancid meat but the bloom should be gone by Monday. I think that maybe the plant tried to tie it's performance to the full moon but Anima just laughs at me when I mention it.

*witchy alert* On a side note mother nature decided to give me my little red gift just in time for the full moon, so I guess it's time to break out the ginger to make this a little faster and less painful. Ginger tea will be my drink of choice for the next 5-7 days.

I hope what ever you have planed for tonights full moon goes well. I'm off to pop some popcorn for mine.

~Flaming

edit:

I found a picture of the type of flower!

http://www.virtualherbarium.org/images/amorphfulla01.jpg

Pagan reading challenge

Actually before I go back to work I should probably set this blog post up.
I'm wanting to join the pagan reading challenge that I saw on The Domestic Pagan
I can't remember the ones I have already read this year so I'll start from this date instead of the usual Jan 1st 2012 date that was set.

Now my dream goal is the Goddess read which is 41+ books but in reality I'll probably end up as advanced at 20-25 books. Still gonna aim for the Goddess read though.

This page will update as I read books and occasionally if I have something to say about these books I might make a new posting.

Edit
*"The Living Temple of Witchcraft Volume one & two" by Christopher PencZac completed
*"~Inviting Hera's Blessing~ Handfasting and Wedding Rituals" by Raven Kaldera & Tannin Schwartzstein (in progress and will be using constantly through out the year.

*"The Complete Idiots Guide to Wicca and Witchcraft" (was recommended to me by a friend, and I have to say it covers the basics quite well. Even though I've been in the craft for nearly 8 years I found this to be a great refresher)
*"Old world Witchcraft, Ancient ways for modern days" by Raven Grimassi
*"Post Modern Magic" by Patric Dunn




*waiting list*
*the house of night series (do these even count? it's about weird vampire people who have powers and there's a circle of people who raise the elements and has a priestess and priest. They celebrate many of the wiccan days and I dunno...looks like a fictional vampire wiccan school? yes these are teen fiction books, I have the series so I might as well try them.)

The flower moon and this years super moon

This weekend is the flower moon, it was named as such because this time of year in most of the world flowers should be out or people are planting flowers.
The grass around the apartment just started turning green this week, so we have a while before we see flowers outdoors, but that doesn't mean that I can't see them indoors.


I also this week found that my orchid, that I swore was never going to produce flowers again, has started growing a new shoot.  It's a tiny shoot but it's growing again after what seems like forever.

Now this years flower moon is the closest to earth out off all the full moons this year and until sometime in 2014. How exciting is that! The moon will look really big and full so I suggest everyone, even if you're like me and do not have plans, to just look at it and appreciate the moon this weekend.
According to http://www.montrealgazette.com this moon will be approximately be 356955 km's from the earth. I don't know much about space but to me that sounds pretty close



anyways, back to work for me

Blessed Be
Flaming


References http://www.montrealgazette.com/technology/Flower+moon+looking+super+throughout/6550783/story.html