Dancing Down the Moon

A Moment of Shameless Self-Pimpage

In case, here in the middle of August, you find yourself longing desperately for a 2008 calendar, I suggest the 2008 Llewellyn Witches' Calendar, which this year features an article by yours truly on "Magical Mindfulness." 

On sale now at a bookstore near you, or at online giants like Amazon. Better yet, pick it up from your local Pagan store and support the Community.

I always have fun reading through the calendar; I like how it combines all the astrological information with trivia like famous Pagans' birthdates and events in history.  Maybe one day my birthday will be on there too.  *laugh*  For now I'm quite happy to have been Miss October 2006, and to have my article in the rear section in 2008. 

Miss October, hee.  Someone should do a photo calendar of famous Pagans someday, or a pinup type calendar of actual honest-to-Goddess Witches of all shapes and sizes.  It'd be even cooler if the pictures could move, Harry Potter style, and then for a month I could glare down at people and snark at them for not meditating regularly, or writing rituals that include horrific things like rhyming couplets and fake-ass Elizabethan English. "Psssst!  Crystalpony Glitterbritches!  Nobody uses the word 'boon' anymore!  Is this a Sabbat or Shakespeare fanfic?"

Just don't hang me in the bedroom; I'm sure I'd have something to say about your sex life.  "What the hell are you using that thing for?  You're going to short the circuit and burn off that netherfro of yours!  Ever heard of a bikini wax?  Hey, dummy, you can't use silicone-based lube with silicone toys!  What, were you born in a barn?  To the left!  To the left!  You're gonna flunk marriage if you can't pass the oral!"

I'd be the worst guardian angel ever.

Once Around the Meme We Go

On one of the lists I'm on someone suggested a fun meme:  take a snapshot of your stack of To-Be-Read books, and post it on your blog.

Be glad that I cropped this so you don't have to see the horror of my desk, just a smidgen of my computer Mokey, and a guest appearance by Talula, my iPod, who was on her charger and really wanted to be in the picture.

You can click on the pic to see it up close if you like.

From top to bottom we have:

Emotional Alchemy: How the Mind Can Heal the Heart by Tara Bennett-Goleman - A merger of Buddhism and psychology that uses mindfulness training to overcome negative mental and emotional programming.

Holy Fools by Joanne Harris - A novel by one of my favorite authors.

Light Upon Light: Inspirations from Rumi by Andrew Harvey - Sacred poetry, as you'd expect. Idle reading, mostly, a few pages here and there.

A Language Older than Words by Derrick Jensen - I'm really trying to read this one, but him talking about killing a duck that according to him "wanted" to be killed and eaten turned me off (big surprise).  You know, if a suicidal duck came up to me and was all, "Chop off my head and have some foie gras, dude," I'd double check it in my Duck/English dictionary then give him some Paxil and recommend therapy before I'd Kevorkian him.  But that's just me and my nutty vegan ways, I guess.  I've heard so many good things about the book, though, I'm going to keep at it.  God knows I need more Liberal guilt about how we're screwing up the planet.

Understanding the Tarot Court by Mary K. Greer & Tom Little - The Court cards are a big stumbling block for me, yet I get five or six in every reading I do for myself, so this book is proving invaluable for helping me wrap my poor brain around the Court.

Evolutionary Witchcraft by T. Thorn Coyle - Feri Witchcraft, which I am not especially into, but whose unique flavor serves as inspiration for me in creating the EarthDance tradition.  I like looking at how non-Wiccan traditions are put together and how they function as a whole for the practitioner.

Dominion: The Power of Man, the Suffering of Animals, and the Call to Mercy by Matthew Scully - More guilt, but from an interesting source; a Republican speech writer dissects the "hypocritical arguments of those who insist that the Bible's message sanctions mankind to use animals as it pleases; hunters who claim that their sport helps control animal populations; and defenders of popular and 'scientifically proven' notions that animals cannot feel pain, do not experience emotions, and are not conscious of their own lives."  This is thus far the only book in the stack I haven't started reading.

Okay, your turn!  Go forth and blog!

Shameless Pluggery

The new issue of SageWoman magazine includes a lovely review of The Body Sacred by none other than the incomparable Sara Sutterfield Winn of Pagan Godspell. 

Here are some of the bits that gave me warm fuzzies:

"...From the author of The Circle Within comes this spiritually rich and deeply personal body-lovin' Wiccan feminist manifesto.

...She expertly discusses issues related to self-actualized, empowered, and responsible ownership of onw's own body while offering solid, practical rituals for embracing movement, invoking the gods, feasting joyously, healing with charms, and giving thanks to one's ancestors.  Sylvan also maintains an intimate conversational style, sharing personal, poignant, and sometimes hilarious stories from her life with honesty, courage, and a keen, refreshing with throughout the text.

...It is written for Wiccan women by a Wiccan woman, yet the exercises and meditations are so clear and well presented that The Body Sacred is accessible to all, even non-Wiccan women.  Now is a critical time for Pagans to address issues of embodiment in relationship to our spiritualities.  Toward that end, The Body Sacred offers us the spiritual tools we need to begin to formulate our own positive self-images."

Check it out!  The issue is in stores now.

And many thanks to you, Sara, for the fabulous review!

Shameless Self-Promotion

Amazon.com is trying out a new Wikipedia-esque feature called Amapedia--I probably wouldn't have noticed this except that they have a wonderful article on The Circle Within that made me grin and blush all over the place.

Have a read, if you like.

Thank you, whatever reader submitted it (as well as the many other great reviews on Amazon and all over the Internet).  It was a much-needed shot in the arm today.

One thing, though--the article asks a question I've seen in several places regarding the book's subtitle, "Creating a Wiccan Spiritual Tradition."  This was the subtitle in the very early stages of the book when it was just a proposal; the subtitle I submitted with the manuscript was "Creating a Wiccan Spiritual Practice," which I felt better described the book's purpose.  The publisher decided to go with the first subtitle, I believe because it had more impact.  Being as I was 24 and utterly blown away by the fact that I was about to be published, it never occurred to me to mind the change, though now I wish I had mentioned it.

More on the Graces Book

This post was brought to you by Acme Punctuation, makers of the world's finest parentheses, dashes, and ellipses.  When you need to egregiously overuse the parenthetical aside, trust Acme (#1 in the industry).

As I have continued exploring the concept of virtue-based ethics in my ponderings over my next book, I have had it pointed out to me (by an esteemed elder of the Community, Judy Harrow, whom I was honored to have reading this blog)  (okay, I admit, I had a little fangirl squee over it) that Wiccans already have a set of virtues to live by, outlined in the "Charge of the Goddess:"

power and compassion
beauty and strength
honor and humility
mirth and reverence

I would agree that the "Charge" gives us a beautifully-written example of a list of Graces.  I've never been satisfied with this list, however, even though it poetically captures both virtue and polarity (which a large percentage of Wiccans set great store by). 

(I feel I should point out that I'm not trying to argue with Ms. Harrow here, but considering my own motivations on the subject and where I'm trying to go with the book.  This post is actually rather masturbatory in that sense--I'm thinking out loud for my own clarity more than anything else, but thought that my intrepid readers might find such circular musings interesting.  I considered, for a time, basing the book around the "Charge," but something about the idea never sat well with me.)

Joyful Noise - Favorite Ritual Music

Anyone who knows me probably knows two things: one, I love music, and two, I can't carry a tune. I can't remember the last time I did a ritual without a soundtrack; to demonstrate what a geek I am, I have been known to burn CDs of songs just for a single ritual so that I could just hit "play" and go to town.

Music, along with scent and candlelight, is one of the most important and effective ways to draw the conscious mind and the unconscious closer together, to allow us to set aside our mundane concerns and enter the awareness in which miracles can occur.