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C A U L D R O N A N D C A N D L E #38 -- August 2003 A Publication of The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum website: http://www.ecauldron.com/ message board: http://forums.delphiforums.com/CUSTOM7999/start newsletter: http://www.ecauldron.com/cnc/ In this Issue: [01] Editorial Notes [02] Poem: A Song to Hephaistos [03] Cauldron News [04] Cauldron Discussions [05] Review: Mastering Candle Magick [06] Review: The Wicca Cookbook [07] Review: Garden Witchery [08] Review: What's Your Wicca IQ? [09] Review: Witch Crafting [10] Review: Rocking The Goddess [11] Received For Review (with Mini-Reviews) [12] Article: Remembering the Journey [13] Article: So You Want to Read the Bible [14] Column: TarotDeevah on the Tarot [15] Humor: Gilligan's Rite [16] Around the Planes: Notes from All Over [16-1] The National Do Not Call Registry [16-2] Mercury Pollution [16-3] Getting The Lead Out [16-4] Wherever You Keep Your Medicines...Keep Them Ready [16-5] Beware Of Waterborne "Bugs" While Outdoors [17] Support The Cauldron by Volunteering to Help [18] Newsletter Information (Including How To Subscribe/Unsubscribe) +++ Submission Deadline for next issue: August 12, 2003 +++ Guidelines: http://www.ecauldron.com/cnc/submissions.php [01] ========= ========= EDITORIAL NOTES ========= by Randall Sapphire ========= This looks like it will be the longest issue of Cauldron and Candle ever. For that, I'd like to thank all of our authors, columnists, and reviewers. It may be followed by a much shorter September issue, however. I will be visiting my fiancee, LyricFox, during the last part of August and the first part September. This means, if there is going to be a September issues at all, I'm going to have finish it up before my visit. This is why the submission deadline for the September issue is August 12th instead of August 25th. The September issue will probably be somewhat shorter and either very early or a few days late. There is a slight chance that it might not appear at all, but I will try to avoid that. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ SEND A PAGAN POSTCARD You can send a Pagan Postcard from the menu of any of our web pages at http://www.ecauldron.com/. If you haven't tried our postcard site, give it a try. It has quite a few nice features. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ [02] ========= ========= POEM: A SONG TO HEPHAISTOS ========= A Poem by Rob Andrews ========= Skillful Hephaistos, nobly born, but cast down and broken, we salute you. Oft-forgotten, overlooked, but we see your reflection all around us: in orphans, whose dignity goes unseen, in hard work and craftsmanship, in orderly, beautiful things, in the crippled and bent, in the love-scorned. Laboring at forge and anvil, you sweat and create deep in the fiery mountain, hard at your handiwork. You know the meaning of anguish and yet you tire not. Brilliantly you create. In darkness and heat you work wonders. [03] ========= ========= CAULDRON NEWS ========= by The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum Staff ========= ===== ===== Cauldron Delphi Message Board Top Poster -- July 2003 ===== The Cauldron's message board had 6837 posts in July. Jenett (JENETT) had the most posts of any non-staff member in June and snagged our monthly "top poster" award. Our Runner Up was Li Ferelwing (LIFERELWING). Loki (IKOL), Phae (PHAE_TALON), Meg (PIXIEMEG), and Karen (DRAGONFAERIE) gave Li a race for that runner up spot. ===== ===== Donations Now Accepted via PayPal ===== The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum has long been able to accept small donations via Amazon.com to help pay the costs associated with running our large site, message board, newsletter and other features. We are pleased to announce that we can now accept donations via PayPal as well. In both cases we get about 85% to 90% of what you donate, the rest is eaten up by various processing fees. If you like The Cauldron or our newsletter and have some spare money, we would welcome a small donation if you are so inclined. If you don't have any spare money, but would like to help, please see our Volunteers Needed page for many other ways you can help! Donate via PayPal http://www.ecauldron.com/donatepaypal.php Donate via Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/paypage/P3903JRFVQVDN Volunteers Needed http://www.ecauldron.com/helpus.php ===== ===== New Special Topic Chat Logs Available ===== The Cauldron's "Special Topic Chats" (Tuesdays 8-10 pm US Eastern Time) have been very popular thanks to all the effort Koi, Shadow, and other staff members have put into them. We are trying to log these chats and make those logs available on our web site for those who cannot attend. Logs of the following July "Special Topic Chats" are available in the Chat Logs section of our web site: === Ask Anything To Pagan Clergy The chat log for our July 1st "Ask Anything To Pagan Clergy" chat is now available on The Cauldron's web site. This chat was an opportunity to ask all the questions you've ever wanted to ask a Pagan Clergyperson about being clergy and to learn more about what it's like to serve as Pagan clergy in this world. If you have a question or comment, be sure to join our message board discussion of this topic. http://www.ecauldron.com/chatlog20030701.php === What Do the Gods Want? The chat log for our July 15th "What Do the Gods Want?" chat is now available on The Cauldron's web site. This chat was an exploration of the requests that Gods and the Divine make of their followers. If you have a question or comment, be sure to join our message board discussion of this topic. http://www.ecauldron.com/chatlog20030715.php ===== ===== Astrology Returns to Cauldron Web Site ===== Some time ago The Cauldron had basic sun sign readings directly available from our web site. Then the third party providing those readings ceased to provide them. The webmaster stumbled across another astrology site that provides such services to other web sites and set up the following pages: Daily Sunsign Horoscope http://www.ecauldron.com/astrosign.php Sun Sign Compatibility Readings http://www.ecauldron.com/astrocompat.php ===== ===== Cauldron Web Chatbot ===== Have you even wanted to chat only to find no one in The Cauldron's Chat Room? The Cauldron now has its own Pandorabot chatbot you can have some fun talking to. You can visit The Cauldron's web chatbot, Sabrina, via this link: http://www.ecauldron.com/chabot1.php ===== ===== Experimental FAST Cauldron Amazon Store ===== Long ago, Amazon.com was a very fast loading web site. However, as Amazon.com has added more and more to each page, the site has become slower -- especially for people on dailup connections. Amazon.com makes its backend available to Amazon affiliates via Amazon Web Services. We've taken advantage of that to set up an experimental Amazon Store on our web site. It not only looks like a part of our web site, many people think it is noticeably faster than Amazon. You can try it for yourself via this link: http://www.ecauldron.com/mall/apf.cgi ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ CAULDRON AND CANDLE WEB SITE The Cauldron and Candle has its own web site where we store our back issues for easy reading. http://www.ecauldron.com/cnc/ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ [04] ========= ========= CAULDRON DISCUSSIONS ========= Recent Discussion Topics on our Message Board ========= In an average month, over 150 new discussion topics are started on The Cauldron's message board. Here are a few of the more interesting discussions from the last month. It's not too late to join in. Thanks to Bloglet, you can now receive an email every night on days we post new site news items to the main page of The Cauldron's web site. These emails contain a link to the new item and the first couple of lines of the news text. You can sign up for Bloglet's free news delivery via the form at the end of the site "News and Updates" section of The Cauldron's main web page. === === Satanism and Paganism === I'm not a Satanist in the strictest sense of the word. I am, actually, a Roman Reconstructionist. Modern Satanism isn't the most original philosophy in the world and certainly not the most profound, but it does offer a straightforward, rational, and perhaps somewhat cynical guide to life. While I don't believe in all doctrines on Modern Satanism (a penchant for militant Atheism, being one) I do largely agree with many of its viewpoints. I see the (admittedly romanticized) archetype of Satan as a metaphor for many of the different attributes and deities of the Pagan world (if we ignore the Mystery Cults and Philosophies that influenced Christians, et al.). In the archetype of Satan I can see Pagan strength, Pagan valor, Pagan pride, Pagan ambition, Pagan carnality, Pagan thirst for life, etc. Modern Satanism is a reaction against major religions in general and Christianity in particular. But ancient polytheism is usually quite a different creature than those religions, and it seems to me Modern Satanism owes something to Ancient Paganism. Yet many Neopagans, witches, or even Recons tend to look at Satanism either condescendingly ("It's not a real religion!") or even with hostility ("Satanism is evil and it gives other Pagans a bad name."). What is your opinion of Modern Satanism? * Read (or join in) this discussion: http://forums.delphiforums.com/CUSTOM7999/messages?msg=10175.1 === === Ancestors and Local Spirits === In many pagan cultures, the worship of the major gods of the pantheon was not necessarily the focal point of religion. For example, in Ancient Rome every household daily honored the spirits of the family and the home. The State festivals to the major gods, while important, were a secondary concern. In your own practice, do you honor ancestors and local spirits, and if so do they take precedence over the major deities? * Read (or join in) this discussion: http://forums.delphiforums.com/CUSTOM7999/messages?msg=10161.1 === === Can One Be Reborn Into A Science Fiction Novel? === While looking around the Net last night I saw a message in another forum where the writer said when she died she wanted to come back as a firelizard on Pern. When someone laughed and pointed out that Pern was science fiction, the poster replied that if their were infinite parallel universes, every thing that could be imagined would be true in one of them, so Pern actually existed somewhere and if it existed there was no reason why she could not be reborn on Pern in her next life. What do you think of this idea? Ignoring the Pern bit, for the moment, if there are parallel universes and humans do reincarnate, do you think we always reincarnate in this universe, or do we reincarnate in various universes? If the latter, do you think the poster is correct and she could (in theory, at least) be reborn as a firelizard on Pern (or as a human in Middle Earth or a spacer in the Star Wars universe, or....)? * Read (or join in) this discussion: http://forums.delphiforums.com/CUSTOM7999/messages?msg=10144.1 === === Is Your Life Ordained by God/Fate? === Some people go through life believing their destiny is entirely in their hands: life is what they make of it. Others believe that their destiny is beyond their real control, that their life is in the hands of their God(s) or Fate: life is what the God(s) or Fate decree. Others are somewhere in between, for example, some people seem to believe that every thing good that happens in their life is a gift from their God(s), while every bad thing that happens is the result of their personal failures (or failings). What does your faith teach? Does your religion place your life into the hands of the God(s)/Fate or into your own hands? What do you personally believe? How closely do your beliefs in this area match the teachings of your religion? And why do you believe what you do? * Read (or join in) this discussion: http://forums.delphiforums.com/CUSTOM7999/messages?msg=10121.1 === === Misbehaving Children and Ritual === Why do parents today have to drag small children everywhere? Whatever happened to babysitters? And why, when their small children decide to cause a scene, do they not deal with it? Do they really feel that the rest of the people in the theater/restaurant/etc want to hear this child throw a fit? When I was little, I wouldn't have gotten away with pitching a fit in public. My folks just would have taken me out to the car and we'd have gone home. (And I've talked to my mom about this... so I know it's true!) With that in mind... has anyone ever run into the problem of someone having disruptive kids at a ritual or teaching class who wouldn't resolve the situation? How has that impacted your group's policy on including children at it's events (if applicable)? And what do you guys feel about parents who insist on dragging their kids everywhere and insisting everything be "child-friendly" for them, no matter what's planned at ritual? Now, I know this will be a rather heated topic. I'm hoping to not cause flames, just get an idea of where other people stand on this issue. * Read (or join in) this discussion: http://forums.delphiforums.com/CUSTOM7999/messages?msg=10060.1 === === The Body (and Physical Limitations) in Religion === What role does the body play in religion? Is the body something simply to be ignored while one does faith stuff, or does body movement and position important? Does one need to do, or just think? Are they different? If the body matters, what happens with those people that have physical limitations? Are there ways around the requirements to suit the person's physical limitations? Or are some religious experiences (and even some entire religions?) simply inaccessible to those with limited physical ability? * Read (or join in) this discussion: http://forums.delphiforums.com/CUSTOM7999/messages?msg=10042.1 === === Are Converts From Pagan Religions Traitors? === I've noticed a very disturbing trend in the greater Pagan community: more and more people are seeing people who convert to a different religion as some type of "traitor." People who convert from a non-Pagan religion to a Pagan religion aren't seen as traitors, of course. Only those who convert from one Pagan religion to another (or worse, convert from a Pagan religion to a western monotheist religion like Christianity) seem to earn the "traitor" title. I simply do not understand this trend. One of the main tenets of the "Pagan movement" has always been that there are many paths up that "spiritual mountain" and whatever path a person feels is right for them is the path they should be on. What gives? Why are Pagans developing this double standard where converts to Pagan religions are welcomed (and certainly not seen as traitors to their original religion), but converts from Pagan religions are seen as some type of traitor? Or if you think Pagans who change religions are traitors, could you explain why you think they are? Is this a common way of thinking in your part of the country? What do you think causes it? What, if anything, should be done to stop this behavior? * Read (or join in) this discussion: http://forums.delphiforums.com/CUSTOM7999/messages?msg=10021.1 === === Hypothetical Animal Sacrifice Decision === Okay, a hypothetical question here. Let's say you were walking through the woods, and Apollon (or your patron deity) appeared and demanded that you sacrifice a rabbit. (The rabbit is just an example. It could be a goat. Whatever. And assume that Apollon made available everything you'd need, including the animal, who would be a willing sacrifice. Work with me here.) Remember that according to ancient Hellenism, the gods only received the inedible portions, so you would actually get all the food portions. Would there be one less rabbit? Would you do it? And would you be ashamed or otherwise hesitant to mention it on your friendly neighborhood pagan email list? After all, it was a proper sacrifice offered to a worthy god. Perhaps the real question isn't whether you would sacrifice the rabbit, but have we really given collective consideration to what the gods want from us? Or have we already decided what they're going to get from us? Do we really include them in the decision- making process? Or is it all about what's convenient for and acceptable to us? * Read (or join in) this discussion: http://forums.delphiforums.com/CUSTOM7999/messages?msg=9997.1 === === Do You Believe Animals Have Souls? === Do you believe animals have souls? All living things (plants, cockroaches, viruses, bacteria, etc.)? Do animals have to be of a certain high enough order to have souls? (Dolphins, dogs, yes; mosquitoes, fleas, no.) Same as human souls? Different? (For that matter - do you believe humans have souls?) What do you believe about the relationship of the Gods to living creatures and living things other than humans? To non-living things such as rocks? * Read (or join in) this discussion: http://forums.delphiforums.com/CUSTOM7999/messages?msg=9845.1 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ DONATE TO HELP SUPPORT THE CAULDRON'S WEB SITE If you like The Cauldron and have a few extra dollars, please donate via the Amazon Honor System and help us pay the web site bills. http://www.amazon.com/paypage/P3903JRFVQVDN ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ [05] ========= ========= REVIEW: MASTERING CANDLE MAGICK ========= Reviewed by Randall Sapphire ========= Mastering Candle Magick: Advanced Spells And Charms For Every Rite Author: Patricia Telesco Trade Paperback, 220 pages Publisher: New Page Books Publication date: March 2003 ISBN: 1564146545 US Retail Price: $13.99 Amazon Link: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1564146545/thecauldron Candle magic is one of the most popular forms of magick, probably because it uses simple tools and because almost everyone loves candles. Because of its popularity, there are a number of books on candle magick on the shelves. Patricia Telesco has followed up her own book on this subject (Exploring Candle Magick) with a book aimed at those who are ready for more advanced material, Mastering Candle Magick: Advanced Spells and Charms for Every Rite. This book is truly an advanced book. It assumes one already knows the basics of candle magic. Telesco doesn't even start this book with a long summary of basic knowledge; she jumps right into designing one's own spells, first with information on adapting and personalizing spells from others, then with a full step-by- step explanation of creating a candle magick spell from scratch. The first thirty or so pages is some of the best material in the book. There's nothing really new here for an accomplished magician, but this material will help beginners move beyond looking up spells in a book or begging for them on the Internet. The rest of the book, about 150 pages, is a candle magick grimoire. There are spells for many aspects of life, or rather there are spell ideas for many aspects of life. Since this isn't a book for beginners, the author describes the central part of each spell in a few paragraphs and expects the reader to be able to build a full candle magick ritual. There are no fully scripted and diagrammed 5 to 10 page rituals as is the norm in many books on candle magick aimed at the novice. This allows a huge number of spells to be packed into 150 pages. There are two appendixes with helpful hints and correspondences. The book is indexed, which makes finding things in the spell section much easier. It's nice to see an author and Pagan publisher aiming a book at something other than the complete novice market. People do not stay beginners forever. Eventually they have to move beyond the 101 books. While Mastering Candle Magick: Advanced Spells and Charms for Every Rite will probably only confuse a true novice and will not help those with a lot of magick experience under their belt, it will help those who have picked up a beginner book, studied it, and are looking for a way to expand their knowledge. This review is available on our web site at http://www.ecauldron.com/bkmcm.php [06] ========= ========= REVIEW: THE WICCA COOKBOOK ========= Reviewed by Randall Sapphire ========= The Wicca Cookbook: Recipes, Ritual, and Lore Author: Jamie Wood and Tara Seefeldt Trade Paperback, 192 pages Publisher: Celestial Arts Publication date: October 2000 ISBN: 0890879958 US Retail Price: $19.95 Amazon Link: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0890879958/thecauldron What happens when you combine Wicca and good food? If you are lucky, you get an unusual cookbook full of recipes for each of the Wiccan holidays with each accompanied by a bit of historical information, folklore, or a ritual. There are now a number of Wiccan cookbooks on the market, but The Wicca Cookbook: Recipes, Ritual, and Lore by Jamie Wood and Tara Seefeldt carries out the theme better than any of the ones I've seen. Many cookbooks start out with informational material before getting to the recipes. In most cookbooks, that is information on how to measure flour, what wine goes best with ham, or the like. In The Wicca Cookbook this introductory matter covers creating sacred space, casting spells, cooking in the middle ages, and growing herbs. The authors assume that their readers will more likely be familiar with cooking than with magick. The main part of the book is the recipes. There are over 100 recipes. They are a mix of the modern and the medieval. One of the authors teaches cooking classes while completing her Ph.D. in medieval history, so the medieval recipes are authentic in feel without being offensive to the modern palate. There are no weird ingredients that you'd need a time machine to easily acquire and probably wouldn't want to eat anyway. Several recipes, however, do make use of fairly expensive spices -- for example, saffron. Speaking of ingredients, measurements are given in both the English and the metric system -- which makes the book useful to many more people. Here are a few or the recipes included: Frumenty, Stuffed Nasturtiums, Beltane Oatcake, Ale Bread, Potato-Corn Chowder, Vegetable Lamb Shanks, Apple Scones, Stuffed Pumpkin, and Ginger Tea. There are a wide variety of recipes and many of them look good even to a picky eater like me. What makes this cookbook unique, however, is that each recipe is introduced with a short discussion of history or folklore related to the recipe or even a spell or ritual related (sometimes very loosely) to the recipe. The discussions are enjoyable and the rituals are presented in a brief but clear manner. If you enjoy cooking and like to try new foods, The Wicca Cookbook: Recipes, Ritual, and Lore is excellent even if you ignore everything but the recipes. If you are interested in food- related folklore, Wicca, or magick, you'll enjoy the recipe introductions almost as much as you enjoy eating the results of the recipes in this book. This is simply the best Pagan-themed cookbook I've seen. This review is available on our web site at http://www.ecauldron.com/bktwcrral.php [07] ========= ========= REVIEW: GARDEN WITCHERY ========= Reviewed by Randall Sapphire ========= Garden Witchery: Magick From The Ground Up Author: Ellen Dugan Trade Paperback, 268 pages Publisher: Llewellyn Publication date: February 2003 ISBN: 0738703184 US Retail Price: $16.95 Amazon Link: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0738703184/thecauldron Gardens have probably been associated with witches and cunning people for centuries. Many people probably expect a witch to have a "green thumb" simply because witchcraft is often associated with herbs and natural magick. Wiccan witches reinforce this notion by incorporating a love of nature into their religion. Green thumbs, however, are seldom a matter of birth or luck. Gardening is a skill -- and, like any other skill, it is learned by study and experience. Ellen Dugan is a Master Gardener and witch and her book, Garden Witchery: Magick From The Ground Up, provides practical advice on both gardening and garden magic. This book isn't an instruction manual on gardening or magick or religion. Instead it is a collection of plant and garden folklore, gardening advice, plant magick, garden crafts, ideas, personal experiences and more packaged in an easy to read and enjoyable format. That said, Dugan is a Master Gardener and there is a lot of basic and practical gardening information in this book. It just isn't organized for studying. It's organized for doing. Here are just a few of the many topics covered in Garden Witchery: specialty gardens (anyone for a Samhain Pumpkin garden or a garden of poisonous plants?), flower and herb spells, enhancing Wiccan Sabbats with material from your garden, keeping a gardening journal, garden crafts (how about a fresh holiday wreath?), container gardens, and gardens as sacred space. Along the way you'll also learn what magically useful plants do best in sun or shade, how to gather herbs and flowers while doing the least harm to the plant, folklore and fact about many plants, and much more. Garden Witchery combines solid, practical gardening advice with folklore, magick, and fun. While reading this book will not make the reader a Master Gardener or a master magician, it will help those interested both in magick and gardening combine their interests and -- with a lot of work -- turn their "spot of garden" into something the neighborhood can admire and they can put to use in their magick. This review is available on our web site at http://www.ecauldron.com/bkgw.php [08] ========= ========= REVIEW: WHAT'S YOUR WICCA IQ? ========= Reviewed by Randall Sapphire ========= What's Your Wicca IQ? Author: Laura Wildman Trade Paperback, 296 pages Publisher: Citadel Press Publication date: January 2003 ISBN: 0806523476 US Retail Price: $9.95 Amazon Link: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0806523476/thecauldron When I was much younger than I am today, topic-oriented quiz books and Trivial Pursuit were the in thing. I never really cared for Trivial Pursuit as I found random bits of trivia uninteresting, but I found quiz books on subjects that interested me a fun way to test my knowledge and learn something new. Given this background, you can imagine how pleasantly surprised I was to receive a copy of Laura Wildman's What's Your Wicca IQ? for review. Wildman has brought the old quiz book to Wicca. And she's done so in the best way. The answer sections don't just list the correct answer with a sentence or two of comment as they do in poor quiz books, they discuss the answer in enough detail so that you might be able to learn something new even if you got the answer correct. There are over 550 questions divided into six areas: * The beliefs of witches and Pagans * Tools, circles, and celebrations; * The history of witchcraft and modern Paganism * Magick and spells * Divination * Ceremonial magick The questions are excellent. Some are easy and some are hard. Many are obviously designed to make you think. Most of the questions are multiple choice, although some are "match items in two columns" questions. The real test of a quiz book, especially one on a subject where misinformation is often stated as proven fact in books, is the answers. As in, are the answers the book gives correct? The author is a third degree Gardnerian so I had reason to hope for the best as I picked out questions on subjects where there is often a great deal of incorrect information floating around the Pagan community. My hopes were not misplaced. While I had some minor quibbles about a couple of the questions I selected to carefully check, I was pleased to find that nonsense like ancient matriarchies and nine million burned were not being passed off as factual information. Not all questions are about facts, however, many are about what is basically common practice or opinion. There's an old saying about ask five Pagans a question and you'll get at least six answers -- all correct. There's more than a little truth to this saying where matters of practice and opinion are concerned. I'm pleased to say that Wildman usually did a good job of handling questions like "What is an Elder?" or "How many Gods and Goddesses are there?" where there is legitimate disagreement in the community on the "correct" answer. While going through What's Your Wicca IQ? by yourself can be an interesting way to learn, going though the book with a group and discussing the questions and answers should be a lot of fun and a very good way to spark interesting discussions. I've seen a review or two of this book on the Internet where the reviewers pan it as somehow trivializing Wicca and other Pagan religions by reducing them to a set of questions and then having the gall to inject some humor into a few of the answers. I can't agree. I think What's Your Wicca IQ? is a splendid book that presents information in a different and fun way. There's nothing wrong with mixing fun with learning and this book does that quite well. I'm happy to have it on my bookshelf. I suspect that most Wiccans and many non-Wiccan Pagans will be just as happy to have this book as I am. This review is available on our web site at http://www.ecauldron.com/bkwywi.php [09] ========= ========= REVIEW: WITCH CRAFTING ========= Reviewed by Rain ========= Witch Crafting: A Spiritual Guide to Making Magic Author: Phyllis Curott Trade Paperback, 352 pages Publisher: Broadway Books Publication date: September 2002 ISBN: 0767908457 US Retail Price: $14.95 Amazon Link: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0767908457/thecauldron Witch Crafting: A Spiritual Guide to Making Magic is written well and is a lovely read in terms of writing and some of the content. Curott manages to get across a concept of Wicca that is based on connecting with the Divine rather than doing spellwork; a goal that I think many books miss entirely. Despite that her first chapter is called "Real Magic", which may mislead the beginner into believing that's what Wicca is about, the rest of the book manages to highlight the Divine in a way that is both beautiful and meaningful for the reader. She discusses divination early on in the book as a method of connecting with the Divine, which is unique -- most books put divination further on if it's included at all. She discusses nature, sacred space, correspondences and tools, energy, sabbats, working as a solitary and coven member, and spellcasting. She stresses the importance of living Wicca and the Divine, rather than imagining or reading about them. She has a large section of resources for further reading. Witch Crafting is focused at newer Pagans and those who have been around awhile -- providing a basis for Wicca with some fresh insights. I'm actually rereading the book already because parts of it are so enjoyable. All that said, it is a shame that I find such huge problems with the book, and although I'm rereading it I do find parts that are irritating (if I don't skip them altogether). First, she uses the terms Wicca and witchcraft interchangeably, which as many of us know is misleading. While she does explain in the introduction that they aren't necessarily synonymous, she doesn't give an excellent explanation (Wicca is "both a specific tradition of witchcraft and a popular synonym for it", she says), and never explains why she chooses to use the word witchcraft. This has lead to much confusion in the Pagan community, and if an author chooses to use the words a certain way, I feel they should at least be able to provide some reasoning for doing so. Second, Curott on many occasions discusses the problems of Christianity. She blames it not just for the faults of society, but also for the annihilation of the earth, as well as pointing out what a lonely religion it is, and so on. Frankly, this bothers me on two levels -- first and foremost, I don't buy a Wiccan book to read about Christianity, and as far as I'm concerned discussion of said religion in such a negative light has no place in a book about Wicca. Secondly, Curott comes off as ranting and raving in this book, and rather than discussing Christianity in a well educated way seems to bash it. What place does this kind of attitude have in a book that is aimed partially at beginners? Third, while I appreciate that Curott is expressing a form of Wicca wherein magic is inextricably linked to the Divine, I do feel she makes some comments that take this too far. She points out that magic done without the Divine inevitably fails and leads to egotism and selfishness. While that belief is quite valid, I do know Pagans who work magic quite successfully outside paradigms and myth of deity -- I feel it's unnecessary to insult people who do it differently. This will also confuse newer folks who aren't aware that magic and religion aren't necessarily one. Fourth, and perhaps most importantly, one way Curott seeks to "revolutionize" Wicca is by tossing all the rules out. She does this summarily in one chapter of discussion on the threefold law. She explains that people use the threefold law as a scare tactic, and that such laws are based entirely on fear of power (here taking an opportunity to discuss the "woman's holocaust" -- you know, the burning times, "when hundreds of thousands of shamans were tortured and killed"). She points out the term black magic is racist and a term that "Witches condemn", and other than the threefold law, only spends one or two paragraphs on the Rede (and poor paragraphs at that). She concludes that Wiccans don't need rules because anyone who truly knows the Divine would never think of causing harm. Not only is this view naive, in my opinion, it also downright ignores the concepts of the Magician's Manifesto, and 13 principles of witchcraft, as well as nearly ignoring the Rede. We're led back to people who believe the Rede means one must never, ever harm anyone, as "anyone in touch with the Goddess wouldn't think of it". Here Curott focuses on one rule, as she interprets it -- a rule of magnified karma, while we know that many Pagans interpret it as return on the spiritual, emotional, and physical, based on fear and punishment. She seems to be so intent on challenging Wicca as it exists now as to ignore the Rede, and in doing so replaces the opportunity for a deep discussion on ethics and theology with an anarchist judgment of all Wiccan ethics and laws based on her idea of the threefold law. This chapter, "Witchcraft Without Rules", was definitely the one that disappointed and angered me most in her book. In summary, while I feel Witch Crafting: A Spiritual Guide to Making Magic is a beautiful read most of the time, I'm not sure I'd recommend it to beginners. The problems mentioned above unfortunately cast a very dark shadow on an otherwise beautiful book. While I feel the bulk of this book is excellent to work a path that fosters a connection with the Divine on a daily and personal basis, and while I feel the writing and personal anecdotes are lovely, I would be concerned with newer Pagans getting incorrect impressions on Christianity, the rules of Wicca, etc. As someone who has been studying Wicca a bit longer, I do feel this book is worth what I paid for it, but I wouldn't feel comfortable recommending it to a beginner without discussing the caveats above in depth. This review is available on our web site at http://www.ecauldron.com/bkwc.php [10] ========= ========= REVIEW: ROCKING THE GODDESS ========= Reviewed by Randall Sapphire ========= Rocking The Goddess: Campus Wicca for the Student Practitioner Author: Anthony Paige Trade Paperback, 224 pages Publisher: Citadel Press Publication date: September 2002 ISBN: 0806523565 US Retail Price: $12.95 Amazon Link: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0806523565/thecauldron Over the last several years, a number of books have been published aimed at Wiccans in middle and high school. Most of these books haven't been so much about how to be a Wiccan in a middle school or high school setting as they have been typical Wicca 101 books aimed at the teen market. When I saw Rocking The Goddess: Campus Wicca for the Student Practitioner I thought, "Oh no. Now we have Wicca 101 books aimed at the college age market. Just what the world does not need -- yet another Wicca 101 book." Judging a book by its cover (or its back cover marketing hype) isn't always a good idea. Rocking the Goddess proves this rule. My first impressions were wrong. Anthony Paige hasn't written yet another Wicca 101 book. While there is enough basic information on the Wiccan religion that someone unfamiliar with it could follow this book, teaching Wicca isn't the author's main goal. Instead, he has written a book on being Wiccan at college. Going to college is a major change for just about every young adult. One is quite suddenly an adult and often away from home and on one's own for the first time. Navigating a college bureaucracy can be hard enough without adding membership in a somewhat misunderstood minority religion to the mix. The style of this book reminds me of Adler's Drawing Down the Moon in many places. There are lots of interviews and reports of how Wiccans do things on various college campuses: the problems and successes they have had. You'll find out why many people are Wiccan and how they adapted to college life. You'll also find out about Pagan student associations (and how to form one if there isn't one at your college), deciding whether to be in or out of "the broom closet," working around dorm limitations when trying to do ritual, using Internet resources, dealing with college officials, and much more. The author is well-qualified to write on this subject. He wrote this book while a student at Purchase College in the State University of New York system. While there, he founded Campus Coven U.S.A. His book is an informative and enjoyable read. If you are Wiccan and in college or planning to go to college, you will probably find this book invaluable. If you are a non- Wiccan Pagan, this book is still worth a look as much of the information on college life will still be useful to you -- although the information on Wicca will not be. Paige proves one can take a tired idea, Wicca books for the young adult, and breathe new life into them. Rocking the Goddess is apparently his first book. Hopefully, it will not be his last. This review is available on our web site at http://www.ecauldron.com/bkrtg.php [11] ========= ========= RECEIVED FOR REVIEW ========= by Randall Sapphire ========= For the first time in many months, I received no new books to review during an entire month. While this was a blessing in that it allowed me to catch up on my backlog of reviews, it means this section of the newsletter is very short as I have no new books or Tarot decks to report on. [12] ========= ========= ARTICLE: REMEMBERING THE JOURNEY ========= Thoughts inspired by Zen and the Art of ========= Motorcycle Maintenance ========= by Lindsay Vaughan ========= Something that seems very important to Pirsig is the fact that so many people become involved in activities in order to reach a goal of some kind, and don't appreciate the journey they must make to reach that goal. He illustrates this point by using a class he taught as an example. He took away the grading system, so that he was the only person aware of the marks each student was receiving. After the initial frustration, Pirsig began to notice that the brighter students who normally received As were the ones who continued to work their hardest even though they didn't know how well they were doing. They stopped being concerned with their marks, remained interested in the subject matter, and continued to be active participants in class. On the other hand, the students who normally received Ds and Fs disapproved of the lack of grading system, which proved to Pirsig that they were only in college to pass classes and reach their goal -- graduation. This immediately reminded me of a couple things I've recently experienced. The most recent of these two things is a course I was taking from the Open University in the UK. It was an Introduction to the Humanities, and I was taking the course so that when I passed I could use my credits to transfer to another UK university. I was obsessed with my grades, and upset with my tutor for being so harsh and nitpicky with me. The other students in the class did everything by the book, obsessing to the very last detail over the perfection of their papers, struggling to write the closest resemblance to what they assumed the tutor would write if she were writing the papers herself. The most hilarious thing in this situation was the fact that the course material provided us with the answers we were supposed to supply in our papers, and I received information from students who'd already taken the course that their tutors often marked them down very heavily for disagreeing with the opinions portrayed in the material. So basically, we were given a question to answer, and an answer to supply in our essay, and if we didn't give the answer they wanted in exactly the way the tutors would have answered it, we'd get marked down a full grade or two. I despised this system, as I'd never before been in a writing course where we weren't allowed to draw our own conclusions and write creative essays. We were told to write what they wanted, how they wanted, with a very short word limit so as to ensure we would have no space with which to be creative. This system forces students to focus only on the goal, forgetting the journey, and obsessing over what the grade will be. We all want to know: "Did I prove to my tutor that I'm as intelligent as she is?" - "Will I pass the course?" Many of the students were becoming disillusioned, and admitted that for the rest of the course they were going to aim for the minimum passing grade, because that's the only reason they were taking the course anyway - so that they could say they passed the course. It's complete nonsense, and I realized halfway through that I couldn't participate in such a cynical system anymore. So I withdrew. I'm sure that confused my tutor, as I was doing very well, but I realized that I started the course because I wanted to experience the journey. Sure, I was using it as a way into another university, but I was also interested in the course material outlined in the syllabus. I soon realized that I was hating the assignments, and I'd been reduced to focusing only on what I'd get when I completed the course. I felt dejected and disappointed, and this is why I left. Another example of how I forgot the journey is an event I took part in last year, called Nanowrimo ( http://www.nanowrimo.org ) This was a month-long activity last November, the point of which was to encourage everyday ordinary people to motivate themselves to write 50,000 words of a novel, or a complete novel, in thirty days. While unique and somewhat admirable, this project inevitably ended up with thousands of people writing novels that really weren't very good, because instead of taking time to savour the journey of writing a novel and putting all of our beings into the project, and cultivating it and ultimately ending up with something that reflected our innermost thoughts and dreams, we ended up with crap. My novel wasn't garbage, or meaningless, but it certainly wouldn't ever get published and it isn't something that I put much thought into. My main concern was that I wrote at least 3,000 words a day so I'd be ahead of schedule, and we weren't supposed to worry about the quality of our novels in the slightest. While that was part of the point, and certainly not everyone was interested in getting published (I sure wasn't), I think it might end up disappointing some people and leading them to believe that they can't write, because it's hard for anyone to write a masterpiece in such a short amount of time. Sure, Fight Club was written in two weeks, but that kind of skill is pretty rare. A big problem I've noticed lately is that this act of "forgetting the journey" is becoming popular in many religions, particularly relatively new ones, such as the many branches of neo-Paganism. I've witnessed so many newcomers to Wicca arriving in forums on the Internet, asking for spells and "quick fixes" to their problems. So many people are concerned with what they're going to get out of their particular religion, and this extends to other faiths. So many Christians are concerned with whether or not they are going to end up in Heaven or Hell, so they make sure that their actions now will ensure them a place beside God. They go to church to fulfill the requirements that will guarantee their entrance through the pearly gates, instead of taking joy in the practice of their faith. This is so backwards! People should be focusing on the present, and enjoying the learning process of life and religious and spiritual practice, and how the lessons they've learnt can be used to benefit others, not just as a tool to provide them with Salvation when the End Times finally arrive. This may be a problem with more traditional Wiccan paths, which provide newcomers with a very rigid outline of what Wicca "is" and how it is "supposed" to be practiced. This may be extremely detrimental to impressionable folks who haven't much experience otherwise. I am afraid that there may be many people out there who have forgotten what their journey is supposed to be, and are relying on the rigid structure they are following to aid them in reaching a specific goal. I believe that traditional paths can and have been beneficial for many people, but there is always going to be the odd person who believes what is spoon-fed to him and spends the rest of his life walking another person's path. Religious and spiritual practice should be part of a lifelong journey for people to get to know themselves better, to cultivate their talents, and to use these talents for the benefit of all they come in contact with, not just as a means to an end. Before making the important decision of choosing a path to follow, we should spend as much time as possible researching different systems and asking ourselves what it is we want and what changes we want to make in ourselves, and in the world in which we live. We should be keeping journals of our progress all the time, making note of the subtle ways we're evolving throughout our lives, noticing what we've learned, laughing at past foolishness instead of denying the existence of it, and using these new insights to help other people become more aware of their own strengths and weaknesses, and aiding them in cultivating their own talents. It takes a wise person to accomplish these feats, and wisdom only arrives after a long and arduous journey, after the "dark night of the soul" has come and gone, and when we realize that the more we learn the less we really know. Everyone is always changing, and the person I will be tomorrow is not the same person I am today. That is the essence of the journey, and it is important to remain aware that if our main focus is the goal, we're not just forgetting the journey, we are ultimately forgetting ourselves. [13] ========= ========= ARTICLE: So You Want to Read the Bible: ========= A Guide for First-Timers ========= by Koi ========= [Editor's Note: I managed to read the Bible straight through, but I'm very stubborn. The method Koi suggests here would have made it much easier. I have one bit of advice to add: do not use a Scofield Study Bible as its notes are based on modern Fundamentalist theology which is very different from more standard ways of viewing the Bible -- besides, reading those notes will annoy you as much as an uninvited conversion spiel. -- RSS] Reading the Bible is an admirable goal for a person of any religious background; it's important to be familiar with the texts that shape our world, regardless of what religious or political group claims them. But most people sit down with the intention to "read the whole thing right through" - the worst possible way to go about it. This plan usually stumbles right about Leviticus or Numbers, the reader drops the project in disgust, and never begins again. Because, let's face it: Large portions of the Bible are boring. And large portions read like total gibberish. Plus, you're telling yourself "I'm going to sit down and read this one book," when you're actually sitting down to read about seventy-five distinct "books" that are all ancient texts. Talk about a recipe for frustration and burnout! In fact, reading straight through is a pretty useless way to read the Bible. If you prefer to do it this way, there are a number of websites that can provide you with a one-year reading plan (often on bookmarks!) to help you keep your pace up. However, I suggest that if you want to read the Bible and get a lot out of it, you take up Koi's Recommended Bible Reading Plan for the First-Timer. Before we begin that, you need to first find a Bible, preferably a well-annotated one that will give you clues on obscure metaphors and symbolic language. The two I recommend are the Catholic Study Bible NACB translation and the New Oxford Annotated NRSV version. Both are very readable, and both provided excellent annotations. The differences between the two will not matter much for the casual Bible reader. Both Bibles include short introductions to each book before each one; the Catholic Study Bible also provides a Reader's Guide at the front. You should always make sure to read at least this short introduction before beginning each book; it will provide you with an important orientation to the purpose and nature of the book before you begin reading it. (As to practical matters: Stick a post-it on the page with the table of contents so you can find books without having to search for ten minutes for the book and then another five for the table of contents when you can't find the book. If your eyes are bad, you may want a magnifier.) Secondly, I strongly recommend Stephen L. Harris's Understanding the Bible as a companion text. The casual reader will be fine with the in-Bible introductions, but someone who is curious or really wants to get a lot out of their reading will want the Harris text. It provides an excellent "non-sectarian" introduction, that's really from an atheistic point of view, making it very accessible to both Christians and non-Christians. Harris provides information on the date, authorship, theological content, archaeological data, and historical background for each book. The introductions are generally fairly short and very readable; he provides excellent and extensive bibliographies for further study. ===== ===== The Old Testament ===== The Old Testament (more properly called the Hebrew Bible or the Tanakh, but called the Old Testament here for clarity) is by far the more difficult of the two testaments, so I'll spend more time addressing it here. To begin your examination of the Old Testament, you first need a coherent way to mentally organize the books. Bibles vary on how they organize the Old Testament; I prefer the traditional Jewish organization: the TaNaKh, which stands for Torah (the law), Nevi'im (prophets), and Kethuvim (writings). The Torah consists of the familiar five books of the law: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. These are the earliest writings. The Prophets are divided into the Former Prophets and Latter Prophets. The Former Prophets are what we usually think of as the historical books: Joshua, Judges, Samuel (1&2), and Kings (1&2). The Latter Prophets are the traditional prophetic books: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the Book of the Twelve. The Book of the Twelve was the twelve "minor" prophets whose books are so short all twelve could fit on one scroll: Hosea, Amos, Micah, Joel, Obadiah, Jonah, Nahum, Habukkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zecharaiah, and Malachi. The Writings, or Kethuvim, are a mish-mash of assorted books, often with very different theologies. Many of the Writings are very late books, though a few may be among the earliest texts of all. The Writings are: Psalms; the wisdom books Job and Proverbs; the festival scrolls Ruth, Song of Songs (Song of Solomon), Ecclesiastes, Lamentations, and Esther; the apocalyptic book Daniel; and the historical narratives Ezra-Nehemiah, and Chronicles (1&2). Begin your readings with story-books and narratives. Genesis, Exodus, Numbers 10:11 to the end, Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Jonah, Ruth, and Esther. Daniel, Ezra-Nehemiah, and Chronicles are also narratives, but are slightly more difficult than these other books. Daniel is apocalyptic and therefore inherently weird; Ezra-Nehemiah is post-exilic and can be confusing; Chronicles is a retelling of King David's story with all the juicy parts removed. I particularly enjoy Genesis, Exodus, Judges (crazy shit!), Jonah, Ruth, and Esther. Feel free to skip the genealogies or other lists you find boring; if you want to read them later, they'll still be there. When you've made your way through the narratives and stories, you'll want to proceed to more poetic works. You can read them in any order you prefer, so I'll just suggest reading strategies. The Book of the Twelve - the twelve minor prophets listed above - is a good place to begin if you want to read prophetic works. I particularly like Amos and Micah. Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel are far more important, but it's hard to read too much prophecy at one time, so start with the shorter books and leave the longer ones until closer to the end of your reading. You are probably already familiar with several Psalms; it's easy to overdose on these too, but fortunately they're easily read one or two or five at a time. Proverbs reads through in just a few hours, but always leaves me exhausted after a straight-through because it's just single unconnected sentences. I would suggest opening to Proverbs and reading two or three at a time while you're working your way through other books. Song of Songs reads very nicely and quickly and is an excellent introduction to the poetic style of Hebrew literature. (In fact, you might try Song of Songs before the prophets.) Ecclesiastes is the depressing book, and reads easily. You'll notice the lyrics to several popular songs come from Ecclesiastes. Lamentations is actually more depressing, but not very long and reads fairly easily for a poetic book. The beginning of Numbers is a census, Leviticus is law codes and liturgical norms, and Deuteronomy is largely law codes. All three have interesting pieces of narrative stuck in them, but are mostly extremely boring. Don't feel bad for skipping them. If you're interested later, or just want a sense of completion and having read "the whole thing," come back to them later. Your Bible may have a handful of other books in the Old Testament or Apocrypha - Maccabees, Esdras, Ecclesiasticus, and so forth. Get into these when you've finished the rest of the Old Testament books. Many are very entertaining (I like Maccabees in particular); others not as much. ===== ===== The New Testament ===== The New Testament is much easier to read, and more unified in message. I suggest beginning with the Gospel of Mark, the first of the four to be written and the simplest. Mark was nearly illiterate in Greek, so his Gospel uses simple sentences and simple words to convey his ideas, so that it's almost jerky in style at times. Follow Mark with Matthew, the most Jewish of the four Gospels (and, ironically, the most anti-Jew). After that, Luke, the most lyrical of the Synoptic Gospels. Mark, Matthew, and Luke together are called the Synoptic Gospels and share much of the same source material. After that, don't tackle John. Read the Acts of the Apostles, which is written by the same author as Luke and intended as a set. Acts is a history of the earliest church. After Acts, then read the Gospel of John. John's theology (which is incidentally pretty Gnostic) is extremely important to Christianity, but John himself can be long-winded and pompous. He also has this verbal tic so that Jesus is always saying "truly I tell you." It can be really irritating. After that, you have Pauline Letters, Pastoral Letters, Catholic (General) Letters, and Revelations. The order in which you tackle these is up to you. Most of the letters are fairly short, but again, if they're boring you, try starting with the short ones (Philemon) and working up to the longer ones. The Pauline Letters are 1 & 2 Thessalonians, 1 & 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Romans, Philippians, Philemon, Colossians, Hebrews, and Ephesians. (Paul's authorship of the last three, and 2 Thessalonians, is hotly disputed.) Probably the most important to read are 1 & 2 Corinthians, Galatians, and Romans. Romans is the most comprehensive (and least tainted by classic Pauline anger issues) survey of Paul's theology. The Pastoral Letters are 1 & 2 Timothy, and Titus. The Catholic (General) Letters are James, 1 & 2 Peter, Jude, and 1, 2, & 3 John. These are less referenced than Paul's letters and less common to most Christians. They are probably not crucial to your New Testament reading, but they also aren't very long. Last of all is Revelations, and I suggest you read it last, with a good non-literal commentary. If you don't read it at all, your understanding of Christianity (other than the fundamentalist literalist variety) will not be appreciably harmed, and you need not feel bad - many Christians give Revelations up in disgust. ===== ===== Conclusion ===== Reading the Bible doesn't have to be a tedious or boring experience. Treat it as a set of 75 distinct ancient manuscripts, and don't force yourself through the boring parts at the beginning. Read with a good annotated Bible, and a good companion text to assist your understanding, and you'll be through the Bible in no time. Or at least all the interesting parts. ===== ===== About The Author ===== Koi is a Catholic guaduate student in theology (at a Protestant university) and is senior staff on The Cauldron's message board. [14] ========= ========= COLUMN: TAROTDEEVAH ON THE TAROT ========= by TarotDeevah ========= === === MerryDay Tarot === by Louisa Poole Published by Jackie and Rich McCabe Copyright 1997 by Mill House McCabe, Inc. ISBN 0965755304 See Cards From This Deck: http://angelfire.com/la2/tarotdeevah/tarot/merrypics.JPG Amazon Link: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0965755304/thecauldron I really love the artwork in this deck. Unfortunately, I never really warmed up to the system. There is no little white booklet to aid in deciphering the system, nor have I found a book for the deck. Keywords printed at the bottom of the cards do help in getting their meanings, but I never was one who liked keywords. The deck appears to loosely follow Rider Waite style, although very loosely. The fool is titles Fool, Wizard and is numbered both 0 and XXII. The cards of the major arcana, in order, are Fool(Wizard), Apprentice, Oracle, Empress, Emperor, Mentor, Lovers, Student, Strength, Teacher, Lady Destiny, Justice, Journeyman, Metamorphosis, Time Lord, Tempter, Tower, Star, Moon, Sun, Judgment, World, Wizard(Fool). Numbers at the bottom of the cards reveal the order of the deck, an order I don't quite get. After the majors, the minor's order is swords, wands, cups and pentacles. Each suit is ordered King, Queen, Warrior and Elemental, then Dragon (ace) through ten. Definite associations are also given: Swords are air, Spring, Pegasus; wands are fire, Summer, Unicorn; cups are Autumn, water, Mermaid; and pentacles are Winter, earth, Centaur/Satyr. The kings and warriors switch midway through the deck. Swords and wands have kings associated with their element (air and fire, respectively) and warriors associated with their season (Spring and Summer, respectively). Cups and pentacles have the kings associated with seasons (Autumn and Winter, respectively) and warriors associated with elements (water and earth, respectively). I have no clue as to why the associations are not uniform throughout the deck, and find it a bit annoying to this compulsive (borderline neurotic) Virgo. The cards measure about 3 by 4.5 inches and handle well. I find the cards to be on the thin side and wonder about their durability. I suspect they may not hold up to regular use very well. Also, I'm annoyed by the cut of the cards. My deck (which I received new) has notches/indentations at the top and bottom of the cards where sheets were separated into cards. Rough edges, such as these, are generally a sign of poor quality. That being said, I still really love the artwork in this deck, and am glad to have it in my collection. I recommend this deck for collectors and those inspired by wonderful artwork. Beginners may use the deck as well, but may have a hard time switching between systems when they move on to another deck. The artwork alone makes this a worthwhile deck to own. === === Motherpeace Round Tarot === by Karen Vogel and Vicki Noble Published by US Games Systems, Inc. Copyright 1981, 1983 by Motherpeace ISBN 0961126280 See Cards From This Deck: http://angelfire.com/la2/tarotdeevah/tarot/mppics.JPG Amazon Link: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0961126280/thecauldron This is one of those decks you either really like or really dislike. Unfortunately, I'm in the "dislike" category. I have several friends who rave about this deck, but I just never cared for it. The deck is definitely geared towards women (to the exclusion of men in my opinion) of a Goddess-based faith. The art is done in a primitive style, which I don't care for either, but that's a matter of personal taste. A couple of the cards have been renamed: the Hermit is called the Crone and the Hanged Man is the Hanged One. Justice is VIII and strength is XI. Suits are wands, cups, swords and discs. The cards are round, so reversals (if you read them) tend to occur in degrees. I like this aspect of the cards, that things aren't just upright or reversed, but are varying degrees to the left or right. The cards are about 4.5 inches in diameter, and are round. I find them hard to shuffle, and handle in general. I'm told there is a smaller version, which I would probably prefer over this large deck that I have. The thickness of the cards is just right in my opinion, and I feel they will be durable. Although I don't like the deck, I feel I can recommend it for women on a Goddess-based path (which I am not), especially if they like art in a primitive style. I also recommend the deck for collectors. Beginners may have a hard time with the degrees of reversals. If you do get the deck, I recommend the book with it. === === Mystic Tarot === by unknown Published by someone in Taiwan Copyright unknown ISBN none See Cards From This Deck: http://angelfire.com/la2/tarotdeevah/tarot/mysticpics.JPG All I can say about these cards is "cheap knockoff." I can't find a publisher or ISBN or author or illustrator or anything. Personally, I don't blame them. I wouldn't want my name on this deck either. It's as if the creator wanted to create a tarot deck without any knowledge of tarot. S/he looked at many decks and tried to make his/her own. The fool is a clown, and his dog is actually attacking him ... and that's just the first card. I can't even begin to point out all the errors in this deck. There are even typos in the deck: temperance is number XIY, the sun is number XIL, and on and on. The court cards look the same on every suit, except for minor changes. There isn't even a little white booklet with the deck. On a positive note, I really like the coloring on the majors and courts. Pips are not illustrated. The cards measure about 3 by 5.25 inches and handle fairly well. They are a bit long for me, but certainly not longer than many other decks. The stock is a good thickness and will probably be durable. It actually appears to be good stock, and also seems to be cut well. The edges are smooth and even. I cannot recommend this deck to anyone. Symbolism is misleading and the whole deck is almost insulting. This deck must have been designed for the card game, not for what I use tarot for. === === Mythic Tarot === by Juliet Sharman-Burke and Liz Greene Illustrated by Tricia Newell Published by Simon and Schuster, Inc. ISBN 0671618636 See Cards From This Deck: http://angelfire.com/la2/tarotdeevah/tarot/mythicpics.JPG Amazon Link: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0671618636/thecauldron The Mythic Tarot is a wonderful new approach to tarot in my opinion. Each suit tells a story from Greek mythology. Swords tells the story of Orestes and the curse of the House of Atreus. Even so, the deck follows Rider Waite style of ordering and naming without deviation. All cards are illustrated, including the pips. suits are wands, cups, swords and pentacles. Court cards are page, knight, queen and king. Cards measure about 3 by 5 inches and handle fairly well. I find the cards too flimsy and question their durability. I have not used my deck much, but the quality of the rest of the set was rather poor. I got the deck and book set, and the book fell apart rather quickly with little handling. I suspect the cards are of equally poor quality. Poor quality aside, I highly recommend this deck for beginners. I think the story line will really help in learning cards. I also recommend this deck for collectors and those who love Greek mythology. I sincerely hope that this deck and book set will be reprinted at a higher quality. ===== ===== About This Column ===== TarotDeevah's column will feature monthly articles or reviews selected from her web site or written for this newsletter. You can find TarotDeevah's web site at: http://www.angelfire.com/la2/tarotdeevah/home.html [15] ========= ========= HUMOR: GILLIGAN'S RITE ========= Author unknown ========= Just sit right down and you'll hear a tale A tale of a fateful rite That started in a temple room On a dark, suburban night. The priest was man with a way with words, The priestess loved the runes. Five coveners joined them that night To celebrate the moon. The priest he called Cernunnos and The priestess, she called Bast. The coveners got nervous when The pair arrived at last. "A hunter I am, brave and sure," Cernunnos said with pride. "Oh, hiss!" spat Bast, "If you saw me In the wildwood, you would hide!" "Oh, Egypt's joy you are, I note Cernunnos said with glee. "A cat who cares for nothing but Her napping spot and tea." Bast she did prepare to pounce, Cernunnos drew his bow. The coveners withdrew to the west To hide from the coming blows. The priest he spoke up hastily, Said "Let's bring this to an end!" The priestess said with equal speed, "Merry part and meet again!" The circle did dissolve in mist And the coveners drew breaths. They'd been sure this was the last - That this rite would be their deaths. "That's what we get for mixing up The pantheons this way." The priest he shrugged and then he said, "We'll all recall today." The priestess rolled her eyes and said, "Don't be a pompous ass! It's just what happens when a hunter meets A predator in the grass." To ponder the mystery Of what had caused the spectacle Of battling deity. Was it wrong to call a British god With an ancient Egyptian cat? Or was it just the gods' own way Of having some fun with that? In the years that passed no answers come Though they try all that they may, They just remember the final words Of both the gods that day. "Just sit back and enjoy the show, And smile whene'er you might. We are the gods of earth and sky....... Here in Gilligan's Rite!" [16] ========= ========= AROUND THE PLANES: NOTES FROM ALL OVER ========= Corporate America (and many large non-profits) keep a small army of publicists busy writing copyright-free articles that busy newspaper and newsletter editors can use in their publications. Many are nothing but shill worthy only of a cartoon version of used car salesman. Others contain useful information with only a subtle plug. Your editor has found a good online source for these and will be including a few that he feels may be of interest to Cauldron and Candle readers in issues of this newsletter. Remember that publication of an article in this newsletter is not an endorsement of the authors' position or any products and companies mentioned therein. [16-1] ===== ===== The National Do Not Call Registry ===== Reducing Volume Of Calls From Telemarketers ===== It's a familiar scene for most families: You've just gotten supper on the table when the phone rings...sure enough it's somebody trying to sell you something. No matter what they're pushing, telemarketers often seem to call at the most inopportune times. In a sense, this isn't surprising, since these professional salespeople know that dinnertime is a good time to catch people at home. It's now possible to cut down the number of telemarketing calls you receive. The federal government has created the National Do Not Call Registry, which puts consumers in charge of the telemarketing calls they get at home. You can register for free by phone or on the Web. The Federal Trade Commission-the nation's consumer protection agency-and individual states will begin enforcing the registry on October 1, 2003. That's when consumers who registered their numbers by August 31, 2003, will notice a downturn in the number of telemarketing calls they get. After August 31, telemarketers will have three months from when a consumer registers to remove the number from call lists. How does it work? The new law requires telemarketers to search the registry every three months and "scrub" their call lists to remove phone numbers that are on the registry. If you receive telemarketing calls after your number has been in the registry for three months, you can file a complaint; a telemarketer who disregards the National Do Not Call Registry could be fined up to $11,000 for each call. Placing your number on the registry will stop most telemarketing calls, but not all. For example, phone surveys, political organizations and charities are exempt and can call you even if your name is on the registry. However, most calls come from professional telemarketing companies, which are not exempt, even if they're calling on behalf of an exempt company. For more information, or to register for the National Do Not Call Registry, call 1-888-382-1222, (TTY 1-866-290-4236) from the number you wish to register or visit http://www.donotcall.gov/ To register online, you will need an active e-mail address. [16-2] ===== ===== Mercury Pollution ===== From thermostats and fluorescent lights to medical supplies, many products contain mercury that can pollute the environment. The good news is that each of us can help reduce mercury pollution and protect people and wildlife. In both humans and wildlife, exposure to mercury through eating contaminated fish triggers serious health concerns. Mercury can be found in thousands of products used daily. When these products are discarded, they are often incinerated. The mercury they contain is released into the atmosphere and falls back to earth when it rains or snows to contaminate lakes and rivers and the fish that inhabit them. Purchasing mercury-free products and disposing of mercury products safely is easier with a new guide from the National Wildlife Federation. The Mercury Products Guide is available online at http://www.nwf.org/cleantherain [16-3] ===== ===== Getting The Lead Out ===== Federal and state officials are telling landlords to make their properties safe from lead paint hazards or face the consequences. Over the past decade, federal officials have forced landlords to clean up deteriorating lead-based paint in nearly 160,000 apartments in 13 cities and have collected almost $1 million in fines and contributions to community health projects. "This settlement places sellers and landlords on notice that the federal government will vigorously enforce the law and hold them accountable if they place children and families at risk," Environmental Protection Agency spokesman John Peter Suarez said of a recent settlement requiring lead clean up in 3,000 Los Angeles, California apartments. The latest data from the Centers for Disease Control shows the efforts are bearing fruit. CDC says the number of children with worrisome amounts of lead in their blood has fallen dramatically from 88 percent in the late 1970s to 2.2 percent today. Individual states with vigorous enforcement programs also report sharp declines in the number of children with higher blood lead levels. For example, Massachusetts reported a 72 percent drop in elevated blood lead levels between 1995 and 2002, and Vermont reported a decline of 59 percent. Although there is still more to be done, CDC's Richard Jackson calls the decline in blood lead levels "a public health success story." A current threat to children comes from poorly maintained lead- based paint in American homes, mostly those built before 1940. Government agencies and public health groups agree that well- maintained paint is not a problem. The best solution is maintaining the paint, and governments at all levels are cracking down on property owners who allow paint to deteriorate. As Housing and Urban Development Department official David Jacobs explained: "Every child deserves a healthy home." [16-4] ===== ===== Wherever You Keep Your Medicines...Keep Them Ready ===== Sixty percent of American medicine cabinets are likely to contain expired or nearly empty over-the-counter or prescription medications, according to survey results posted on http://www.mymedcab.com/. The results support experts' advice that consumers incorporate a "checkup" of their medicine cabinets into their seasonal routine. This "checkup" will ensure it is equipped to handle family members' potential illnesses and ailments. More than half of Americans surveyed (54 percent) said they check their medicine cabinet for expired medications only every few months or longer. Even fewer check other places where medicines are stored, including kitchens or refrigerators, travel bags, bedrooms, purses or briefcases or workplace desk drawers. "People should make a medicine cabinet checkup part of their seasonal rituals, just like changing smoke alarm batteries," said Dr. Robert Piepho, Ph.D., FCP, and dean of the school of pharmacy at the University of Missouri at Kansas City. "And that checkup should include everywhere medicines are stored." "It's really important for people to examine all of their medicines in cabinets, desk drawers or wherever they keep them-to ensure that they are familiar with their medications, that all medications are up-to-date and properly stored," Piepho said. "It's also a good time to make sure that they are equipped with essential products for when they need them." The mymedcab.com survey confirmed that most Americans are "drugstore dashers," waiting until symptoms strike to stock their medicine cabinets with essentials. Fifty six percent of those surveyed said they run out to get medicines as they need them. Only 28 percent said they methodically stock up so they're prepared. Check Up Check List To assist consumers with improving the health of their home medicine cabinets-www.mymedcab.com, sponsored by McNeil Consumer & Specialty Pharmaceuticals, the makers of Tylenol and Johnson & Johnson*Merck Consumer Pharmaceuticals, suggests they follow "the three R's": * READ the labels and expiration dates and check dosage instructions before administering any medications-following directions is crucial in ensuring accurate administration and effectiveness; * REMOVE all items that are beyond their expiration dates and those that are no longer used-expired medications may lose their potency after time; * RESTOCK expired medications and other essential items-as a way to meet the individual health needs of everyone in the home. "Medicine cabinet checkup time is also a good time to ensure medications are properly stored," said Piepho. "The best place for most medications is in a dry place away from sunlight. Bathrooms are often too damp and humid, which can break down, degrade, or decrease the potency of medicines." Medications should always be kept in their original packaging so that consumers can easily see the expiration date, follow the dosage instructions, and read the warnings on the back of the bottle or package. Refilling travel-size bottles or combining medications in one container can mean losing important information. It is equally important to talk to a doctor or pharmacist about any possible drug interactions between two or more medicines that might be taken at the same time. Medicine Cabinet Preparation When preparing for the cold and flu season, experts suggest stocking your medicine cabinet with medications from the following categories: * pain relief (acetaminophen and ibuprofen) * allergy and sinus relief (antihistamine and nasal decongestant) * digestive health (anti-diarrheal, anti-gas, antacid, and acid reducer) * nighttime products (sleep aids). For consumers who have children, it is important to have the appropriate strength of children's medicine. For more information about medicine cabinet essentials, visit http://www.mymedcab.com/ or talk to your pharmacist. McNeil Consumer & Specialty Pharmaceuticals, headquartered in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania, markets leading products such as Tylenol, Imodium A-D, St. Joseph, and Motrin IB. Johnson & Johnson*Merck Consumer Pharmaceuticals Co., is a joint venture between two of the nation's largest healthcare companies marketing products including Pepcid Complete and Mylanta. A total of 1,025 telephone interviews were conducted with adults 18 years of age and older via the ORC International weekly telephone omnibus during the weekend of April 3-6, 2003. The results are weighted to reflect the actual distribution of adult population with regard to age, gender, race, and geographic distribution. The margin of error is +/-3 percentage points. [16-5] ===== ===== Beware Of Waterborne "Bugs" While Outdoors ===== Mosquitoes and bees aren't the only kinds of "bugs" that can cause problems when you're enjoying outdoor activities like swimming, hiking or camping. Waterborne protozoa like Cryptosporidium and Giardia are becoming increasingly common in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). While an insect bite might only annoy you for a day or two, these waterborne bugs cause a severe form of diarrhea that can last for weeks. Cryptosporidium and Giardia, the two most common waterborne protozoa in the United States, are frequent causes of persistent diarrhea among both children and adults. The tiny bugs easily infiltrate pools, rivers and streams because small children wearing diapers-even animals carrying the protozoa-can contaminate the water system. A recent CDC study reported that outbreaks of waterborne illnesses roughly doubled in the U.S. within a three-year span, and they estimate 100,000 to 2.5 million cases of giardiasis per year. And children have a greater risk of illness because of their level of immunity and risk factors for exposure. "I call it the 'hidden epidemic' because so many children suffer from these infections, yet so few parents have ever heard of them," said Dr. Bryan Vartabedian, a pediatric gastroenterologist who is on staff at Texas Children's Hospital. "We must see 10 cases per month in our practice." Cryptosporidium and Giardia infections can even be difficult for a doctor to diagnose. Warning signs include any combination of these symptoms (usually occurring one to two weeks after exposure): persistent diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, fever, weight loss, abdominal pain, gas, bloating. Here are some quick tips for avoiding infection from these organisms: * While swimming, even in a chlorinated pool, avoid swallowing the water. Cryptosporidium and Giardia are resistant to chlorine; * Be wary of pools where there are small children in diapers; * Don't swim, or let your child swim, while suffering from diarrhea; and * When hiking or camping, don't drink from rivers or streams. In the past, doctors have had no drug to treat Cryptosporidium and very few for Giardia. Recently, however, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a new drug for treating these infections in children. If you've been enjoying outdoor activities and experience these symptoms, consult your doctor. For more information on these waterborne bugs, call 877-925-4642 or visit http://www.alinia.com/ [17] ========= ========= Cauldron Info ========= SUPPORT THE CAULDRON BY VOLUNTEERING TO HELP ========= The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum was founded in December 1997 to provide a friendly but serious discussion area for Pagans on the Internet. We've grown a bit over the years. We now have an active message area, a large web site with around 700 pages of information (including over 250 book and divination deck reviews), and a monthly email newsletter. To continue to provide and expand these services, The Cauldron needs lots of volunteer help from our members and supporters. Here are some of the things members and supporters can do to help The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum thrive: ===== ===== Actively Participate In Our Message Board ===== While our Delphi message board welcomes readers, we encourage members to actively participate by posting their comments and views in our discussions. One of the easiest ways to help The Cauldron is to actively participate in our message board. The staff especially appreciates members who start new topics for discussion based on their own questions, opinions, or interests. http://forums.delphiforums.com/CUSTOM7999/start ===== ===== Articles! Essays! Tutorials! ===== We are in constant need of original, well-written and accurate articles, essays, tutorials, and other written items for both our web site and for our Cauldron and Candle newsletter. There's no real limit on length for web site articles. Here are a few areas in which we always need articles: * information on the beliefs and theology of the various Pagan religions, especially non-Wiccan religions * information on holidays and festivals of the various Pagan religions, especially non-Wiccan religions * recipes for oils, incenses, and food for the various Pagan holidays * magick, spells, and ritual information * herbal information * positive articles on dealing with other faiths * information on historical pagan cultures * editorial/opinion pieces Non-Wiccan material is stressed not because we don't want Wiccan material but because good non-Wiccan material has been hard to find. We have a web form you can use to submit an article for consideration: http://www.ecauldron.com/persontestart.php ===== ===== Book Reviews ===== While The Cauldron receives some review copies from a couple of Pagan publishers, there are many books that can only be reviewed on our web site if a member has a copy and writes a good, objective review. The Cauldron is interested in reviews on the more academic books used by reconstructionist Pagan religions as well as on the books one finds on the Pagan/New Age shelf in the bookstore. We have a web form you can use to submit a book review for consideration: http://www.ecauldron.com/persontestbr.php ===== ===== Graphic Assistance ===== The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum is purposely a low graphics site as we value page download speed over flashy graphics. However, we are always willing to talk with artists who have ideas for well-designed small graphics (small in both physical dimensions and file size) that might enhance a specific article or page. ===== ===== Invite Your Friends ===== If you have friends or acquaintances who you believe would find The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum useful, please tell them about our site. If you are active in our message board and have friends who might enjoy them or have information to contribute, please invite them. ===== ===== Link To The Cauldron ===== If you have a web site where linking to The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum would be appropriate, simply providing a link to this web site is a big help. Our Link to this Site page explains how you can do this if you need help or want some simple graphic buttons to use: http://www.ecauldron.com/linktous.php ===== ===== Donations ===== As The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum uses as many free services as possible, our need for money to operate our site is currently lower than our need for the many items we list above. However, if you have a few dollars to spare, we would be honored to have your help in paying for our web site. You can donate by using either PayPal or the Amazon Honor System links below (we get about 85% of what you donate). Donate via PayPal http://www.ecauldron.com/donatepaypal.php Donate via Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/paypage/P3903JRFVQVDN ===== ===== Amazon Purchases ===== The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum also receives a small percentage (usually 5%) from most items purchased from Amazon.com when you go to Amazon.com from one of the links to Amazon on our web site. If you purchase a lot of books, CDs, and other items from Amazon.com as many members do, going to Amazon.com through one of our links when you are going to make a purchase there is a painless way to help fund this web site. http://www.ecauldron.com/fradambooks.php ===== ===== Have Questions or Suggestions? ===== If you have specific questions, proposals or other ideas we haven't mentioned here, please email them to rssapphire00@ecauldron.GETRIDOFEME.com. (Unfortunately, Randall has to answer general "Tell me more?" type questions with a request for a more specific question. He's not trying to be rude, he just can't think of anything general and useful to say that isn't said here.) [18] ========= ========= NEWSLETTER INFORMATION ========= (Including how to subscribe and unsubscribe) ========= Cauldron and Candle is a free publication of The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum. The Cauldron intends to publish this newsletter once a month and often actually succeeds in doing so. We tried to publish it twice a month for a while, but real life interfered too often. This issue of Cauldron and Candle as a whole is copyright (c) 2003 by The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum. Copyrights on individual items in this newsletter are retained by their author, please contact the editors if you need to contact an author for permission to reprint an article and the editors will do their best to put you in touch with him or her. The opinions expressed herein are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of newsletter, The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum, or its staff. Publication of an article in this newsletter is not an endorsement of the authors position or any products and companies mentioned therein. No one involved in producing this newsletter has any money to speak of so suing us if you don't like something we do is a waste of time and money. ===== ===== HOW TO SUBSCRIBE OR UNSUBSCRIBE OR CHANGE EMAIL ADDRESS ===== You are receiving a copy of this newsletter because you signed up to receive it. You can subscribe or unsubscribe to this newsletter via your web browser at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cauldronandcandle/join Or you can unsubscribe via email by sending a blank message to cauldronandcandle-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com Be sure to send this message from the email account actually subscribed to the newsletter. If you have trouble unsubscribing by email, please use the web browser method mentioned above. If you need to change your subscription to a new email address, unsubscribe your old email address and subscribe your new email address. Note that you have to make these changes yourself. Yahoo Groups does not allow the list owner to make them for you. ===== ===== NEWSLETTER WEB SITE AND BACK ISSUE ARCHIVE ===== The Cauldron and Candle web site contains information on this newsletter and an archive of back issues. http://www.ecauldron.com/cnc/ ===== ===== PLEASE INVITE YOUR FRIENDS TO SUBSCRIBE ===== If you have Pagan friends who you believe would be interested in Cauldron and Candle please invite them to subscribe. You can either drop them a note yourself or -- better yet -- send them one of The Cauldron's email postcards with the information. You are also welcome to forward a copies of this newsletter to interested friends and associates provided you forward the entire newsletter. ===== ===== SUGGESTIONS ARE ALWAYS WELCOME ===== Don't forget that your suggestions for this newsletter are always welcome, either posted on the message board or via email to LyricFox (lyricfox@ecauldron.GETRIDOFME.com) or Randall Sapphire (rssapphire00@ecauldron.GETRIDOFME.com). Typos are, as usual, courtesy of the Goddess Eris.

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