I Came From the Wilderness

Egyptian Revenge Spells by Claudia R. Dillaire - new book review up; as always, click the link for the full review!

( Few other things )

So, today is my third wedding anniversary. (As opposed to the fourth day-we-met anniversary, which is next Tuesday, and the third handfasting anniversary, which is Wednesday.) Three years ago today, Tay and I stood in the back yard of my parents' home, under the branches of a big tree. We spoke our vows before what was probably the only Christian minister in my hometown liberal enough to take on two non-Christians, with some of Tay's family, and a decent portion of mine, in attendance. (Still wasn't too many people--my family members only tend to have 2-3 kids at the most.)

Despite me being frustrated at the time that there was no way to do the ceremony according to my own religious traditions, and later on in the day my introversion acting up after six hours of being the center of attention, I had a great time. We had a simple ceremony and home reception just the way we wanted--my dad barbecued filet mignon and smoked a few chickens, and we got an ice cream cake for the wedding cake! We got to go swimming in my parents' pool, and the weather was perfect. We had our wedding night at a beautiful Victorian B&B in the next town over. We were surrounded by people we hadn't seen in a while, and then for the honeymoon we got to go up to Pittsburgh to see folks we hadn't seen since we'd moved.

All in all, it was a great time. I remember standing there with Tay--he was nervous before the vows were spoken, and I was nervous after, once I realized what I'd just done. But we were there for each other, and we've been there for each other since then. The last three years have been nothing short of a roller coaster, complete with ups, downs, OMGAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!, adrenaline, and the satisfaction of "Ha! Look what WE did! Yay, us!"

And I'm glad he's been with me through it all. Love you, Tay.

....and, a couple more book reviews as I play catch-up. Click the links for the full review:

Seeing in the Dark: Claim Your Own Shamanic Power Now and in the Coming Age by Colleen Deatsman and Paul Bowersox - Another core shamanism 101 book?

The Sacred Earth: Writers on Nature and Spirit edited by Jason Gardner - And this month's Bargain Bin Book Review--how did I like it this time?

First, have some book reviews; click the links to read the full reviews:

Beyond 2012 by James Endredy - finally, a 2012 book I can take seriously!

Women and Religion in the West edited by Kristin Aune, Sonya Sharma and Giselle Vincett - this is the book that had an essay that claimed that Buffy the Vampire Slayer causes thousands of women to stop going to church every year

( Randomness from the day )

For anyone who's made apple pectin from scratch--I may be stuck!

I cooked the apples for a few hours, until all was one big mush. However, when I went to strain the pectin out, I very quickly got a bunch of thick, orangey-colored juice (I used a colander lined with a piece of old t-shirt). So I set the juice aside, and have been cooking the pulp further. Any suggestions as to what to do from this point? How do I know the apples have been cooked enough? Can I strain pectin from the juice if I boil it down more? There has been none of the "thick, clear fluid" that pectin is supposed to be.

Cut up apples and they're now cooking to make pectin. You know your apples are pesticide-free when you find worms in them. I also managed to put aside a half dozen that are ripe enough to eat; there may be pies soon, once the tarts and strawberry-banana bread are gone.

This is the link for making apple pectin that oakmouse gave me and which I'm currently using. Also, while doing further research on the subject, I found this link by a blogger who has been mocked for talking about making food from scratch. Maybe this has changed a bit since 2006, when the post was written. I haven't run into the problem, but I also tend to hang around people for whom cooking from scratch is an art form. The comments on the post are great.

Finally, re: Independence Day. Yes, this is a popular time for naysayers to bitch and moan about the state of things here in the States. Yes, I agree things have gotten fucked nine ways from Sunday. However, think of this: we're not in Iran. (No, that situation hasn't gone away.) The violations of our rights do not currently include snipers killing cell phone users, or a blatantly religious leader neutralizing the chance for a truly representative government. That doesn't mean that we shouldn't continue keeping a close eye on our own elected officials (check out what just happened to Sarah Palin)--but for fuck's sake, put things into perspective.

I have a TON of jewelry in my finished art boxes, so in the interest of trying to clear some of it out, I'm running a sale til July 30 (the day before we go to Faerie Worlds to vend)! 25% off all necklaces, and 50% off all bracelets and earrings, with the exception of stuff on the new stuff page! All prices shown on this post are the discounted prices! Prices DO NOT include shipping.

ETA: I removed everything that's sold already, and marked things that have someone interested. There's still plenty available, though!

( Bracelets )

( Earrings )

( Necklaces )

Taking a break from Serious Business to do a garden post...

( My garden is a lovely place to be right now (cut for pics) )

Also, does anyone in Portland have A) a worm bin, and B) extra worms? I am going to make a worm bin of my own, and if anyone needs to cull their own collection anyway I'd rather do that than buy worms elsewhere, if possible.

Okay, back to work.

ETA: Oh, and huge thanks to oakmouse, who sent me a big box of books on gardening and PNW wildlife/plants, including some nifty old self-pub/small press titles!

Naturalistic Occultism by IAO131

An attempt to explain various occult and magical processes scientifically--or, more specifically, psychologically. Click the link above for the full review!

Persepolis 2.0 - a webcomic commentary on the election over in Iran, using images from the original Persepolis graphic novel

A few new reviews for you :P (Click the links to view):

Watercolour Essences of Moon by Christala Rosina - not quite pagan, but Romantic-inspired poetry that could have some good ritual applications

Crafting Magick With Pen and Ink by Susan Pesnecker - a really thorough guide to writing of all genres, whether books or rituals or poems, with additional considerations and aids for pagan writers

Seeking the Spirit of the Book of Change by Master Zhongxian Wu - an interesting "shamanic" interpretation of the I Ching (and not by a white guy!)

You know...collective gnosis isn't necessarily a huge improvement over personal gnosis just because it's, well, collective. If you have a group of people who generally come from the same cultural background (cultural, not racial--the way you've been conditioned in this life), who are all reading the same books, or at least similar ones, who are all trading notes and talking about what everyone else is doing, and who are basically barraging their brains with all the same archetypes, motifs, and other symbol sets--yes, you're going to have a higher rate of people within the group reporting similar experiences/past life memories/etc. This is even if they do their meditations/etc. independently, without talking to each other about specifics first.

And as for verification? Again, even if you haven't read every single bit of a culture's mythos, if you've read a certain amount of it you can pretty much guess how that culture would have addressed a particular problem/phenomenon/etc. Or, if you're talking about something more modern/not recorded in history/etc., if the same group of people has built up a mythos, regardless of its source, again it's going to have its own parameters, personality, flavoring, whatever you want to call it.

Jung didn't call it the Collective Unconscious for nothing. It's collective, meaning shared, and ostensibly shared among all humans to some extent; at its basis, it's the repository of human experiences, which, over time, are a lot less unique than we hyperindividualized Westerners may want to think. (Everybody's been a beautiful and unique snowflake throughout human evolution.) And it's unconscious (or subconscious, depending on who you talk to), which means that people aren't necessarily consciously aware of where their information is coming from. This means that something may seem to come "out of the blue", when in reality the source is intrapersonal.

Not that unique gnosis can't happen, of course. But it's something to keep in mind along with your trusty Occam's Razor.

And here's the artwork post as promised, a little early since Tay and I are going out tonight.

( Lots of stuff in this one! Pouches, tails, necklaces, a deer antler bowl, and more! )

I will be vending this coming weekend, so if there's something you want you may want to go ahead and get it before then! Leave a comment if you want to purchase anything. As always, all my artwork may be found on my website.