I don't mean to get off on a rant here, but where did this sky-is-falling-paganism come from? You know, the type of person who believes that magic is afoot... that's just dying to kick people in the arse. Yes, Karma can have the temperament of a rabid wolverine in heat that just found a stash of PCP, but most of the time, universal retribution runs like Pagan Standard Time is too strenuous a timetable. I have never seen cities leveled by hurricanes because the Purple SageCrystal DragonEgg Coven forgot to dismiss the watchtower of air, nor have I ever seen divinities waiting around in sacred groves looking at their ethereal watches, waiting for someone to come around to see them off. The elements and gods are grownups who know when the show's over. Follow their example and let it go. Invocations to Coyote notwithstanding, I've never seen any indication that anything showed up that wasn't there to begin with, and isn't that the point? Accept the fact that if you sneeze on your altar, walk widdershins within the circle, or use your athame as a throwing dart for a poster of George W. Bush, your next papercut will not be due to cosmic cause-and-effect. Because I have a secret for you. You can't dismiss a deity, an element, an archetype, or anything else you may have called in. Firstly, you can't ask something to leave that's always there, and secondly, because you can't control forces of Nature. I know this is blasphemy and sacrilege to all magic users, but get a life, people. The Craft was a bad Hollywood movie, not a how-to manual. You can't change your hair color by thinking hard about it. You can't levitate objects, yourself, or do any of the tricks from Bewitched. The only thing you can control is yourself, the only thing you can change is your attitude, and the only influence you have on the workings of the world is by communication and getting out of your mother's basement and doing something. But if you feel better for doing it, then that's your right as long as you don't hurt anybody. But if you walk into my circle with any kind of love or trust, you won't throw a hissy fit when we don't cut open the circle every time someone leaves to go to the bathroom, or when we invoke the elements starting in the South, or when we ground ourselves by doing the hokey-pokey. Because maybe that IS what it's all about! I don't want to hear about your past lives, and I don't want to hear about your magical affinities with cemeteries, bunnyrabbits, faeries, crystals, drugs, sexual positions, science fiction characters, role-playing systems, or mass-produced Taiwanese-imported Atlantean divination cards. But if you wrote a letter to your representative about the plight of the U'wa or gay rights, I will gladly chat with you about how we can raise awareness about issues outside of a Cone of Power. Don't get me wrong, I love to wonder about the mysteries of life, the universe, and everything. I even believe in most of the things I just mentioned. But I don't think that lighting a candle will have a greater effect than writing a letter to the editorial column of the local paper. I light my candles after I do everything I can in the physical world. But I won't spend my time talking about how important I was 300 years ago or how I discovered through astral projection that my cat is really a Bodhisattva sent to enlighten the neighborhood squirrels. But I might sell the movie rights. If you have empirical evidence that it was in fact the Morrigan who keyed your car, hid your tube socks, killed your goldfish, and anally raped your aura with a strap-on weasel, then maybe I'll reconsider my stance. But if you can't prove it, I'll just chalk it up as a harmless paranoid delusion and go on my merry -- if cynical -- way. But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong...