Eight of Wands/Six of Swords: the Eight of Wands (Mercury, reason, intelligence, education, skill, communication, in Sagittarius, “I seek,” philosophic, fun-loving, adventurous, blundering) is one of the few Minor Arcana cards without people found in the image. The Eight of Wands is very similar to the Ace of Wands in that it is very Fiery in nature (hot/separates and dry/shapes, and spontaneous, impulsive and energetic change), however the Eight is a card of action. It tells of a sudden release of energy that clears the air, or the receipt of some new or exciting prospects that distract from those that are not serving the situation, and it tells me that I have the ability to get things cleared, quickly. The Six of Swords (Mercury, reason, intelligence, education, communication, in Aquarius, “I know,” friendships, the group, cause oriented), tells of recovery, of the onset of transition, and of the continuation of a journey. These two cards are supporting each other, and they are telling me that the time has come to chart a new course, and to boldly go where no man has gone before.

My Thoth card is the Prince of Cups reversed. The Prince of Cups (cusp of Aquarius, “I know,” friendships, the group, cause-oriented, and Pisces, “I believe,” feelings, duality, suffering, soul growth) in an upright position tells of a person who focuses intensely on feelings and emotions and the Inner Voice, which can either be a good thing, or it can tell of a time of imbalance with too much emotion and not enough grounding. When I see reversed Knights, I usually see them as presenting the negative possibilities associated with a pure application of the correspondences of the suit, so I need to be sure to focus on balance today as far as my emotions are concerned, and I need to strive to be realistic. Crowley sees this card in an upright position as showing a person who has the ability to be amenable but who has a secret, and sometimes selfish, agenda, so from Uncle Al’s viewpoint, this card might be better reversed. However, sometimes things need to be kept secret for a bit.

My Legacy card is the Page of Wands reversed, flavored by The Hanging Man reversed. The Page of Wands (Cancer, “I feel,” sensitive, tenacious, nurturing, moody; Leo, “I am,” passionate, dramatic noble egotistical; and Virgo, “I serve,” practical, analytical, work and service oriented) uses assertion and action in order to feed his need for adventure and excitement. He has a childlike optimism, and since the suit of Wands is associated with Fire and the Will, he can often manifest that optimism into reality, mainly because in his childlike enthusiasm he refuses to see failure. Because he is reversed, I may feel a bit frustrated today if things don’t appear to be going as I want them to. I need to be careful that I am not reduced to tantrums. The Hanging Man is a peculiar and powerful card, whether upright or reversed. It corresponds with Water (cold/binds and wet/adapts; emotional and imaginative energy which attempts to prevent changes), Neptune (inspiration, spirituality, magick, altered states), Mem (water, stability and balance, the reflective quality of thought), and the Path between Hod (which provides analysis and communication) and Geburah (the place where forms and structures are challenged or affirmed), and whether upright or reversed, it tells of the benefits to be had from altering my perceptions. This card is supporting the Page of Wands reversed, and is reminding me to stop struggling against the tides for this is a total waste of energy. I need to think out of the box in order to reaccess the Fire of this Page.

My 6-digit date number is 8, the number that represents an active, conscious and focused response to the beginning of degeneration that is the number 7, in an attempt to repair and reproduce harmony.

My horoscopes: “Strained nerves and trepidation about unpleasant tasks could have you on edge and likely to take your stress out on those closest to you. Try to avoid this, Sagittarius. Go for a walk. Release your stress through exercise or writing. Communicate your feelings to friends and assure them you aren't upset with them. In this way, you will get through the day with little damage.”

And: “You don't just survive by helping out the people around you, you thrive on it. There's nothing you like better than knowing that you've been able to help somebody out with something they've gotten stuck with, whether it's their career or their cutie pie. What can you say? You're a nice person. And you get something out of the deal too -- the sense of a job well done.”

And: “Welcome to another great day. The energy from the day's aspects is positive and encouraging when it comes to communication and interaction with others. So why not take advantage of this? Get together with friends and family to visit and enjoy yourself. Consider inviting people over for a game or dinner. Even a potluck can be a lot of fun. You work hard all the time, so play hard today!”

Well, a nasty head cold has slowed me down this week, immensely. I am finally feeling somewhat back to normal, thanks in part to my energy work, and my new piece of azurite, as well as some coral from the Dominican Republic, both which I am using as a part of my healing. But the week has not been without events. I received our business cards, and this means that Helen and I can go out and sell our product. I will be offering Vedic Thai-Yoga Bodywork through Elena of Off the Beaten Path, and there are two other possibilities so far in Northern New Jersey where I will be presenting myself and my services.

I will be alone in Cape May for the first part of this weekend, but Bob will be coming down either late Saturday night or some time on Sunday. The stair people are coming early Monday morning to fix a slight miscalculation on the stairs into our bedroom, and thus, the floor people will be able to come on Tuesday and install our hardwood floors. This means that next weekend, we can begin to put the furniture back! Finally, our Blue Moon House will be back to normal for a while.

Last night we had a Pagan Brain Trust meeting, our first with our newest member, Phillie. Awesome!! I am truly amazed at the incredible discussions we all have, and how much each of us contributes to the increased knowledge, wisdom and validation brought to us all, both individually and as a group.

I am reading a new book, part of the recommended reading list for the Third Degree Lesson I am working on within my Third Degree training at Sacred Mists, When I see the Wild God: Encountering Urban Celtic Witchcraft, by Ly De Angeles. I only just began reading the book last night, before leaving for Wayne, and already I read a few things that reached out and grabbed my mind, so I bought the book with me, to read a few passages to the others. As an aside, I read the reviews for the book on Amazon before purchasing it, and they were mixed. I feared that the book might be more of a beginner’s book, but thankfully, I believe the negative reviews were based on the fact that the book presents concepts which would be meaningless to those who were not aware of the Mysteries of Wicca; if the reviewer was not initiated into those Mysteries, the content of the book would seem without depth. I connected immediately to what the author was saying in the first few chapters.

After hearing the passages, Phil brought up an interesting concept. He spoke for a bit about his feeling that in the past, the gay/queer community would have had a very valid role to play for primitive man. Actually, he made a valid point, for besides sex with women in order to have children, necessary for propagation of our species, there really was no difference between what a gay man could contribute to the tribe and what a straight man could contribute to a tribe. Homosexuals would have been considered dual personas, and thus valuable aids for bridging the worlds. Primitive man perceived the world as being dual, both physical and astral or energetic in nature, and someone whose persona contained bits of both masculine and feminine energy would have been expected to have a corresponding ability to bridge both the physical and non-physical world. After all, the physical world corresponds with male energy and the non-physical world corresponds with female energy, both of which would have been apparent within homosexuals.

In my opinion, as man gradually developed a “civilized” lifestyle, it was not homosexuality itself that became taboo, but the concept of a man spilling his seed into an unfertile vessel. This would mean that masturbation would be seen as an equal taboo as gay sex because the man’s seed would be spilled in a manner that could not bring conception.

If we take away that major taboo related to the need for an increase in population (which no longer is valid, obviously), then there really is no reason at all for two men who love each other, or two women who love each other, to **not** be paired in a committed relationship if they so choose, the same way that a heterosexual couple chooses to enter into a committed relationship. Wicca sees all love, sex and pleasure to be sacred; this means that while propagation is important, for Wiccans, it is not the only reason to have sex or feel pleasure.

As I was driving home (**smile** as is usual for me), I revisited the topics of conversation that evening, including this one. I realized once again, from a different perspective, that everyone and every thing has value. Each life form, as well as each building block to life, serves a purpose within the eternal cycles of our Universe. And yet, despite this connection, mankind has the hubris to make this world about him and him alone. We may be supreme in some ways, basically due to our ability to consciously reason, but we have divorced ourselves from the world that nurtures us and supports our very life; we no longer connect with the cycles around us, the very cycles that feed us and keep us healthy, and we deny the validity of the non-physical realms, realms which are equally important for health and harmony as the physical realms. For a moment, I was amazed that Deity responds to our requests for contact at all! How frustrating it must be to maintain the sense of wonder and magick regarding the workings of our Universe to an audience that is indifferent at best, and even hostile to this attempt.

We each have a purpose, an individual purpose and a purpose as a species. Both our individual purpose and our purpose as a species brings consequences as we manifest that purpose; some consequences are small and easily extinguished, but none of us will be around long enough to really be able to say that the consequences of seemingly minor decisions will have no impact.

As I drove on Route 80, I looked at the starry sky, and at the lace of the silhouettes of the winter trees, each as unique as a snowflake. Once again, I became aware of the presence of the Divine all around me, and I realized that all physical manifestations, everything within our Universe, can be considered in part as an image of Deity. Look at it this way: everything in the physical world is built from energy. Deity is also built from energy, the purest energy containing the highest, warmest vibration, more pure and warm and high than anything we can perceive through our physical senses. This is why we need to communicate with Deity within the non-physical or astral realms.

Now, as the vibratory levels of energy cool and slow down, that energy becomes more physical; it “falls” into the physical world (where energy vibrates slower and cooler than within the astral realms, and we end up with air and water and earth and fire, and all of their effects. However, because the building blocks of the physical world consist of the same energy component as those of the astral realms, and of Deity Herself/Himself/Itself, the manifestation across the spectrum will be of the “as above, so below” nature. Manifestation occurs in the physical world and must take place according to the laws of the physical world (LOL, the only world that many can perceive), but that manifestation also takes place in accordance with its ingredients, according to the “recipe” or “floor plan” (for the lack of a better term) that is Deity.

This means that everything is sacred, because every thing, every effect, every life form, exists not only because of the common ingredient of Divine energy, but exists in a similar fashion as (read “in the image of”) Deity. Deity is all around me, and infuses my physical, emotional, mental and spiritual self, and this means that every act of my day is sacred.

Deity does not necessarily want to be worshipped by us, worshipped in a manner that causes us to see Deity as transcendent; Goddess and God are programmed to respond to interactions with us, and just as having a strong and ethical spiritual belief brings harmony to each of us, the energy we emit during those marvelous Aha! Moments and those elusive glimpses of the Machinery of the Universe are food for the Gods. Each entity upon and within our Universe has the potential to offer this sustenance to Deity, from pond scum to Stephen Hawkings, each in its own way.

The Gods must have been hungry of late, for mankind has focused upon himself and his technology for some time. Perhaps our purpose, we who have become enlightened and aware, is to bring the first drop of water that will turn into a flash flood of sustenance once a tipping point is reached.

This makes the work of the Pagan Brain Trust, and Lumina Mystica, and Sacred Mists sacred, as sacred as any coven or worship group or spiritual tradition or religion. It means that we each have a responsibility to manifest our individual traits (in an ethical way, of course), for these traits are gifted by Deity.

Blessed be!!

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