The Tower reversed/Page of Cups reversed. In an upright position, The Tower corresponds with Fire (hot/separates and dry/shapes, and spontaneous, impulsive and energetic change), Mars (action, spontaneity, aggression, drive), Phe (mouth or speech), and the Path between Hod (which provides analysis and communication) and Netzach (the stimulating factors of emotion and inspiration). This card warns us about what can happen if we fight the tides, and it tells of the destruction of all that is outdated and not needed any more(even if we think we still need it all). Because The Tower is reversed, I am getting the feeling that the breakthrough has happened already; even though I am slow to catch on and I am just realizing that change, change that cannot be undone, has already occurred. The Page of Cups in an upright position corresponds to Libra (“we are,” partnerships, balance, cooperation), Scorpio (“I desire,” intensity compulsion, mystery) and Sagittarius (“I seek,” philosophic, adventurous, blundering); because this Page is reversed, I may find that my physical senses will not be what I need in order to hear the message of my Inner Voice; I may need to separate my connections to each of the elemental attributes of this card, Earth and Water, in order to use them both effectively. I cannot be this Page, with his ability to use the physical world ~and~ the world feelings and inner focus, if I want to begin to understand the changes that The Tower has wrought.

My Thoth card is the Queen of Cups. Yessss! This is exactly how I feel today. Uncle Al sees this Queen as the perfect agent of both transmission and reception, able to calmly and placidly achieve both without breaking a sweat. To some extent the energies of this card are affected by the influences to which I am open, but today I feel pretty much open to lots of influences, hopefully all positive.

My Legacy card is Temperance reversed, flavored by the Seven of Wands reversed. Another Sagittarius card, Temperance in an upright position also corresponds with Fire, Samekh (the tent post), and the Path between Yesod (the place where patterns and images emerge that may manifest into the physical world of action and outer reality) and Tiphareth (the hub of the creation process where energies harmonize and focus to illuminate and clarify). This card is one of the cards that has always had a personal message to me; it tells me that balance is dynamic and the ability to maintain a dynamic balance takes constant practice and work. It is reversed, and for some reason I feel that today it is reversed because I have already dealt with its energies, to the extent I need to deal with them at this moment in time. The Seven of Wands (Mars in Leo, “I am,” passionate, dramatic, independent) in an upright position is once again an important card to me, personally. It tells of an active and effective defense, consciously chosen, and to me, it represents a Gateway and a Gate Keeper. Because the card is reversed, neither the Gateway nor its Keeper will easily affect me today. Again, I feel that this card is reversed because its energies have already manifested.

My Pearls of Wisdom Samhain card is the Three of Cups. Besides healing and comfort, this card tells me that the weeks ahead will be filled with blessings and good fortune. Both friendship and love will be given and offered, and I will be offered a chance to participate in the dance of life which celebrates the human spirit.

My 6-dibit date number is 4, the number of stability and depth. This 4 is constructed by an 11 and a 1 and a 10; both 11 and 11:11 are personal indications of the presence of the influence of Archangel Uriel.

My horoscopes: “Your time finally seems to be your own, Sagittarius. There are probably no rush jobs to finish, no urgent phone calls to make, and no one looking over your shoulder. This causes a significant release of stress, and you're better able than usual to focus on what you have in front of you. In the evening, relax at home, order a pizza, and watch a movie.”

And: “When you least expect it -- which just might be now, the way the stars are looking -- someone you haven't heard from in forever will visit, extend an invitation from right out of the blue, or reenter your life quite suddenly with all kinds of niceties, from actual gifts, to apologies to sudden offers to give your relationship a second try. If you're unsure -- and at this point, it's hard to imagine being sure about anything -- don't say anything other than, 'Let me think about it.'”

And: “Today is a terrific day for you, in which action spells reward. You can't go wrong by expressing your needs and how they fit in with the collective agenda. Feel free to focus on yourself today and be selfish about your passions. Be aware, however, that unexpected events may be cropping up to remind you that number one is indeed important but don't forget about number two and beyond.” [my emphasis added!!]

This morning as I began my usual morning meditation, I found that unbeknownst to me, I had passed through some Threshold during the night. I did go to sleep with an awareness of the Gateway that is midnight on the night of Samhain, that transformative moment between October and November, between Waning Year and Dark Year, and for Pagans who attune to the Wheel of the Year, one Turn’s ending and another Turn’s beginning. This Samhain, I am very much aware of the change in the background energy now that the Sun Father has made His Journey to His “place of rest.” This change of focus in awareness has not happened in its usual, gradual manner; this year, the change literally happened overnight.

I was told by my Patroness during my morning meditation, in no uncertain terms, that now is the time for me to begin creating connections between all of the focuses of the past few months. I have honed my skills to an appropriate level (even if I don’t think so), and it is time to put those skills to work. And Danu was not kidding when She told me this, because a connection has already been made, a lovely mini-aha! moment for this first day of the Dark Year!

My work with my own energy body, and the interactions of my energy body with the energies of the Universe and the Divine, has in part produced an ever-increasing awareness of what I call the “background” “or “white noise” energy. My efforts to understand Watchers and their effects has provided a side focus: a deeper understanding of that background energy.

This energy to me is the basic building stuff of our universe and every thing and effect within our universe. It is as if we are all surrounded by pure potential, not manifested at all, but able to manifest into anything if it is mixed with enough need or desire or intention. Because it is what everything is made of, we have access to this purest potential, because like the atmosphere of our world, this pure potential fills every hole and presses into every crack and crevice. Like the atmosphere of our world, this pure potential abhors a vacuum, and like the atmosphere of our world, this pure presence has tides and flows, some occurring because of needs or desires or intentions, and some occurring spontaneously.

I have learned quite a bit about needs and desires and intentions, and I have learned that feelings and thoughts and intentions are inextricably tied into the operations and processes and biological machine parts that are my physical body, tied in a two-way manner. Strong feelings or overpowering desires or focused intentions can cause chemically measurable changes in my physical body, and the state of my physical body as well as the use of parts of it can have a measurable change on my feelings, my desires and my intentions.

Now for the aha! moment. After I apply Reiki to my opened and cleansed and balanced chakras, I tie all this together through using the Microcosmic Orbit to bring on the Violet Breath, so that I can send all that lovely Reiki energy back into my own energy field, and thus, my entire physical, mental, emotional and spiritual self. One use for the Violet Breath is as a method to build up a “static charge” of Reiki so that an attunement can be passed; in short, once that static charge is built up (the Reiki Master builds the charge by both performing the Violet Breath and holding her/his own breath (while using the appropriate visualizations) until sufficient charge is gathered), the Reiki Master passes that charge in part by gently breathing onto the recipient of the attunement. As I performed my Violet Breath this morning, the connection happened! Aha! The passing of the energy of the attunement happens through imposing the intention to pass that attunement from the non-physical parts of my mind and my intentions into the physical world, via the bridge between the two that is my breath!

Okay, when I inhale, the oxygen in the air is drawn into my lungs, where it is absorbed into my bloodstream and carried to my brain. Now, the brain is the “biological interface,” quite a powerful interface. The oxygen that is brought into my brain by my blood is infused with my feelings, my desires and my intentions, most of the time unconsciously, without me realizing that I am flavoring or tainting my breath (and as a side note, I also became super sensitive to the concept of consequences today). But during the Violet Breath, I am consciously choosing to infuse my breath (via the visualizations that are a part of the attunement process) with powerful intentions, intentions which I have collected and then allowed to be turned into a sort of “reduction” powerful enough to pass on an attunement. When I breathe on the recipient, I am offering the symbol of the gift (as the recipient can feel that breath, and sometimes see me breathing on him or her), and thus I am affecting his or her energy field, but I am also breathing into our combined auras those particles of air that have been infused with intention within my biological body; those particles are quickly brought into the recipient’s body as he or she breathes, and thus carried to his or her “biological interface” in order to initiate a physical/chemical transformation along with the transformation begun within the recipient’s energy body. How cool is that??!!

This is one reason why the spoken word has so much power; this background noise of perfect potential is infused into my physical self, into the air, and into my energy body, through the use of intention and feelings and desires as a catalyst to activate that pure potential.

Okay, this has been another one of those aha! moments, a brief glimpse of the workings of the Machinery of the Universe, that is understood by every cell of my body, but difficult to put into words. There goes Raush, back into LaLa Land!

My days in Orlando for Witches Gone Wild 2010 were incredibly awesome and beneficial. I ended up not getting to Orlando on Wednesday, due to horrible weather patterns that caused flight cancellations throughout much of Central and Eastern US. I did get down on Thursday morning, however, and was met at Orlando International Airport. LOL, after many squishy hugs were exchanged, we all did some catching up, and then got right down to some awesome brainstorming. Later in the afternoon, a few of us went for a walk around the grounds of the Wilderness Lodge, which are incredible. Wilderness Lodge mimics the grand lodges of the Pacific Northwest; a “spring” bubbles up right inside the huge four story open space that is the lobby, and then winds its way through the rest of the Resort, over waterfalls, through wading pools and swimming pools that are bubbling with springs of their own, through heated spas, and along streams that connect them all together. There is even a geyser that erupts every so often! The buildings themselves appear to be constructed with hugs blocks of granite and massive beams, many carved with animals and Indian markings; here and there on the cement walkways you can find footprints, both animal and human, imprinted into the cement. It is cool to see a sidewalk that looks as if a bear or elk or child walked through the wet cement.

That first night, we all went to the Whispering Canyon for dinner. What a fun restaurant the Whispering Canyon is. Now needless to say, Disney itself is set up for children of all ages, but this is one of the restaurants where that purpose is beautifully manifested! No whispering happens here; in fact, everyone talks and shouts and sings and dances, with much enthusiasm. Each of the servers laughs and giggles and teases, calling to other servers across the room, announcing any celebrations happening, at the top of their lungs, and calling on all patrons to sing and shout together. One pair of servers brought a piece of birthday cake to a patron, got everyone to sing loudly, and then the two of them proceeded to eat that birthday cake, instead of giving it to the birthday person, as everyone laughed and cheered.

Each time someone made the mistake of asking for ketchup, the server called loudly, “keeeeeeeeeeeetchuuuuuuuuuuuuup!!” Then several diners (usually children, who really got a kick out of this) would gather together every ketchup bottle in the whole restaurant and bring it to the table requesting some ketchup. Soooo fun; and the food was awesome, too!

We had manis and pedis on Friday, as a treat to ourselves and each other. After having my fingernails and toenails painted orange (of course!!!), we cooked dinner in the suite and then attended the Sacred Mists Samhain Ritual (LOL, using a login custom-created by our Hostess, a compilation of all of our names). After the Ritual, I took an hour to attend the SMPDA Sabbat Reading Event, and then we all spoke at length with Lady Raven via Skype.

Saturday, in between laughter and dancing and a bit of serious discussions (but not too serious), we rented quadricycles and pedaled to Fort Wilderness, sat at the beach for a bit, and then got ready for dinner at Artist’s Point. Yummmmmy! What an awesome deliciousness that dinner was, and what a fitting way to end our time together. Sunday morning, we all dragged ourselves out of bed, got to the airport at the appropriate times, and made our journeys home. How quickly our time together passed! But we accomplished quite a lot; we bonded through laughter and love, our brainstorming sessions are always valuable, and we are each re-infused with purpose and enthusiasm.

Thank you, Lilyth and Keith, for your hospitality; much love to you both. Hugs and love to you, Isleen and Danae. We rock!

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