Random Ramblings

Well I can honestly say desite the rain and random thunder showers (with hail of course) my day was very enjoyable indeed! The two books I ordered through Amazon.com came in the mail this afternoon and when I got home from picking up the kids, my raffle prize was waiting for me on the porch.

I wasn't sure what to open first so I started with the bigger one, the raffle prize that I won in the "Save Moki" website and had a wonderful time looking in and around the packing for the contents inside. I put the brand new cat bed on my webcam and the cats, I'm relieved to say, have taken to it right away. Toodles was the first to lay claim to the catnip mouse and hasn't let it out of his site since but I'm sure Binky will find it as soon as he wanders away from the bed.

My next item in line was the first book I ordered last week "Pagan Every Day" by Barbara Ardinger, I've been absolutely lurking by the mail boxes for that one all weekend and the other also by Barbara Ardiger is "Practicing the Presence of the Goddess, everyday rituals to transform your world" I was positively gleeful when I was finally able to open the books and read their pages. I read several of the pages in each book and I hope to blog about what I've read later this week or weekend.

I hear it's actually going to be sunny for once this weekend and possibly into the eighties Sunday and Monday...wow, hold me back...I've started to think I was turning into a mole lately after not seeing the sunny sky for what seems like weeks and weeks of gloomy rain and wind. I love the sunshine, it makes everything so bright and positive and my energy level is so much higher.

I probably shouldn't be living in the "seasonal depression" city of the nation...(I'm not really sure if it's the capital or not but to me it should be!) Anyhow, I'm going to sign off now and get to reading now that things are quiet and the kids have gone to bed for the nigh. Bright blessings to you all.

Diary Of A Bookworm

I love books, as a child, my main goal for going to school was learning how to read...even as a kindergardner I knew that if I could learn to read that I could do anything. I was bitterly disappointed in second grade when I found out that I still needed to attend school for several more years but I never did lose my love of reading. I continued to read voraciously and even today I've been known to burn the midnight oil, curled up with a really good book.

Recently, while listening to Foxtayle's Pagan Podcast, she reviewed a book by Barbara Ardinger called "Pagan Every Day: Finding the Extraordinary in Our Ordinary Lives" in which she explains it as a short essay book of days jammed with facts about goddesses and saints, alongside an assortment of random pop culture references and personal musings.

Right away my interest was piqued and I immediately jumped to Amazon.com where I eagerly read for myself just what the hubbub was about. I perused the few pages that Amazon allows you to read in order to decide for myself if this book was truly what I might be interested in and of course it was better. Oooo, click on the "buy now" button, hurry...!

I'm now (im)patiently awaiting it's arrival any day and I hope the poor mail carrier doesn't start thinking I might be one of those weirdo stalker types when I anxiously stand by the mail boxes until she's done. (I'm really bad when it comes to waiting for tarot decks!) You would think they communicate that type of info..."Hey Bob, that one's just waiting for a package, no worries" Anyhow, I can't wait to get it and I'll post all about what I thought and maybe a few tidbits and words of wisdom I may learn.

Today In History...

Born in 1884, Gerald Brosseau Gardner was a flamboyant and assertive personality and truly a cornerstone figure in the creation of modern paganism. He had developed an interest in anthropology and the occult ( meaning hidden or secret) while working in Malaya as a tea and rubber planter and a Customs officer, and on retiring to England in 1936 he made this his prime preoccupation. In Hampshire in 1939 he joined a witch coven preserving unbroken medieval traditions, and from 1951 onwards he publicly promoted a fertility religion we now call Wicca. He recruited members into an organized initiatory order of several grades, for which he composed rituals and spells under the title "A Book of Shadows" his system showed similarities to Freemasonry, and to ceremonial magic as practised by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and others in the early 20th century. His Witchcraft Today (1954) is the foundation of Wicca and he also set up a Museum of Witchcraft at Castletown (Isle of Man). He passed away on this day (1964) on the ship "Scottish Prince" while sailing off the North African coast.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

BOOKS BY GERALD B. GARDNER:

* Witchcraft Today

* The Meaning of Witchcraft

* Witchcraft and the Book of Shadows:

The Definitive Record of the Practises of Wicca

* Gardner's Book of Shadows