Witches In a Mundane World - 08/30/05

We simply must make some changes!

Well, New Orleans is soggy toast! Do not blame Mother Nature, The Goddess or The God! Look long at that person in the mirror.

Global Warming is the cause of Katrina. The water in the Gulf of Mexico was 91 degrees F. And it spawned a monster. But how did the water get so warm?

Greenhouse gases, that's how! If we continue to use fossil fuels we will see many more Katrinas and one day we will see a huricane, which fills the Gulf of Mexico! Trust me, you can take it to the bank.

Katrina is just a prelude to a super storm and when it comes it will destroy the Southeast. Watch the movie "The Day After" and think of the Super Storm coming from the South!

I have a suggestion, let's create a new tax! Oh my Goddess I said the "T" word! Hang on a minute, hear me out. I am talking about a small tax on every unit of energy sold. The money collected would be used for two and only two purposes: To create an economic incentive for the development of renewable energy sources and the planting of trees to reduce CO2 levels. It would work along this model:

Nuclear generated electricity - 5% tax on each kilowatt
Coal generated electricity - 4% tax per kilowatt
Diesel generated electricity - 3% tax per kilowatt
Natural gas generated electricity - 3% tax per kilowatt
Hydro-electric - no tax
Wave, Tidal, Geothermal, Solar, Wind - no tax
Bio-fuel - no tax

Diesel fuel & heating oil: 3% tax per gallon
Gasoline: 3% tax per gallon
Gasohol: 3% with a equal reduction by percentage of renewable source alcohol
Natural gas: 3% per gallon
Bio Diesel - no tax
Any other fuel derived from renewable sources would be tax exempt.

Investors in renewable energy sources would receive 110% tax deduction for investment.

Farmers would be subsidized to grow fuel crops. Companies making Bio-Diesel could receive seed money. Trees would be planted where morons have cut and run.

CO2 would be removed from the air and converted to millions of barrels of fuel and beautiful forests. While being processed and stored this CO2 would be out of the environment allowing the earth to cool.

We can make changes that will save us, and our world. If we don't what will we leave for our children?

Now, please re-read my last Post.

We are living in a world of extremists, and some are simply not sane! We can't change that.

However, we can change things for the better and in the process reduce the immense cash flow to the Middle East oil and jihad rich countries that threaten us with terrorism.

First we can put our farmers back to work growing our fuel. Crops such as rape seed, sugar cane, sugar beets, corn and even the lowly gopher weed can and should be the source of our fuel. Windmills need to replace coal burning and nuclear power plants. There are enough natural gas reserves in North America to heat our homes for dozens of decades to come.

At the same time we must conserve. Driving gas guzzling cars must become an excess of the past. High mileage cars like the new hybrids, European style diesels, and smaller Japanese cars must become the norm. Each time a driver puts 24 gallons into the tank you are indirectly funding terrorism!

What would be the impact of this agri-fuel revolution? There would be a near net zero addition of CO2 to the environment helping to delay and perhaps stopping global warming. Our economy would explode as our cash remained in circulation at home. Our military could return, as wars for oil would not be contemplated. Our farmers would prosper as we re-greened North America.

Then, we as a people must back ideals and policies, which we know are correct. Britain must leave Ireland and Israel must be encouraged to continue on the path to peace by giving the Palestinians a homeland. We as a people need to be the facilitators of this type of action around the globe! Imperialism leads to war, pure and simple. We are members of international bodies intended to deal with rogue countries and we must give them every chance to succeed. We must never create another Noriega or Hussein for when we do atrocities and zealots come home to roost. Only a nation intent on harming none will flourish.

Let us throw no more stones at our neighbors! Let us seriously work with the nations of North America on concerns of immigration, border integrity and trade. When was the last time there was a true and meaningful meeting of NAFTA to discuss these topics. Yes our borders are porous, but all we really do is jump up and down and spit at one another or even worse let anger spill over into trumped up trade disputes between cousin nations and long time friends. Enough already. We must create a full time NAFTA that has a home and operate daily. I suggest a Toronto location.

When the world knows that we intend no harm and there is insufficient cash flow to fuel terrorism we will become a safer people.

Blessed be!

Stormy

Witches in a Mundane World 08/24/05

We are living in a world of extremists, and some are simply not sane! We can't change that.

However, we can change things for the better and in the process reduce the immense cash flow to the Middle East oil and jihad rich countries that threaten us with terrorism.

First we can put our farmers back to work growing our fuel. Crops such as rape seed, sugar cane, sugar beets, corn and even the lowly gopher weed can and should be the source of our fuel. Windmills need to replace coal burning and nuclear power plants. There are enough natural gas reserves in North America to heat our homes for dozens of decades to come.

At the same time we must conserve. Driving gas guzzling cars must become an excess of the past. High mileage cars like the new hybrids, European style diesels, and smaller Japanese cars must become the norm. Each time a driver puts 24 gallons into the tank you are indirectly funding terrorism!

What would be the impact of this agri-fuel revolution? There would be a near net zero addition of CO2 to the environment helping to delay and perhaps stopping global warming. Our economy would explode as our cash remained in circulation at home. Our military could return, as wars for oil would not be contemplated. Our farmers would prosper as we re-greened North America.

Then, we as a people must back ideals and policies, which we know are correct. Britain must leave Ireland and Israel must be encouraged to continue on the path to peace by giving the Palestinians a homeland. We as a people need to be the facilitators of this type of action around the globe! Imperialism leads to war, pure and simple. We are members of international bodies intended to deal with rogue countries and we must give them every chance to succeed. We must never create another Noriega or Hussein for when we do atrocities and zealots come home to roost. Only a nation intent on harming none will flourish.

Let us throw no more stones at our neighbors! Let us seriously work with the nations of North America on concerns of immigration, border integrity and trade. When was the last time there was a true and meaningful meeting of NAFTA to discuss these topics. Yes our borders are porous, but all we really do is jump up and down and spit at one another or even worse let anger spill over into trumped up trade disputes between cousin nations and long time friends. Enough already. We must create a full time NAFTA that has a home and operates daily. I suggest a Toronto location.

When the world knows that we intend no harm and there is insufficient cash flow to fuel terrorism we will become a safer people.

Blessed be!

Stormy

Witches In a Mundane World - 08/09/05

Hello again!

Yeah, I'm back! My mundane job has had me on the road and I have had some experiences that have made me set back and get grounded! The job is good but I am running out of steam and passion. Politics and B.S. on the job have a way of deflating dreams and ideals created in college!

Then, my good neighbor verbally assaults me for not being Christian. She actually challenged me while refering to the Bible! I don't get it - I just don'e get it! Why do Christians have to be so judgemental and condemning? Why do religious zealots get in somebody else's buisness?

To top it off, while surfing the net, I stumble onto a website from some Baptist Reverend Zealot who offers up "Open Season on Wiccans"! He actually preached the killing of Witches and Wiccans specifically. No wonder people drop out of society or live in the "Broom Closet"!

I can not hide in the Broom Closet and I am not the type to go quietly into the night and disappear. So, what should I do? Keep on keeping on, that's what.

However, I can choose where I live and I am ready to move to a community with other Pagans and Wiccans. Give me Witches, lots of Witches! Then, let me choose the mundanes I wish to associate with.

I am not saying that some Witches may not be open minded or judgemental or whatever. I am not foolish enough to think that we are perfect, no one is! We are simply a cross section of society and we are as much like others as anyone else. I would just like to live in proximity to others with the same or similar beliefs and values.

So, does anyone know of a Pagan or Wiccan community where I could move into or next door to? Maybe a Retreat or Purpose Community. Washington or Colorado would be nice.

Meanwhile, we Pagans simply must support the Civil Rights of everyone! Support the ACLU and vote for those politicians who support our rights! That may be hard to swallow for some since the terror of the 9/11 attack, bombs in London and Spain. The terrorists have done their bloody best to destroy just one thing, our civil liberties. There is no doubt in my mind that terrorists are sick criminals who need to be prosecuted. But the rest of us need to strive to get along.

However, we must always watch our backs! If we don't protect our freedoms what will happen to our children? Canada is a great country but is leaving America necessary? I don't think so! Let's do what we can do to keep what is ours, here and now! Canada will still be an option!

One thing is for sure, if we keep electing right wing Republicans we will not be safe in this country. If we are to stop the hate and and assure no more burning times, we need to take action. Speak up about Civil Rights for everyone and that includes law abiding Muslims. Elect no more Repulicans and get away, far away from oil and an oil based economy. Dependence on oil only assures more terror and war. We have got to stop the madness!

Support WitchVox too! WitchVox does more than most to support all Pagans, Wiccans and Witches everywhere.

Then, you me and all of us need to get involved. Particpate, speak up, get a blog, respond to a blog, write books, give speaches, sponsor or participate in retreats and gatherings, celebrate the Esbats and Sabbats. Practice our ways and teach your children!

Please, let me know what YOU think. Your comments will be published. (Although I reserve the right to edit any that must be in order to be acceptable to my readers!)

Brightest Blessings,

Stormy

Witches in a Mundane World

Wiccan Parenting!

Two years ago I married the woman I fell in love with when we were 16 year old high school students. We had been apart for decades when I found her. She is a wonderfull Lady and she is the love of my life!

However, she came with two teenage children. A sixteen year old daughter and a 18 year old son. These young people had endured a rough time with my wife's former being an abusive control freak. So I become a step-dad to two teenagers who are concerned about everything and had emotional baggage to deal with in addition to their concerns.

The step-daughter and I have developed a really nice relationship. Like any parent - child relationship we can get on each other's nerves or cross wires and have a bobble. But we are both Wiccan and we own our mistakes and do our best to harm none. This young woman has now graduated from high school, has a nice job and is preparing for college. I am proud of her, proud for her and think she will make some lucky person a wonderfull spouse and I know that she will succede at whatever she choses to do!

Then there is the step-son! He arrived with an attitude and physically attacked me within two months. I understand that he had a bad time with his mother's former but wow! I had to teach him to close the bathroom door when using the facilities, to flush the toilet when finished, explain and enforce a rule that men do not parade around the house naked in front of others, break a long time habit of fondling himself through his clothing in public, and try to instill some semblence of manners into this young man. Through all of this, I had to fight him and my beloved with every turn and every step forward.

Tears, fights - in general a mess. Then he get's arrested for shop lifting "Magic Cards"! Now, you know that I am Wiccan and so is my wife. My step-son claims only to be Pagan and disavows the Law of Three. So he doesn't get it that his life and karma are being damaged as he storms along harming anyone who gets in his way or disagrees.

At first, I tried to punish him for his stupidity and foolishness. That resulted in nothing but fighting. So I suggested counseling, both individual and family. No dice.

However, eventually I did force him into individual counseling or he was out. Unfortunately the counseling focused on areas other than family dynamics and respect for authority. I do think that for the most part my step-son is calmer than he once was and perhaps that in itself is a victory for all of us.

To date, he has made four attempts at Junior College and currently has a GPA which puts him in Academic Probation, along with his Criminal Probation. By the horns of Herne I get a headache just thinking of all of this!

Anyway, the problem with college is that he will not do homework properly. It's his nature. Ask him to do his laundry and he'll do half or perhaps most but never all and someone else often ends up folding his things. Ask to take out the trash and some will be left behind and cans will not be relined. So homework is done half heartedly, like everything else. Raise the question and you'll have a fight and then things get broken or turn up missing!

So I decided to prevent him from staying up every night untill 3:00 or 4:00 A.M. Timers were installed to shut down TV, stereo, computer and game devices at 12:30. Lights went out at 1:00 AM. World War III broke out immediately. Our house was a war zone!

My poor wife was caught between her misguided son and her well intentioned husband. She loves both of us and it really hurt her to be in this situation. She would rather put up with her son's preferences if it would mean peace in the household for the year or two he has left with us. I do understand her point of view but lying, stealing, cheating, etc, are not Wiccan values.

So to make a more peacefull home for all, I backed off. The guy has continued to fail in college, do his chores half heartedly, stay up all night, quit his job. In general, he has continued his self destructive ways. I on the otherhand can now sleep at night and my wife and I get along much better.

This compromise did not come without a price however. My step-son has lost his privilege to drive, has lost his health insurance as a 20 year old student who is on Academic Probation when only taking one or two classes at a time and has lost his access to the internet and his pornography.

I am amazed at how the situation with these two young people is so diametrically opposed. It's like she is a High Priestess while he is a beserker! Me, I am just the poor Witch who tries to hold it all together.

One thing is for sure, my wife and I have survived all of this in only two years because we are Wiccan and we are stubborn. It helps that we are very much in love and always have been.

I have tried to be a good Wiccan Step-Father and I have tried to learn and adapt as the wheel of the year has gone round. I do pray that I have been a positive influence in this young man's life, but I wonder.

We Wiccans are not perfect but when we come, we do so in perfect love and in perfect trust and we harm none. Nobody ever said living up to the Wiccan ideal would be easy. However, as I said, I can sleep at night and I know that we have done everything possible to help this young man as he prepares to make a life for himself. This is because we have stayed the course and have been true to ourselves and our way. My "Christian" father would have beat the kid to a pulp and thrown him and his mother out in the street. I know that our way is better, kinder and will eventually produce a man who will look back and know that those who loved him did all they could for him!

By the Lord and Lady I bless my step-son, my wife and all who struggle with this type of family issue with the brightest of blessings.

If you know of someone who is dealing with a troubled child let them read this and then perhaps we can email. I will do all that I can to assist other parents in like circumstances.

Until next week:

Blessed Be,

Stormy)O(



Parenting a nice child is a dream. Parenting a mean child is a total nightmare.

Witches in a Mundane World - 05/20/05

JAVA!

I read a news brief about how the people who pick and initially process the coffee beans are mistreated. So I started researching the whole process. Lord & Lady was I amazed!

First of all, the wages are often next to nothing and work conditions are worse. Then there is the damage to the environment. Cutting down the rain forest, clogging streams and rivers with silt and fertilzer. In some cases the loss of habitat due to coffee growing has been a contributing factor in edangerment of species of birds and animals as well to reduced rainfall!

However, there is now a solution, thank the Goddess! It is called the Rainforest Alliance. The Alliance works with the growers to pay better wages, have better working conditions and change the way the coffee is grown such that the environment is not harmed.

What they do is grow the coffee under a canopy of native trees. Less fertilizer and pesticides are needed. The Alliance even monitors and certifies the farms for biodiversity to assure that the farms are not damaging the ecosystem! The coffee cherries are even sun dried rather than using ovens. It is incredible and heart warming to me that people are doing these kind of things.

It turns out that that the resulting coffee is superior to that produced using the peasant powered rape and plunder approach to coffee farming that is being fazed out by the good work of the Rainforest Alliance!

I am heartened to find that many coffee roasters are embracing this top of the line coffee. Some examples are: Starbucks, Seattles Best, Elan Organic Coffees, and many others.

What can we Pagan folk do to help? When we shop for coffee, look for Rainforest Alliance Certified, or Shade Tree, Fair Market or something that indicates that the coffee you are buying came from these types of farms.

Pagans can contribute to saving the Lady's Garden by simply buying products like "Dolphin Safe" Tuna and "Certified Rainforest Alliance" Coffees. I know that these products may cost a little more, but what a difference we can make if we all join in a united circle to do what we must to assure clean air and water for our children and theirs!

Join with me and pledge to the Lady that you will do what you can to save this paradise from ruin!

Blessed Be,

Stormy)O(

Witches in a Mundane World 05-14-05

Evil people create viruses and then innocent Witches and Mundanes are affected. That is what happened to me! I missed last week's posting as I was having my computer repaired and rebuilding websites. I believe that those who write virus and spyware code are terrorists and should be treated as such! Tomorrow, I will cast my circle - thank the Lady for all Blessings and Shield my Webs and computer from evil!

Speaking of Blessings, I am so very Blessed. I have a mundane job which pays for my lifestyle. I am enjoying having a on-line web store which may some day provide dependable income. My wife, The HP Lady Rowan, is busy buying herbs, salts, oils and containers in preparation of the grand re-opening of her on-line store. Lady Rowan will be selling herbal bath jells, bath salts, bath oils, soaps, incense, charms, and more. So we are moving away, slowly and logically, from our mundane sources of income. Our children, for the most part, are Wiccan. Of those who are not Wiccan, one is Pagan, one is Jewish and one is Episcopalian. We have seven children between us and are proud of them all! Our next step will be to purchase acreage for a Pagan Retreat, campground, herb farm and meadery.

We have our plan and are proceeding along a trail towards independance and self dependance. Our ultimate goal is to be free of the aspects of the mundane which assault our senses and sensibilities while maintaining a modern lifestyle.

Today, the government has stolen $3.8 Billion from Social Security for other purposes like IRAQ and the war for oil and Halliburton. Meanwhile, corporation after corporation is walking away from the underfunded employee retirement programs they have raided over the years. This boils down to the fact that there probably will be many retirees who have no retirement at all! So, we will work our herb farm, host Pagan retreats and campers, make mead, sell herbal products and Pagan eBooks on line and in this way, support ourselves such that should there be no Social Security for us we won't really need it!

What about you? Are you ready for your retirement? Do you have a 401K? We Pagan folk must take care of ourselfs and network together.

If you have questions regarding Pagan retirement, send me an email and let's kick it around.

Does anyone have information on Pagan Neighborhoods or Communities? I am interested in purchasing property near or adjacent to other Pagans and am having difficulty finding them. Not everyone came out of the broom closet and decided to broadcast it to the world, like me!

Well, I must tend to the garden. The sun is shinning, and it is a beautiful spring day - the Goddess is everywhere, so I must go out and enjoy her presence!

Next weekend I will return to my normal editorial News related format. I wanted to change gears this week and focus on my many blessings and get grounded again after the past few weeks of techno terrorism.

Blessed be!

Stormy )O(

Witches in a Mundane World 04/30/05 - Beltane

Blessed be and Happy Beltane (or Beltaine) the great Fertility Celebration of Spring!

Beltane is associated with love, handfasting, sex, fairies and Magick! No Mundane or Muggle, in my opinion, can appreciate being Handfasted. When you jump over that broom with your loved one, hand in hand, a very Magickal spell is cast. This spell is so very powerfull that just writting about it gives me chills. The day I was handfasted was the most wonderfull day of my life!

My wife is the wonderfull Lady Rowan. Rowan and I dated in High School when we were 16 years old. We were very much in love and were suddenly torn apart by apparently well meaning but foolish mundane parents. We were a sort of 60's Romeo and Juliet if you will.

Rowan and I went our seperate ways, unlike the characters in Shakespear's play. I found her again after being seperated for thirty years and still we loved one another. We were handfasted during a snow fall in Colorado Springs, CO. The circle was cast by a dear family friend and the ritual was performed by my son-in-law. For those of you reading this, I do hope that you were blessed with as wonderous and Magickal a handfasting as we. For those of you who were handfasted this Beltane Blessed Be!

So, what then can we Pagans, Wiccans and Witches show or provide to the mundane world regarding Beltane?

Perhaps we can find ways to show that in creation fertility and love are everywhere. Without these aspects of our creation there would be no life, no beauty, no spirit. I am sure that many of us are comfortable in keeping a lower profile than others, like myself!, but even then we can celibrate what the Lord and Lady have given us in all it's splendor.

Even an activist Witch like myself has to admit that there are some things that the mundane simply have difficulty appreciating. Physical love, sex, procreation, fertility and sometimes even emotional love are things mundanes and especially religious mundanes are uncomfortable speaking of or celebrating openly. So, perhaps there isn't much that we can provide in the way of help or leadership in regards to Beltane.

However, I am of the opinion that Beltane is a time for celebration and joy! The Lady has given so much to us. We really are children of this fertile planet and we have much to celebrate! So jump a broomstick, light a fire of celebration, cast your circle, love your special one and magick will definitely happen!

Blessed Be!

Stormy

Note:
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