Changing a Lightbulb – A Zodiac Perspective

Candle not Lightbulb

Aries: Just one. You want to make something of it?

Taurus: One, but just TRY to convince them that the burned-out bulb is useless and should be thrown away

Gemini: Two, but the job never gets done – they just keep arguing about who is supposed to do it and how it’s supposed to be done!

Cancer: Just one. But it takes a therapist three years to help them through the grief process.

Leo: Leos don’t change light bulbs, although sometimes their agent will get a Virgo to do the job for them while they’re out.

Virgo: Approximately 1.0000000 with an error of +/- 1 millionth.

Libra: Er, two. Or maybe one. No – on second thought, make that two. Is that okay with you?

Scorpio: That information is strictly secret and shared only with the Enlightened Ones in the Star Chamber of the Ancient Hierarchical Order.

Sagittarius: The sun is shining, the day is young and we’ve got our whole lives ahead of us, and you’re inside worrying about a stupid light bulb?

Capricorn: I don’t waste my time with these childish jokes.

Aquarius: Well, you have to remember that everything is energy, so …

Pisces: Lightbulb? What lightbulb?

Pagan Movie Assessment: The Craft

The Craft Video Cover

I originally posted these to a mailing list as discussion topics.  I wanted to keep track of this and hope that in the future I can again be part of an active group assessing craft movies.

1. How did you react to the movie – did you love it, loathe it or remain indifferent to it? Why?

2. What themes repeat throughout the movie? Does the movie have a message?

3. Are the characters real for you? Who do you sympathise with? Who were your favorite characters? Why did characters make the choices they did?

4. How does point of view shape the movie? Would the movie have had a different feeling, ending, beginning if told from the viewpoint of one of the other girls? Was our heroine heroic? What about the other girls?

5. How did you feel about the sets and designs of the craft elements? For instance, what did you think about the altar? Where the settings important to the story? What did the homes of the various girls tell us about their families? Was it to heavy handed?

6. What stood out about this movie?

7. What social issues does the movie address?

8. What actions were you ambivalent about? What would you have done? How would you have dealt with someone in your circle turning into a Nancy?

9. What parts of the movie were ambiguous to you? How do you interpret them? Do you think the ambiguity is intentional or caused by poor writing?

10. What questions would you like to ask the characters?

11. What will happen to the characters after the story?

12. Do you have any Favorite Lines or Scenes?

Then go read this interview of Pat Devin a witch with 30 years of experience who was called in as advisor for the movie.

13. Do you think Pat succeeded in making The Craft a more realistic portrayl of the Old Religion?

14. Where or what would you have liked to have most changed to better reflect how you think Wicca/the Craft works?

15. Have you heard anyone try to explain how Manon is the name of a “real” mythic diety?

16. What about the rituals? What would you change to make them more effective?

17. Any last thoughts about the interview?

As for me? I loved this movie, I thought some of the imagery was especially captivating. Do I think it misled people about Wicca and the Craft? No, after all it is FICTION. Maybe I’m being naive, but I think most people recognize the difference between reality and fiction.

Lirala

Hugging trees

Flower & Tree Magic

I’m reading “Flower and Tree Magic” by Richard Webster. I’ve fallen in love with his hugging trees section.  He talks about finding an oracle tree to nurture and talk to. For hugging trees he suggests lining up the third eye and heart chakra, or to align all the chakras by putting your back to the tree and placing your hands on it behind you. There’s also the idea of asking trees to help you remove negativity. You wouldn’t do this with your oracle tree, but other trees that agree to help.  This book is definitely worth buying, just for this section. — Lirala

My Library

I had been using LibraryThing to catalog my pagan books.  The problem is that I kept running into the 200 book limit.  If I want more than 200 books in the catalog I have to pay a one time fee.  I’m already doing that for my complete library, so I started hunting around for other options.  I finally found what I was looking for this week.  Gurulib.

Gurulib is a free online library book catalog, but it also allows you to catalog movies, music, games, and software.  It’s quite splendid.  My library is at: http://www.gurulib.com/Lirala You can use the tabs across the top to limit the shelves to books or movies. I haven’t added anything else.  The shelf subjects on the left organize the whole collection into workable subsets–at least I think so.

I really like that I can add things to a wish list.  While searching for the titles of my books to add, I came across many things I wanted to buy.  It was very, VERY handy.

Caveat: If you have more than 1,000 items to catalog, you probably want to use LibraryThing instead.   — Lirala

Living Life

Inner Voices

I had an epiphany recently. I was doing my evening stretches and thinking, pondering on the tarot card for the evening.  Osha Zen’s “Inner Voices” card.  As my mind wandered over my life and goals I realized that I had been focusing too much on weight loss (a theme of struggle co-dependent with my self image).  I had been making good progress over the past few years and needed to focus on what changes I had already made and how it made me feel.  I need to hear my inner voice that says to LIVE my life, not focus so much on my body that I forget to enjoy where I’m at and what I’m able to do.

As I continued to stretch and think I realized there is very little in my life that I want to do that I cannot because of weight.  The first thing I thought of was wearing high heels on a regular basis.  In high school I wore three inch heels everyday. Through most of my college life I wore them.  I miss wearing sexy shoes.  I have lost enough weight that I can wear high heeled ankle boots on days when I don’t have to walk much.  But wearing a regular gorgeous pump is still eluding me.

I can’t ride a bike comfortably. Perhaps because I haven’t really tried.  On the other hand, where am I going to ride it and why?   I live on a hill near fairly busy streets. For me to ride a bike like I used to I’d need to take it out to the countryside.  This is probably more of a practice issue than a  real physical cannot.  The same goes for riding horses. I don’t have one to ride regularly and I feel weird on one since I weigh 80 lbs more than I did when I had a horse.  It would probably be fine if I’d just practice.

There’s a lot of things that make me uncomfortable because I weigh so much. Things like airplane travel, though with how irksome security is now…   But I go swimming when I want, I can walk and go up stairs, dance, sing, laugh and even stand up after sitting on the floor.

So I can’t wear high heeled pumps.  Well BFD.  I’m healthy, I have a wonderful husband, great friends, a car that gets exceptional gas mileage, perhaps it is time to focus on the good and see if that won’t help this next 10 lbs melt away.