The Ancient Whispers Newsletter

Welcome to the Ancient Whispers Newsletter, a multi-cultural newsletter with a little something for everyone of any creed or religion. Here you will find inspiring quotes, irreverent jokes, crafts, and most importantly, historical and/or religious scholarship. Every Wednesday a new edition should appear on this website with reminder emails sent out the night before to those who have opted to join one of the many forums and mailing lists to which I subscribe. If you wish to share this newsletter with others, please keep it intact with the original authors' names on all the articles. Any articles or sections, to which an author or URL is not affixed, were written by Candace (with the exception of the various jokes found herein).

Questions, comments, and topical requests are encouraged and should be posted to the AskCandace open forum at yahoogroups. I'd like to start a help column for the newsletter, so if you'd like to have your problem featured in a newsletter, let me know when you post.

The Pagan Month of January
can be found in its entirety Here. For more detailed entries, please visit the full calendar. In our modern calendar, January marks the beginning of a New Year with new possibilities. Its guardian, the Roman god Janus, is the two faced divinity of endings and beginnings. He is the male equivalent of a version of Juno in her two faced aspect of Antevorta who looks forward and Postvorta who looks back.

January is Eanáir or am Faoilleach, the 'wolf month', in Ireland, two weeks before the festival of 'La Feile Bride'

The first Full Moon between Yule and the 25th of January is called the Disting Moon.

The first day of the first moon is the Chinese and Vietnamese New Year called Tet Nguyen-Dan in Vietnam.

The seventh day of the first moon is Nanakusa, Festival of the Seven Grasses, in Japan. Young herbs are traditionally powdered into stew.

The 14th through the 19th day of the first moon is the Tibetan Butter Festival, the climax of the New Year celebrations featuring large-scale sculptures made from butter.

The 15th day of the first moon is the Feast of Lanterns in China, the culmination of the New Year's festivals.

The First Monday of January is called Handsel Monday in Scotland.

The first Monday after 12th Night is called Plough Monday. Field workers traditionally returned to work and recieved their pay. Children would handsel for money and treats from the neighbors.

The Norse Midvintersblot, Midwinter's Offering, or the Old English Tiugunde Day ceremony was held 20 days after Yule to honor Tiu, the god of the New Year.

The last Tuesday in January is Up Shally A', a Shetland fire festival culminating in the burning of a Viking ship.

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Humor: Pagan Terms

Just a few definitions for beginners:
1st Degree: A person who gets to do all the work.
2nd Degree: A person who gets to complain about the 1st degrees and the High Priestess.
3rd Degree: A person who never shows up at rituals.
Athame: A ritual knife; the bigger the knife, the less power the bearer has.
Book of Shadows: A messy, handwritten book that contains copies of everyone else's rituals.
Ceremonial Magician: Someone with bad hygiene habits, who reads Crowley, takes drugs and practices looking menacing.
Circle: Some assemblage of people standing or sitting in an uneven, or oval shape.
Coven: A bunch of people who fight like family and get together several times a month to party.
Crowley: A weird guy whom lots of people worship because he died a syphilitic drug addict. (Kinda like Curt Cobain and Elvis).
Full Moon: Any Saturday that occurs sometime close to the actual calendar full moon.
High Priest: Whoever the High Priestess is sleeping with this week.
High Priestess: A self-appointed leader; must be bossy, opinionated and have a large ego.
Initiation: Status that you receive after a big party held in your honor.
Magick: Any weird result after you do a spell or ritual for something; may or may not have anything to do with what you were working for.
Maiden: An ambitious 2nd degree (usually a womyn) who aspires to be High Priestess, so she can do things right!
New Moon: A chance for the High Priestess to get really drunk and sleep with (and initiate) a new High Priest.
Pagan: A person who wears tie dye and practices the party religion.
Pagan Standard Time: If a ritual is scheduled for 6pm, people show up around 9, and the ritual finally gets started at 10:30.
Pagan Daylight Time: If a ritual is scheduled for noon, everyone usually shows up before dark.
Ritual: A reason to assemble with others, kvetch and eventually have some sort of ceremony.
Ritual Wear: A flashy dress or outfit that makes the wearer look like an actor in a bad fantasy movie.
Sabbat: Any Saturday close to the actual day, excuse for a big party.
Wiccan: Conservative person who wears normal clothes, lots of jewelry, recycles everything and used to be a witch.
Witch: Someone who wears lots of black and jewelry, reads Gardner and practices the party religion.
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Article : The Mayan Calendar Mystery
from Atlantis Rising by Kathie Garcia

How is it that we have lived in a kind of veiled ignorance for millennia, our books speaking of a history which is hardly ancient, but rather a drop in the bucket of time, accepting simplistic stories of creation and evolution and isolated from other life within the galaxy, barely learning with crude ships how to cross our own seas some few hundreds of years ago? And yet, here and there we have been able to pick up the pieces of lost civilizations whose people somehow seemed to be more in touch than ourselves with origins and endings and with the cyclical nature of time. Such a people were the Maya, whose astoundingly precise calendrical achievements brought them to calculate actual dates going as far back as 90 and 300 million years and into the future soon to be our present!

The Mayas believed, as did the Assyrians and other ancient peoples, that time was a way of measuring the soul of the Universe. The universe breathed in and breathed out. Life was created, destroyed, created anew. One cycle of "inhalation and exhalation" was called a "Great Cycle." The last Mayan "Great Cycle," 4 Ahau 8 Camku, began on August 13th, 3113 B.C. 4 Ahau Cambku is currently in a final phase called "Katun 19, 13 Ahau," which begun in 1992 and ends, with a prophecy of world destruction, on Dec. 23, 2012.

As Graham Hancock reminds us in Fingerprints of the Gods, "It’s been a good deal less than two centuries since the majority of Western intellectuals abandoned Bishop Usher’s opinion that the world was created in 4004 B.C. and accepted that it must be infinitely older than that. In plain English this means that the ancient Maya had a far more accurate understanding of the true immensity of geological time, and of the vast antiquity of our planet, than did anyone in Britain, Europe or North America until Darwin propounded the theory of evolution."

The current revival of interest in ancient civilizations is to be expected at the portals of a new age. Like returning to a childhood neighborhood that once encompassed the child’s world but now seems small, our concept of time and space is destined to change rapidly as we enter the Aquarian Age. Uranus in Aquarius will awaken us even as Neptune, which will enter Aquarius in 1998, will jostle our memory of a past long buried, not only in cities beneath the oceans, but in the collective unconscious.

The word "Maya" is generally thought to be a derivative of "Mayab," the Mayan name for the Yucatan Peninsula. Late Mayan texts like "The Popul Vuh" (the "Council Book") and "The Chilaam Balaam" (a collection of oracles, cures and legends regarding the mythic past) say that the Mayan "arrived from the other side of the sea." Archaeologist and author James Churchward believed the Maya were colonists who came from the lost continent of Mu, called the Motherland or Lemuria. Maya, Maia, Maria all come from ‘Ma’ meaning Mother. Mu, according to Churchward, was a huge continent whose great cities and populace of 60 million people sank beneath the Pacific Ocean approximately 12,000 years ago when the gas chambers that upheld the continent collapsed, volcanoes erupted, cataclysmic earthquakes ensued and the ocean covered the land and its people.

When Mu, the Motherland, became overcrowded, or, among her great navigators, some ambitious and enterprising new company found new and available lands, a colonial development was started. These emigrant children of Mu were called Mayas. Anyone who left the Motherland in any direction was called Mayas. One of these colonies was said to have a populace of 35,000,000 people.

Churchward was able to identify a colony in Egypt by the Nile Delta that thrived some 16,000 years ago. Another ran from Mu to Yucatan to Central America. "This was more than 50,000 years ago, and it might have been tens of thousands of years before that." Churchward translated the enigmatic writing on thousands of stone tablets and carved heads found in Mexico, which are incomprehensible except "one know the language, the symbols, the alphabet and the cosmogony of Mu." The hieroglyphic alphabet of Mu, of the ancient Egyptians and Maya is remarkably identical. There can be no denying the connection between these peoples. And despite the crudeness of some of the tablets, apparently created by novices, the meanings of the designs are esoteric in nature; "displaying a profound knowledge of the ancients conception of the origin and workings of the Great Forces, and a perfect knowledge of life and its origins."

In fact, Churchward, like his friend archaeologist Augustus Le Plongeon and modern author Jose Arguelles concur in that here we have evidence of a sacred and ancient science which is yet dawning upon us today. What we look upon as "ancient" Egypt, India, Babylonia were, according to Churchward, but "the dying embers" of the perished Motherland of Mu. Cults to the mother throughout the world echo a dim recollection of a once glorious past.

Le Plongeon follows a similar vein in Sacred Mysteries Among the Mayas and the Quiches which documents his conclusions after 14 years of research in the Yucatan and in Mesoamerican studies that Mayan colonists transported their ancient religious rites and ceremonies, not only to the banks of the Nile, but to those of the Euphrates, and the shores of the Indian Ocean, not less than 11,500 years ago. Le Plongeon actually found inscriptions in the Yucatan stating, "The first company of settlers in Atlantis were a company of Mayas from Mayax." Churchward considered the great continent of Atlantis, which eventually suffered the same fate as that of Mu, as the largest colony of the Motherland.

Zecharia Sitchin purports that Thoth, the Egyptian avatar, and the great god-hero Quetzalcoatl or Kulkukan, "plumed serpent," worshipped by the Maya and awaited as a kind of Messiah, were one and the same. Sitchin’s tale goes back even further in time, to a time when extraterrestrials, hungry for blood, arrived in Mesopotamia and from there spread their influence to other parts of the earth. (See The Twelfth Planet and The Lost Realms by Sitchin) Obviously, we’re just scratching the surface.

The Mayans were a people who had no labor-saving devices such as the wheel or metal tools, but whose astronomical knowledge and scientific achievement rank them among the highest civilizations in known history. The Mayan had very accurate solar and lunar eclipse tables. They computed to within a thousandth of a decimal point of accuracy the length of the Earth’s revolution around the Sun. By comparison, consider that the Western World did not correct the disparity between the "Julian" calendar and the actual solar year until 1832.

The Mayans established the time taken for the Moon to orbit the Earth as 29.528395 days. Compare this with modern calculations of 29.530588. They meticulously recorded synodical revolutions (the period of time a planet takes to return to any given point in the sky) and synchronizations of the cycles of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. The Mayan were particularly interested in Venus, which, like the ancient Egyptians, they recognized as both the morning and the evening star. They referred to Venus as the eighth planet and the earth as the seventh. This and other archaeological evidence has led Sitchin to suggest that they knew of the outer planets, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto as well and had obtained their knowledge from aliens, whose "count" began at farther reaches of the galaxy.

The greatest mystery of all revolves around the Mayan Calendar. "The calendar," in the words of Ed Seler, "is the alpha and omega of Central American sacerdotal wisdom and the great mass of Mexican and Mayan manuscripts are nothing more than an elaboration of this calendric system in respect of its numerical theory, its chronology and its system of divination." The Mayan employed three calendars whose cycles they interpolated. The first was a day calendar called The Long Count. The second, The Tzolkin, or Sacred Calendar was based on a 260 day cycle. The Tzolkin and the synodical revolution of Venus were intermeshed with such astounding accuracy that the relationship was only off by one day every 6000 years! The Tzolkin and Long Count interpenetrated in such a way as to form a complete cycle in just under 52 years, a number significant not only to the Mayas but also to the ancient Egyptians. The pyramids at Giza were constructed at 52 degrees. Hancock feels that the Maya did not develop but rather inherited their complex and esoteric as well as exoteric science from somewhere else. But from whom? And to what end?

Elizabeth Clare Prophet, in a lecture on "Inca Mysteries" presented in the I Am series Unveiled Mysteries, commented that the original Maya came from Venus, bringing with them some of the arts, sciences and philosophy of that planet. Venus, Earth’s sister star, supports her life on a plane, not discernible to our usual senses and instruments, called the etheric plane.

Arguelles has taken it a step forward. We have misinterpreted the Maya, he claims, because their science was beyond our own and thus we had no measuring rod with which to unlock their mysteries. Arguelles claims that the Mayan Calendar relates not only to the time tables of the earth but to the earth’s relationship to the galaxy, the evolution of the Sun and other planets within the galaxy. Arguelles sets out to prove that within the Mayan Calendar is a Galactic Master Code!

We’re going to have to look beyond the obvious to solve the riddle. On the other hand, we need to be sure the imagination doesn’t try to fit the data into self-made theories. In the next issue of Atlantis Rising we’ll look at the calendar itself; how it works, how the Maya derived from it both personal and planetary prophecy. What is the real meaning of Katun 19, Ahau 13, and how does it relate to other prophecy of our time?

Quote : Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labor in freedom. - "Return to Mathematical Circles"

Craft of the Week : Basic Drawstring Pouches
From Witch Crafts by Willow Polson

Everybody needs pouches – these can be made with fabric scraps and decorated in any way you like. Have fun with embroidery, paints, glitter… whatever. Kids can make these too, for a rainy day or group project.

Fabric scraps, at least 3 inches square
Scissors
Eyelets and eyelet pliers
1/2 yard per pouch of thin cord, ribbon, or string
decorating materials

Lay two scraps on top of each other, fabric grains running in the same direction, and cut them into a neat rectangle, allowing about an inch extra at the top. Flip the pieces so they’re right side together and stitch (1/2 inch seam allowance) around three sides (two long and one short), pivoting at the corners. Press side seams open. Fold top edge 1 inch toward the wrong side and press, then fold under 1/4 in and topstitch close to the edge. Turn right side out and press.

With the point of your scissors, make eight small, evenly spaced holes in the 3/4 inch space between the top of the bag and the topstitching. Following the instructions provided with your eyelet pliers, place an eyelet in each of the eight holes. Now weave ribbons, lacing, cord, or string in and out of the eyelets, tying the ends in a secure square knot to finish. Decorate the outside of the pouch as you wish.

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Humor : Aphorisms for Pagans

Note: I thought some of these were funny. Some of them weren’t. Since it’s not my joke (don’t know whose it is, but it’s not mine), I left it as I found it.

A witch's power is directly proportional to the number of other witches who hate her. A witch's intent is inversely proportional to the number of other witches who like her.
Black magick is any magick that works for you -- but not for me.
"The Great Goddess" is YHVH after surgery.
Saying that Aleister Crowley wrote the Gardnerian Book of Shadows is like saying professional wrestling is rigged -- what's the point?
Thelemites are just traditional Wiccans with better lawyers.
Sex magick is blood sacrifice without the sincerity. Blood sacrifice is sex magick without the fun.
If the Wiccan Rede was created, as some suggest, to alleviate the fears of covens, it appears not to have worked.
There are two kinds of Wiccans in America: those who owe their religion to the 1960's "counterculture", and those who don't. (The second group is somewhat smaller than the first.)
If wishes were horses, beggars would ride. If witches were horses, beggars would make glue.
Playing Dungeons & Dragons actually is a lot like Wicca -- but don't tell anybody.
No witch stands so tall as when she stoops to clean the litter-box.
A good witch harms no one. A better witch laughs at the good witch.
If you gathered together all the known pieces of the True Cross, you could build a house big enough to hold all the authentic Gardnerian Books of Shadows.
A High Priestess is only as good as her last Sabbat -- and as bad as her last expulsion.
Bad invocations, like bad poems, are often the most deeply felt.
A ouija board is a waste of money if it doesn't work, and a waste of time if it does.
While nothing is truly unwelcome at a Sabbat feast, it's a safe bet to leave the Twinkies, Chee-tos, and Hi-C fruit punch at home.
When witchcraft is outlawed, only outlaws will ride brooms.
The words of the Magus are to know, to will, to dare, and one other I could remember if everyone would shut up a moment.
The most radical notion in Wicca is that religion can be fun.
For every Pagan who actually gets it, there are two who could get it but don't want to bother, three who'd never get it if they tried, and four who can't hear you above all the talking and loud music.
Those whom the Goddess wishes to destroy, She first makes computer system operators.
Wiccans and Jehovah's Witnesses really agree on a lot of things -- they only feel differently about them.
Pagan Gatherings would be a lot more restrained if participants thought they'd ever have to meet again in the real world.
Before any public ritual, always remember to: 1. Get the ashtrays out of storage. 2. Clean the bathroom. 3. Hide all hairbrushes.
Sex is for Wiccans what cannibalism is for Catholics: a symbolic ritual act that we admit to only under duress.
Q. What is the difference between "nature spirituality" and "Witchcraft"? A. Who wants to know?
Death is Nature's way of telling a Wiccan to turn off the computer.
The day your ritual goes off without a hitch, it's probably time for a re-write.
It is easier, and more humane, to bake a sacrificial harvest-loaf, than to tear apart a live goat with your bare hands. But which makes the most lasting impression?
Crystals are the Earth's way of telling you you're making too much money.
True gods were never meant to be worshipped, only absorbed.
Killing a covener who accidentally knocks over the incense bowl -- thereby spilling twenty-five dollars worth of lignum aloes into the carpet - is not a good idea, however understandable.
There is more black magic in one day on Wall Street than in ten years of Wiccan Sabbats.
Never expect a police officer to understand the ritual nature of your athame.
If we Witches took the energy we spend attacking one another and turned it instead toward our persecutors, we might all live happier, more productive lives -- and Pagan magazines would make very dull reading.
In the next aeon, we're on our own.
Better a hundred evangelists comdemn you for eternity, than one landlord should complain about the smoke coming from your room.
When one witch warns you that another witch is evil, be on your guard -- against the witch who warned you.
If you're hungry, invoke for food. If you're sick, invoke for health. If you're poor, invoke for money. If you're lonely, invoke for love. If you're sad, invoke for happiness. Then you can start invoking to save the rain-forest.
A jailed patriot loves his country, and a persecuted witch loves her gods.
Many Neo-Pagans are just Creative Anachronists with a bit more sincerity.
In a society less decadent than ours, Neo-Paganism wouldn't have a chance -- but genuine Paganism would flourish.
Two witches, eight opinions.
A Celtic Cross is an Egyptian ankh that got past the church door.
A witch in time is an hour early for the Sabbat.
Christian Fundamentalists may object to single parents on earth, yet have no problem accepting one in heaven.
"As above, so below", they tell us. Then why do our gods look so much cooler than we do?
Interesting Fact: Three of the four Greater Sabbats fall at the beginning of a network "sweeps" month.
If the Pope excommunicated the way some High Priestesses banish, there'd be a major housing shortage in hell.
There are no "good" or "evil" witches, only those you can't afford to ignore.
Never forget that there are genuinely good Christian people in the world, and that their religion may have something to do with it.
Please refrain from snickering at the Priestess during the Gnostic Mass. That butt on the altar may one day be yours.
The shortest distance between two athame points, is in a very crowded circle.
A witch meets two kinds of people in the world: witches, and those who are glad they're not witches.
For a lot of us, life sucks, then you die. For Wiccans, life sucks, then you die, then it doesn't suck as much, then you die again.
No witch ever lost anything by doing nothing. When in doubt, veg out.
It's as easy to be a Pagan in the city as in the country. It's harder to be a Pagan in the suburbs.
A Christian relies on faith above everything else. A Wiccan relies on it only when nothing else is left.
Many people are drawn to the Craft for what it isn't. Those who stay in the Craft appreciate what it is.
Of course you can cast a perfectly fine circle with a kitchen knife. But there's something about a two-hundred dollar hand-forged designer athame that makes you want to cast it more often.
Witches never die before their time, except in the real world.
No magic is ever truly destructive. For what is destruction, except creation with an agenda?
Everyone is a magician in cyberspace.
Athames are like penises. The size may not matter, but most people like 'em bigger anyway.
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Who's Who in World Mythology : Anunitu
For past articles and the bibliography, please go to the Who's Who Archive.

Anunitu (Anunitum) or Antu (Antum) is one of the most ancient goddesses of Mesopotamia. She herself was a version of an older Sumerian goddess Ki, daughter of Anshar and Kishar, and personification of the Earth and Underworld. Worshipped from her temple at Sippar until the sixth century BCE, she was later merged with the Mother Goddess Ishtar. As the consort of Anu, she held the dominant position at the Babylonian Akitu festival until the second century BCE. Anunitu is the mother of Enlil.

Quote : Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)
Perfect clarity would profit the intellect but damage the will.

The Magi's Garden: Bachelor's Buttons
For past featured foliage and the bibliography, please go to the The Magi's Garden Archive.

Bachelor's Buttons (Centaurea cyanus)

Folk Names: Blue Cap, Blue Centaury, Blueblow, Bluebonnet, Bluebottle, Bluet (French), Cornflower, Cyani, Devil's Flower, Hurtsickle, Red Campion

Description: Bachelor’s Button is an annual native to the Mediterranean and Europea, and naturalized to North America. The thin, stiff, branched stem grows from one to two feet. The plant is wooly and white when young. The alternate, grayish-green leaves are long and narrow pinnate. They are lobed near the base and nearly filiform near top. The large, terminal thistle-like flower is usually blue, but there are white, rose, purple, and mauve varieties. The flowers appear June through August and may be up to one and one-half inches.

Effects: gentle
Planet: Venus, Saturn
Element: Water
Associated Deities: Robin Goodfellow, Chiron, Flora

Traditions:
Bachelor’s Buttons are particularly sacred on Floralia which occurs near Beltane. The flower was a favorite of Cyanus, a devotee of Flora, from whom is takes its name. Its genus was derived from Chiron, perhaps one of the most famous centaurs, who taught mankind healing arts.
If the flower petals are pressed, they express a blue juice. While this is not suitable as a dye (it fades), it may be used as a natural ink for your book of shadows. (See mercantile usage)

Magic:
A bachelor’s button flower should be worn over the heart to attract the love of a man. For love divination, carry a flower in your pocket. It will lose or retain its freshness according to the success of you amatory pursuits.
it is said people who have cornflower blue eyes will find special protection for their eyes in this plant. Filtered through three layers of blue linen and consecrated under a full moon with a moonstone, a wash of bachelor’s button flowers may be used to bathe the eyes to increase clairvoyance.

Though called cornflower, bachelor’s buttons are actually antithetical to the growth of corn, using up the nutrients in the earth. It was also called hurtsickle because in the days of hand reaping, the tough stem blunted the reaper’s sickle. For these reasons, it might be best to avoid any combinations with corn or harvest spells.

Known Combinations:
According to Culpepper, Bachelor’s Buttons combined with Plantain, Horsetail, or Comfrey is a remedy against all “venoms and poisons.” The seeds or leaves, taken in wine, are said to be a cure for plague and other infectious diseases.

Medical Indications: Parts Used: flower
Bachelor’s Button contains tannin, and it is therefore astringent. Ancient writers suggested its use in closing wounds and treating bruises. It is also a diuretic and tonic. It is used to treat dyspepsia, and the flowers have long been used in eyewashes, eye drops, and compresses for eyes.

Nutrition:
inedible

Mercantile Uses:
Combine the juice of the flowers with alum for blue ink. You may also use it for water colors.
Bachelor’s buttons are popular garden flowers. The dried flowers may be included in potpourris, though mainly for color, and they also make lovely additions to wreaths and floral arrangements.

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Cartoon

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Poem : The Lie
Sir Walter Ralegh (1552-1618)

Go, soul, the body’s guest,
Upon a thankless errand;
Fear not to touch the best;
The truth shall be thy warrant.
Go, since I needs must die,
And give the world the lie.

Say to the court, it glows
And shines like rotten wood;
Say to the church, it shows
What’s good, and doth no good.
If church and court reply,
Then give them both the lie.

Tell potentates, they live
Acting by others’ action;
Not loved unless they give,
Not strong but by a faction.
If potentates reply,
Give potentates the lie.

Tell men of high condition,
That manage the estate,
Their purpose is ambition,
Their practice only hate.
And if they once reply,
Then give them all the lie.

Tell them that brave it most,
They beg for more by spending,
Who, in their greatest cost,
Seek nothing but commending.
And if they make a reply,
Then give them all the lie.

Tell seal it wants devotion;
Tell love it is but lust;
Tell time it is but motion;
Tell flesh it is but dust.
And with them not reply,
For thou must give the lie.

Tell age it daily wasteth;
Tell honor how it alters;
Tell beauty how she blasteth;
Tell favor how it falters.
And as they shall reply,
Give every one the lie.

Tell wit how much it wrangles
In tickle points of niceness;
Tell wisdom she entangles
Herself in overwiseness.
And when they do reply,
Straight give them both the lie.

Tell physic of her boldness;
Tell skill it is pretension;
Tell charity of coldness;
Tell law it is contention.
And as they do reply,
So give them still the lie.

Tell fortune of her blindness;
Tell nature of decay;
Tell friendship of unkindness;
Tell justice of delay.
And if they will reply,
Then give them all the lie.

Tell arts they have no soundness,
But vary by esteeming;
Tell schools they want profoundness,
And stand too much on seeming.
If arts and schools do reply,
Give arts and schools the lie.

Tell faith it’s fled the city;
Tell how the country erreth;
Tell manhood shakes off pity;
Tell virtue least preferreth.
And if they do reply,
Spare not to give them the lie.

So when thou hast, as I
Commanded thee, done babbling –
Although to give the lie
Deserves no less than stabbing –
Stab at thee he that will,
No stab the soul can kill.

Quote : Martin Luther King, Jr.
Without love, benevolence becomes egotism.

The Power of Stones : Adamite
For past articles and the bibliography, please go to the Power of Stones Archive.

Adamite, or hydrous zinc arsenate, was named for French mineralogist Gilbert-Joseph Adam (1795-1881). The crystals may be found in many colors, but commonly range from yellow to green. It is a fairly rare mineral, though not of gem quality.

Adamite is capable of correcting imbalances of the heart over the intellect. If you feel you are excessively ruled by your emotions, adamite can be of great use to you. It also provides inner strength during stressful, emotional times and allows you to properly express how you are feeling.

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Humor : Top 10 Signs You're Dealing With A Wanna-be Witch

10. "I learned how to make a stoplight change!"
9. "Can you teach me how to make a raincloud come around?"
8. "Well, I saw this really cool Ricki Lake show on the Craft..."
7. "I'm a natural witch!"
6. "What do you mean, I'm not in ceremonial clothing?"
5. "You mean that you don't have a familiar?"
4. "I studied the Necronomicon. It was pretty cool. Sitting right there in Waldenbooks, I just had to summon Cthulu!"
3. "I sometimes hear voices in my head...they tell me that the Goddess is watching me and my parents are freaks."
2. "I'm an expert at Tarot/runes/reading auras/etc."
1. "I'm a warlock."
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A Dreamer's Guide : Guard to Gypsy
For past articles and the bibliography, please go to the Dreamer's Guide Archive.

If you felt on Guard against something, avoid indiscretion in your speech. You will escape some danger if you were a security guard, but if you were a night guard, some sorrow is on its way to you. Being a presidential guard means you are waiting for help that will ultimately be useless, but if you were the guard of a park, you have a good heart. You will soon have happiness if you hit a guard, but if you killed one, you will lose money. Your friends will insult you if you saw a guard taking away a prisoner, but if you were taken away by a guard, your fortune is secure. Some item under guard is a warning of loss through carelessness or theft.

Your friends will be considerate of you if you dreamt of a Guardian, but if your guardian was unkind or abusive, you will have trouble and loss in the future. If you were made the legal guardian of another person, you will be worried by financial problems connected to a friend.

You hunger to know the future, but you are enable to grasp it if you had make a Guess in your dream. You will have good adventures if you made correct guesses, but if you made conjectures about someone’s personal life, you will have deceitful friends. If someone else made guesses, look for treachery among your own, and you will be cheated if others were making guesses about you. Guessing someone’s age indicates poverty.

If you were called upon by a Guest, important and beneficial events are to come. Many guests are a sign of difficulty in business, and unwelcome guests mean unhappiness in love. Be careful of your health if others had guests.

Dreams of Guides are a portent of interesting new opportunities through the influence of a friend. Hard work is ahead of you if you acted as an official guide, and guiding people around means you will receive assistance from your friends. Pay attention to the suggestions of a friend if others were guiding you, but seeing others guided indicates a loss of money.

You are in danger of losing a valuable friend through childish contention if you saw a Guillotine ready for execution. A paper cutting type is a warning to be more diligent concerning your responsibilities if you wish to avoid an embarrassing loss.

If you were Guilty of something, you must endure a period of difficulty possibly due to an injustice you have failed to make amends for. If others were guilty, beware of treachery. You will receive an inheritance from an elderly lady if your lover or mate was guilty of something. A guilty enemy may be a sign of a death in the family.

Your life will be full of small pleasures if you played a Guitar, and if you heard a guitar, your life will be vigorous until your death. Love and joy will be yours if you enjoyed the music, but if the music was interrupted, your friends will cheat you. If the guitar was unstrung and broken, disappointments in love are foretold. (See also Banjo)

Change for the better is coming if you dreamt of a Gulf or water, but if you were in a gulf, someone for whom you care is about to leave. Avoid your rivals if others were in a gulf. If you were on a boat in a gulf, your will overcome your troubles, and if you sailed into a gulf port, you will have joy, but not profit. (see Abyss for a land gulf)

You will have peace in your dealings with an ungenerous person if you dreamt of Gulls. Dead gulls foretells the separation of friends.

Financial delays are augured by Gum. If you chewed gum, someone will stick by you, but if others chewed gum, you may have reason to regret your actions.

Discord in the family is predicted if you dreamt of your on Gums, and if they were inflamed, you will not have good results in your affairs. You may lose a friend if a dentist treated your gums, and if children had sore gums, you will receive an unexpected guest.

Guns, under any circumstance, are an omen of injustice to your or someone close to you. Danger is ahead if you had a gun, but if you received it as a gift, you will have honors. Good earnings are predicted if you bought a gun, and a marriage is predicted if you traveled with one. A rifle with a bayonet indicates the separation of partners. If you heard a gun shot, you will lose your job, and if you shot someone, you will be greatly dishonored. A serious illness is indicated if you were shot, and a lawsuit threatens if you shot an enemy. Loading a gun is a warning to hold your temple.

Mend your ways if you dream of Gunpowder or you may have to move due to marital issues or a change of employment.

A Guru is a prediction of a worthwhile new friend.

A Gutteris a sign of degradation, unless you were cleaning it out, in which case you will have success in your undertakings. You will cause unhappiness for others. Hard times are on their way if you were in a gutter, and friends in the gutter means a trip in the near future. You will triumph over your enemies if you saw them in the gutter, and if you found something valuable in a gutter, you will either receive financial awards, but others will question your right to them, or you will be given an increase in status without an increase in pay.

Being in a Gymnasium is a sign of impulsive behavior which may cause you social embarrassment.

Doing Gymnastics in a gymnasium means your worries will be smoothed away, but if your relatives were gymnasts, trouble lies ahead. Financial gain is indicated by gymnastic children. A professional gymnast means you will have misfortune in speculation or trade.

A Gypsy is a symbol of a changeable mind. A male gypsy is a sign of light-hearted amorous entanglements, and a female indicates news from a distance or a sudden trip. If you or someone else had their fortune told, it is a sign of marital troubles. If the gypsy told the fortune of a woman, you will have an unfortunate marriage, and if she was already married, you will be jealous of your spouse. You will lose valuable property if a man spoke to a gypsy, and if the gypsy told a man’s fortune, you will be jealous of your spouse, without cause. You will receive an offer of some importance, but you will “look the gift horse in the mouth” to your disadvantage if you visited a gypsy camp, but seeing a camp or wagon means you are entering a period of restlessness and uncertainty. You will lose money or property through speculation if you traded with a gypsy because you are too much of a materialist, but eventually things will come out alright.

Quote : Friedrich Durrenmatt
What was once thought can never be unthought.

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