Pipe smoking and writing a dissertation

In my note on working with spirits I did a check in about the pipe smoking and Morgan Le Fay and her cup of tea. On occasion, when the fairy king is very much around, I smoke the pipe, but only once a month to, at most, once every other week. As I toured the Museum of Anthropology in BC, I wandered through a room that had all sorts of cataloged artifacts. There were drawers and drawers full of stuff. I was walking along and looking at the glass tops and decided to pull out a drawer. Much to my surprise I pulled out the drawer with all the pipes. It was if I was hit with a 2X4. I was stunned. There are no coincidences when it comes to stuff like that for me. It was clearly a message from the spirits that pipe magic is part of what I am to do.

One of the challenges of smoking the pipe is keeping the thing lit. The combination of the air needed with the fire, is tricky. If you inhale too hard, you get "tongue bite." Trust me, you know that when you feel your tongue go numb. I also know that the spirits ride the smoke.

This week I started my fall semester. One of the classes I have, if I do it right, will result in the first three chapters of my dissertation. This weekend, I cleaned a space on my desk for a new altar. On it I have Ganesh, Brigid,  a candle, my pipe, and a digital recorder (a modern tool). It's a simple altar, but all the things on it were called. I feel like it needs some sort of water. However, the bowl of the pipe is very much a receptacle like the chalice. I don't know.

I'm not sure how my pipe and writing a dissertation relate, but it is clear that I have allies and guards as I do this work. Stay tuned as I'm going to talk about qualitative and quantitative research methods.

Trip to Seattle and Vancover

Well, I thought I'd report on my trip to Seattle and Vancouver. I've added pictures over on the right, so feel free to look at the slide show.

I left on August 7th. I flew into Seattle and stayed at the Gaslight Inn. It is a gay-owned Bed and Breakfast. I had one of the smaller rooms and a shared bathroom. The only disappointing thing was that breakfast was the same. It consisted of biscuits, croissants and fruit. The view of downtown Seattle made up for the lack of diverse breakfast options, so it was easy to sip my coffee and sit on the back balcony and gaze into downtown Seattle.

I managed to find my way to Broadway Street in Seattle and had excellent Thai cuisine two evenings in a row. The first full day of Seattle, I spent the majority of it at the aquarium. I was hypnotized by the otters (sea and river). They were fun to watch. The second day, my friend Kathy joined me and we walked around Pike Place Market. While there we had the good fortune of hearing a Mennonite choir singing old hymns., ie., The Old Rugged Cross. Suffice it to say, that Seattle is a city of diversity so Kathy and I had planned to go to the Seattle Tattoo Expo. A far different crowd than the Mennonites we saw in the park. 

On Sunday, other friends joined me with a rental car and  we made our way to Vancouver, BC. Right before the border we stopped at Joanna Colbert, an artist. We hung out in her studio and got to see some of the originals from her Gaian Tarot. Crossing the border went fine for our carload.

We stayed in Vancouver on Sunday evening and then made our way to a beautiful place called Loon Lake. While there we learned new psychic/intuitive skills and had lovely rituals. 

On Friday, when we all left, I stayed for a few more days at the Nelson House Bed and Breakfast Inn. Another lovely gay B&B. Some great places that I visited while in Vancouver, included, the Museum of Anthropology, Granville Island (a market much like Pike Place Market), and I caught two performances at Bard on the Beach. 

My birthday was Monday and I traveled from BC to Seattle, spending the night at the Gaslight Inn. On Tuesday the 19th I flew home.

This made for a lovely time away and now I'm back in school for the fall. More to come on the magic of my time away!

Memorable dream about the dragon

Hi all. I've been absent. I made a trip to Seattle, WA and Vancouver, BC. I'm going to load pictures sometime soon. However, last night's dreamworld needed to be captured. As many of you know, I've been working with the green dragon. While I'm not sure which dragon I worked with last night in my sleep, it was quite clear that I have a dragon ally.

The initial memory found me in a big room with a curved ceiling, almost dome-like. At the top of the huge dome was a dragon. It was the full body outline (completely filled in though). There were a group of us on the ground looking up. At some point, I noticed the ceiling "brightening up" and coming to life. A mystical glow around the dragon symbol led to the emergence of an energetic dragon head that came down from the ceiling to floor level. It dissolved as their were people who were beginning to chase us.

The chase started. The whole group was running. At some point, the unseen pursuers were catching  up. Myself and an asian man, who seemed to be "royalty" or "holy" or perhaps both continued to run, while the remainder of the group held the pursuers back. At some point, all I had to do was "call the dragon." I called the dragon and all was OK. I awoke from my dreamstate; or was it? 

I dyed yesterday

I've only dyed a couple of things since starting this journey into fiber arts. I used kool-aid to do the dyeing. Anyhow, yesterday I really got to try the dye pot for the first time. I had 600 yards of Alpaca that I had recently spun. It was a simple off-white color. So when my friend Abby invited me to her home for a "day to dye." I jumped on the opportunity. My results are below.

Later in the afternoon. I went to see Mamma Mia. Wow. What a great movie/musical. I highly encourage all to go see it. Meryl Streep is absolutely amazing. If you look closely, you'll see that Rosie (Julie Walters), one of Donna's backup girls is also Mrs Weasley. I knew she looked familiar.  Who knew that Pierce Bronson could actually sing. Enjoy the movie.

Here is the alpaca, hanging and drying.

 

The good guys or the bad guys?

OK. So I went to see Hellboy 2. I know. I know. It is uncharacteristic. However, you gotta love this guy, he loves cats, his wife can generate flames throughout her body, much like Johnny Storm in the Fantastic Four, and his best friend is more comfortable in the water because he has gills. The special effects are absolutely incredible. The violence, well...actually it's not so bad. I've certainly seen more gruesome. At times I even felt the movie was boring. However, the plot was very interesting.

The Golden Army, you see, was built by goblins and "controlled" by the Elf King. The myth suggests that a truce was struck after the Elf King felt much remorse for having built the army and unleashing it on the human world. However, the King's Son, Prince Nouda wants to revive the Golden Army and unleash it against the humans. Here's the interesting part, he feels the call to do this because of humanity's greed, and their destruction of the natural world. Interesting cunundrum when I heard it. All of a sudden, I didn't know who to root for in the movie. The Elf Prince or Hell Boy. The interesting thing is that I believe the Elf Prince made an incredible point. It makes me think about my own commitments to the natural world and the "war" that I sometimes feel needs to be waged against those who would destroy the natural places. There is a fabulous scene where even Hellboy questions what is right and what is wrong. Why? Because he too is not "human" and feels the pain that can occur when you are different from the mainstream. 

Interesting huh?