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C A U L D R O N A N D C A N D L E #80 -- December 2006 A Publication of The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum website: http://www.ecauldron.com/ message board: http://www.ecauldron.net/mb/ newsletter: http://www.ecauldron.com/cnc/ shopping: http://www.ecauldron.com/mall.php http://www.ecauldron.com/doxysbazaar.php In this Issue: [00] Editorial Notes: The Cauldron's NINTH Anniversary [01] Cauldron News * Message Board Rules Revision * A New Look For The Cauldron * The Return of Elspeth [02] Interesting Recent Cauldron Discussions * Earth-Based? What and Why? * Who Are You When You Die? * Thoughts on Winter Holidays? * Universalized Beliefs * Representing Paganism * Personalities, With or Without Cults * Climate Opposite What Your Religion Honors? * Do Neo-Pagan Religions Have Much in Common? * Do The Gods Love Us? * Judging? [03] Articles * Message Board Rules * Advertise On The Cauldron's Web Site [04] Flamekeeping: Submission and the Divine [05] Software Gadgets: The Column * Maxthon Browser -- The IE Engine Supercharged * Folder Marker -- Colorize and Mark Folder Icons * Powerpro -- The Ultimate Windows Utility [06] Grimoire: Basic Candleburning Spell [07] Recipe: Spiced Cranberry Sauce with Zinfandel [08] Support The Cauldron [09] Newsletter Information (Including How To Subscribe/Unsubscribe) ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ +++ Please support our sponsor +++ LOOKING FOR PAGAN SUPPLIES? Visit The Cauldron's Pagan Supply Store (An Affiliate of Pagan Shopping Online) http://www.ecauldron.com/esesf.php +++ Please support our sponsor +++ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ [00] ========= ========= EDITORIAL NOTES ========= Welcome to the December 2006 issue of Cauldron and Candle. You are receiving this issue because you subscribed. To learn how to unsubscribe, see the last section of this newsletter. You are probably thinking that this issue is late. It is, however, there is a reason. I wanted to publish this issue on The Cauldron's Ninth Anniversary. It's been nine years today (December 13th) since The Cauldron first opened its message board to Pagans around the world. Nine years ago today -- on December 13, 1997 -- the folks at Delphi (now DelphiForums) got our new "Custom Forum" fully working. I had started the forum on December 10th, but due to a glitch the forum would not let anyone but me post until the 13th. It took Delphi several days to fix it -- and this was back when you had to pay to start a forum. The Cauldron was a Yule gift to Elspeth. TC started out very slow. I think by the end of three months, we only had 400 messages or so -- most from a small group of our friends. But the board grew with time. We've moved around a bit since then. First to a mailing list, then back to Delphi (reopening our original forum there), then when DelphiForums just got too annoying to live with Bob offered his server and to what is now our "Archive Board" here. When the upgrade to Beehive 0.6x proved to be a disaster of slowness, we moved to this older version of Beehive last February. Fortunately, our members have followed us from home to home. A few of us (Elspeth, myself, and Ann for sure) have been here since day one, many more have joined us over the years and many have made TC their online home for many years. A lot of things both good (I met LyricFox here) and bad (lots of spammers) have happened here in nine years, and will -- with your support and the Gods willing -- continue for years to come. This issue is mainly devoted to The Cauldron article-wise. The January issue will see a return to our normal Pagan and magical oriented articles. Randall Sapphire Editor and Publisher, Cauldron and Candle Co-Host, The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum [01] ========= ========= CAULDRON NEWS ========= by The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum Staff ========= ===== ===== Message Board Rules Revision ===== The Cauldron's Message Board Rules have been revised. You can read the revised rules a bit further along in this newsletter or at: http://www.ecauldron.com/cmrules.php ===== ===== A New Look For The Cauldron ===== After six years or so with the same look, we decided it was time for a change to the appearance of The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum. While we'd love to do a complete site redesign with a modern CSS layout, we've finally admitted that we aren't likely to have time to do this -- after over two years of having a complete CSS redesign scheduled for "soon." Therefore we have just given the website a minor face lift: new colors and a slightly cleaner look. However, this minor update will make it much easier to integrate third party features into The Cauldron's web site because this site will use solid colors instead of background images. This will also make it load a bit faster. The default color theme on our message board has changed to match the new look of our web site. However, if you prefer old message board theme, it is available as the optional theme "Old Cauldron" in the settings menu. http://www.ecauldron.com/ ===== ===== The Return of Elspeth ===== Elspeth received a laptop as an early holiday present. This allows her to make brief visits to The Cauldron again when she feels up to it as she no longer has to try to get to the computer. It's really nice to see her able to join us again! ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ +++ Please support our sponsor +++ PAGAN-FRIENDLY WEB HOSTING * * Now with 200 GB Web Space & 2000 GB Bandwidth * * http://www.ecauldron.com/web/zdreamhost.php Dreamhost offers high-quality, low cost web hosting with a dedication to free speech. Pagan sites are welcome! Read why we use Dreamhost for The Cauldron's web site: http://www.ecauldron.com/web/whydreamhost.php Starter Plan Features * 200 gigabytes web space * 2000 gigabytes/month bandwidth * 3000 email boxes (POP3/IMAP) * 75 ftp/shell accounts * host unlimited domains/subdomains * php4, php5, cgi, fastcgi, ssi * zend optimizer, ruby on rails * unlimited MySQL databases * announcement lists * discussion (aka mailing) lists * Jabber server * Crontab and Shell access * Web-based Control Panel * One-Click installs of the Wordpress blog & PhpBB forum * 1 free domain name * helpful tech support * and much more! All for $9.95 a month with a $49.95 setup fee. Pay for a year in advance and there is no setup fee. Pay two years in advance and the price drops to $7.95 a month. (And there is a 97 day money back guarantee!) Visit Dreamhost for Affordable, Pagan-Friendly Hosting http://www.ecauldron.com/web/zdreamhost.php +++ Please support our sponsor +++ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ [02] ========= ========= INTERESTING RECENT CAULDRON DISCUSSIONS ========= Recent Discussion Topics on our Message Board ========= In an average month, over 200 new discussion topics are started on The Cauldron's message board. Here are a few of the more interesting recent discussions. It's not too late to join in. Thanks to Feedburner, 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 Feedburner's free news delivery via the form at the end of the site "News and Updates" section of The Cauldron's main web page. ===== ===== Earth-Based? What and Why? ===== Occasionally we have the thread or poster who finds it very important to inform TC's members that all pagans are earth-based. What makes a religion earth-based? What are the defining factors? What happens if you have five festivals held to pray for a good harvest interspersed with 30 festivals that have nothing to do with any agrarian function? Is that an earth-based religion and, if so, why? And, further, why is it important that all pagans *be* earth- based? Does this act as some unifying feature? Does this have some meaning? * Read (or join in) this discussion: http://www.ecauldron.net/cncmain.php?m=2092.1 ===== ===== Who Are You When You Die? ===== Let's say we don't just vanish when we die. There's an afterlife, be it the Summerland or Hades or Heaven, etc., and we go there as humans rather than some ball of energy or something. Who is that 'self'? Is it just the self you were when you died? Is it a younger self, maybe you as a child or some other point in life? If so, why that particular self? Is it a composite of all the selves you were during your life? But what if you had vastly conflicting views and traits during your life -- how would they be reconciled in your new spirit self? If you believe that we aren't human-like in the afterlife, then what are the differences between the afterlife self you believe in and our mortal self? Finally, a more concrete question. How would your views on the afterlife resolve this issue -- a man marries a wife, she dies, then he marries again. Once they're all dead, what's their relationship with each other like? * Read (or join in) this discussion: http://www.ecauldron.net/cncmain.php?m=2079.1 ===== ===== Thoughts on Winter Holidays? ===== How does everyone here feel about the holidays we celebrate at this time of year? I'm buying Christmas presents for all my family memebers because it's a family tradition, and this is the one time of year when I can give them all something really nice and personal. I was raised Catholic, but I consider myself Pagan. My brother and his wife are practicing Catholics, my sister has no proclaimed religion, my other brother is an atheist and my parents are non- Church-going Catholics (but still have all the basic beliefs of the church). The point is, I realize that Christmas is a Christian holiday, but I feel ok celebrating it because it's also such a big part of my family, my childhood and my (our) culture. On the other hand, I would feel ridiculous celebrating Hanukkah because I don't really understand it and it's not part of my belief system. I would only celebrate it if I were invited by a Jewish friend who felt the need to share that with me... Maybe I'm rambling, but I hope you get the point. How do you feel about celebrating holidays that aren't actually part of your religion? How do you feel when others celebrate one of your holidays if they ever do? * Read (or join in) this discussion: http://www.ecauldron.net/cncmain.php?m=2068.1 ===== ===== Universalized Beliefs ===== Most of the people I've come across in the Cauldron are polytheists, and I find that there's a tendency for them to say that their beliefs only apply to them and their gods, not necessarily to anyone else. But does your path have beliefs which you think apply to others as well, regardless of what they believe? (For example, you might believe that reincarnation happens to everyone.) How do you feel about other people's beliefs that they claim are true for you too? How do you deal with them? I ask because, since I worship an omniomnifoofoo god (thank you Darkhawk), I wonder if anyone ever gets offended that my beliefs tend to be universalised and hence include them. * Read (or join in) this discussion: http://www.ecauldron.net/cncmain.php?m=2057.1 ===== ===== Representing Paganism ===== I have a question for all of the pagans out there. Paganism isn't exaclty the most accepted religion out there, right now. We all know that. Were facing a whole bunch of promblems because of this. So I have to ask you, in light of this, How do you think we should represent our religion? Alot of pagans dress 'goth' or are just 'off' in some way or another. We just never seem to be 'normal'. I'm not saying that's wrong and I agree it's fun to dress 'goth'. Alot of the things most pagans wear, are freakin awesome. However, you have to think about how that looks to the outside world... Alot of the time, when paganism is mentioned in the media, we are potrayed as 'different' and out there. This isn't really helping our case to becoming closer to the mainstream or at least more accepted... So what should we do? I'm all for freedom of expression and everything. It's just, should we consider changing ourselves (making ourselves a little more normal), so that we can gain the benifits, that comes with fitting in? The rest of the world isn't going to come to us. So should we change- just a little? And if so, what should we change? If not, what can we do, to become more accepted? Should we be more accepted? Have you done anything, personally to make Paganism more accepted? * Read (or join in) this discussion: http://www.ecauldron.net/cncmain.php?m=2040.1 ===== ===== Personalities, With or Without Cults ===== How important are individual religious leaders to your religious path? Is there a tradition founder, a guru, someone with particular contact with the gods, or something similar that you have to deal with? Do you know that individual personally? (Shadow, stop laughing.) Do you believe that person is due some particular reverence because of their status as founder or whatever? Are there people in any of your religious organisations who are particularly significant? (High priest/ess, perhaps?) What difference does their status make? Do you think there is a problem in your path with people behaving inappropriately towards Big Name whoevers? Is this likely to show up with overfamiliarity, lack of granting adequate respect for seniority, bowing and scraping? How do you judge when someone's individual persona is doing its job as a religious leader and when it's leading to inappropriate relationships or causing problems in the religious community? * Read (or join in) this discussion: http://www.ecauldron.net/cncmain.php?m=2023.1 ===== ===== Climate Opposite What Your Religion Honors? ===== My whole life I lived in the Northern half of the US , mostly Massachusetts however recently I moved to Florida and as I am sure you know it's pretty much summer or spring here year round. While preparing for Samhain this past season it occurred to me that in Florida our Harvest season is the complete opposite of what is celebrated in paganism particularly Celtic (which is the path I am more than likely heading towards). So I was wondering if any of you have come across this issue and if so how do you deal with it? The time of year to celebrate a Harvest it the time of year to begin planting our seeds, this tends to make it hard to honor something that you are not practicing. Anyone? * Read (or join in) this discussion: http://www.ecauldron.net/cncmain.php?m=2015.1 ===== ===== Do Neo-Pagan Religions Have Much in Common? ===== Do you agree or disagree with this statement: Neo-pagan religions have much in common? Why or why not? * Read (or join in) this discussion: http://www.ecauldron.net/cncmain.php?m=1991.1 ===== ===== Do The Gods Love Us? ===== Most people who believe in gods seem to have a pretty firm conviction that these same gods love us. Or some of us. Or the right us. I find myself wondering where that conviction comes from. Is it just that, with such larger, more powerful, beings to deal with this assumption of love is the only thing that keeps us from running in fear or trying to come up with ways to fight/destroy them? Is it that they/their prophets say so? Is it that they created us? (for those of us who believe they did - after all, parents usually love their children) On the flip side, what is the evidence for indifference or enmity from these beings? How many fire bringers (Prometheus, Coyote) were punished for helping us keep from freezing to death. How many knowledge bringers (the snake in Eden, others I'm not aware of or can't think of at the moment) are reviled for making us more god-like by giving us understanding the creators didn't? In terms of happy, fulfilling, lives, who is better off - the ones the gods leave alone or the ones they pay attention to? I'm not doubting their existence, mind you. I'm a firm (sometimes) hard polytheist. I do doubt their benevolence and their motives. * Read (or join in) this discussion: http://www.ecauldron.net/cncmain.php?m=1973.1 ===== ===== Judging? ===== Every now and then, we end up discussing whether or not we have the right to judge. There are some portions of the Pagan 'community' that assert that we don't have the right to judge others. Sometimes this is phrased as 'so long as they aren't hurting anyone else, who are we to judge?' Do you believe that you have a right to judge others? Why, or why not? Do you base this on theology, common sense, or some other basis for your approach? If you believe that it's a variable issue (It's ok to judge when X, but not when Y), what effects whether you feel it is right to judge an issue? * Read (or join in) this discussion: http://www.ecauldron.net/cncmain.php?m=1970.1 [03] ========= ========= ARTICLES ========= ===== ===== MESSAGE BOARD RULES ===== by the Cauldron Hosts ===== This message board is not a democracy, at best it is a benevolent dictatorship. The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum's site hosts have set the following rules for The Cauldron's message board. Make sure you are familiar with them. Read them daily to remind yourself of them if you have to, because the hosts have given the message board staff the power to limit or deny access to those who insist on violating them. While The Cauldron's message board staff tries to enforce these rules fairly, please accept that things are not always going to seem absolutely fair. The staff is not only human but their primary duty is the long-term good of The Cauldron and its entire membership. The long-term good of the board may sometimes require actions that are not absolutely fair from other points of view. For example, a long time member who has posted hundreds of messages and then has a bad day and breaks a lot of rules is far more likely to be cut some slack than a new member who starts breaking rules within their first few posts. Remember that you are a guest in the online home of the hosts, if you cause problems or are very annoying in some way not covered by the rules, they will still act. The site hosts reserve the right to make completely arbitrary decisions to protect what they see as the best interests of The Cauldron. One very important thing to remember about The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum's message board is that it is a debate and discussion board -- and while people are not required to agree and debate can get very heated at times, we expect our members to always remember that those they are debating are not just names on a post, but real people who also have rights and feelings. The object of this board is to learn from the mix of ideas and views, not to completely demolish all who disagree with you. Unlike on many boards, you are free to disagree with and argue with the hosts and staff, except on rules issues and other issues pertaining to the operation of The Cauldron. === === The Cauldron's Message Board Rules and Policies === 1. On rules issues, and only on rules issues, staff decisions are final. (See the the main page of our web site or Start page of either forum for a current list of staff.) Do not under any circumstances argue with or comment on a moderator call on the board; all appeals must be taken to a private e-mail (note: not PM, unless the staff member in question specifically says you may use a PM) so as not to derail the conversation on the board. If you feel that you have been moderated unfairly, you may appeal decisions to the Message Board Coordinator and then, if necessary, to the active site hosts (LyricFox and Randall) by e-mailing them through their profiles. It is unlikely, however, that the hosts will overrule the staff. If you do not like the moderators or the moderation here, then feel free not to post here. 2. Personal attacks (i.e. name calling, hostile remarks, accusations, etc.) and blanket condemnations of religions or peoples will not be tolerated. Debate is welcome but please attack ideas and opinions, not personalities. Outright hate speech is never welcome. Note that putting an "in my opinion" type of qualifier on a rules violating statement does not change the fact that the statement violates the rules. 3. Unapproved unsolicited advertising/announcements -- pagan or non-pagan -- (aka "spam") is not allowed on this forum. If you wish to post an advertisement or announcement, you must obtain permission first. See our Advertising Guidelines for details on what is and is not permitted and for how to request approval to post an advertising message. Note that unapproved advertising is usually edited heavily and made fun of by staff and members, if you advertise without permission and are not banned for it, do not complain if this is done to your ad or announcement. 4. Do not post or attach copyrighted material without including the specific and express permission granted by the original author (or the copyright holder if that is no longer the original author) to post their material in The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum. If you do not have permission, please just post a link to the material. Simply giving credit to the original author is not enough under US copyright law. See our Copyright Guideline for more information on this issue. 5. Do not attempt to moderate other members. This includes telling people not post under certain circumstances, telling people that they must behave a certain way on the forum, telling other posters that they have violated the rules, etc. Constructive suggestions as to how a person could communicate more clearly or with fewer problems are fine so long as they do not sound like orders. Leave the moderating to the site hosts, forum moderators and their appointed staff. 6. Do not engage in annoying or excessively rude behaviour. This includes, but is not limited to the following: * Deleting or editing your posted messages to significantly change the content after they can reasonably be assumed to have been read by others (a few minutes after posting). This is particularly true if the message has already been replied to. * Posting the same message to multiple topics. * Attacking a post based on typos, poor spelling, or poor grammar, instead of debating its content. Our message board is more akin to a spoken conversation with people from many countries than it is to a term paper. * Proselytizing for any religion (whether Pagan or not). * Trolling, or posting only to stir up trouble. * Posting messages in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS, in eLiTe LeTtErS, in very large or hard to read fonts or colors, or with weird punctuation. (Hints: Using the standard font, font size, and color in messages is generally best. Start normal sentences with capital letters and end them with ONE period, question mark or exclamation point. Use apostrophes in contractions.) * Regular use of "Netspeak" or other "cute" grammar or spelling (For example: writing "R U Wiccan?" instead of "Are You Wiccan?"). Netspeak not only annoys many members but can make it very hard for people who first language is not English to follow discussions. * Not putting a blank line between paragraphs. (Press Enter twice after each paragraph rather than just once.) * Oversharing personal details -- posting the intimate details of your life in inappropriate threads. * Use of gratuitous offensive language. We are a PG-13 forum. * Failing to properly attribute quoted sources. * Having your account set to a false or out of date email address. * Putting the site hosts, forum moderators, or members of the forum staff on ignore so that you do not see the content of their posts. * Threatening/harassing the The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum's message boards, web site, staff, or members. * Hacking or attempting to hack any part of The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum. 7. Message Board signatures must follow our Signature Guidelines. If you need help getting your sig to meet the requirements, please post in the "Get Sig Help Here" thread in the Chat, MUX and Forum Support folder on the main board. 8. Certain folders have special rules regarding their use. The names of these special folders start with an "S:" as a reminder that they have special rules. These rules are published on the Special Folder Rules page. Those who violate the special rules for a folder can lose the right to post in that folder (in place of or addition to the usual penalties). 9. By posting a message to The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum's message board (or by submiting material directly for the the web site or newsletter), you are irrevocably authorizing the royalty- free use of that message or edited material from that message in The Cauldron's newsletters, mailing lists, announcement lists, web sites and other online venues. === === Forum Guidelines === While the following are not strictly rules, reading them will give you a feel for the way The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum's message board operates. Copyright Guidelines: We have had a number of problems with -- and complaints about -- the message board's copyright rule. Please remember that material taken from web pages, newspapers, magazines, etc. is copyrighted (and remains copyrighted even if you get it from a third party, e.g. in an email message from a friend or mailing list) and may not be posted without permission from the actual owner of the copyright (permission must be included with the post). Permission to email a copy to a friend as some news sites give is the not same thing as permission to post on a public message board. Simply giving credit to the original author is not enough under US copyright law: not giving credit is plagarism, not getting permission is a copyright law violation. "Fair use" is only a couple of sentences or a very short paragraph from a newspaper, magazine, or web article. Advertising Guidelines: * Unsolicited advertising/announcement (commercial or non- commercial, pagan or non-pagan) messages not approved in advance in accordance with the procedures in this paragraph is generally considered "spam." The content of such unapproved message is deleted and our members post Spam (the Hormel product) recipes and otherwise make fun of the post. Spam messages posted as one of the first ten messages posted by a new member may result in a ban. If you really think your ad would be of interest to our members and you have posted at least 25 messages to our message board, please query the Message Board Coordinator (or the Hosts as a last resort) in email with a copy of the ad/announcement text you wish to post and request permission to post it. They will look at the ad and make a decision. The only exception to this rule is that regular posters (members with at least 200 posts) on our message board are usually allowed to make short, one time informative announcements of new non-commercial forums, mailing lists, or personal item sales of direct interest to Pagans in our Internet folder without obtaining advance permission. * It is not considered advertising to post a direct link to (or information about) a business or product in response to bona fide question in a message thread (as long as one discloses any interest one might have in the business/product). Nor is it considered advertising for regular posters on our message board to post a link to an item or business to discuss it. * Reasonable links to one's business are allowed in signatures provided they are links and not ads. Note, however, that affiliate links are not allowed in messages or signatures if they conflict with the affiliate relationships of The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum. Exceptions to this affiliate link rule may be granted by the Hosts in special cases (e.g. an author linking to his/her own books on Amazon with his/her affilate code), talk to the Hosts if you think an exception is warranted. Non-Pagan Religions Guideline: The Cauldron is an interfaith forum. Anyone of any religion (or no religion) is welcome to post here so long as they follow the forum rules. Many non-Pagans are regular contributors to The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum. As many Pagans seem to have "issues" with Christianity, be aware that this forum has Christian members and a Christian theologian on staff. The rule against blanket condemnation of other religions does apply to Christianity. After all, most of the world's two billion Christians aren't raving fundies out to force their Bible down your throat -- no matter how much it may seem like the fundies are the majority of Christianity if you live in certain parts of the United States -- and they should not be treated as if they were. Generic Christian bashing is no more welcome here than generic Pagan bashing is. If this bothers you, The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum's discussion areas might not be the place for you. See also "Tolerance Guideline" below. Message Format Guidelines: A number of definite "don't dos" are listed in our rules, here are some positive things you can do to make your messages more readable -- and therefore more likely to be read and replied to by other members. * Write in short paragraphs with a blank line between each paragraph. Large blocks of solid text are much harder to read on a monitor than in a book or magazine so white space (blank lines between paragraphs) is much more important to readability than it is in text printed on paper. * Please don't write in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS. It's very hard to read and is considered the online equivalent of shouting at people. * Clearly mark any material you are quoting from another message with some type of text marker -- the most common method in our message board seems to be starting and ended the quoted text with two or three plus signs (like this: +++This would be some text quoted from another message+++). If you use HTML formatting, you can put quoted material in a quote box by highlighting the quote and clicking on the quote button in the message editor. The quote button looks like a pair of quotation marks. Please do not use odd fonts or colored text to mark quotes. * If you are starting a new thread, try to give it a subject that accurately describes the discussion is about. If you have a question or need help, you will want to be as specific as you can in the limited number of characters allowed for the subject title so that people who have the info you are looking for will be likely to find your thread. * Black is boring, but it is the easiest color for most forum members to read. If you use a different color, don't be surprised if you get complaints. Signature Guidelines: Signatures are a good way to personalize your messages, but they can cause problems if not carefully created. Signatures are expected to follow the follwing guidelines: * All message board rules apply to signatures. * The total file size of all graphics used in a signature must be no more than 35-40KB. * all graphic images must have height and width tags. * The entire signature must fit in the message pane of the message board when displayed in a browser on a 800x600 resolution screen without causing side scrolling. * Signatures are not web pages, they should not require a lot of scrolling to page through. * Signatures may not use sound, movies, Java or other troublesome features. * Some advertising is permitted in signatures, see the Advertising Guideline. Personal Information Guideline: Members should think twice before posting personal information (address, phone number, etc.) in a message as the messages you post are available to anyone on the Internet. If staff happens to notice this type of information is being posted by a minor, it will be edited out. Political Guideline: Political discussions do happen in The Cauldron. Please remember that being Pagan does not automatically imply a certain political position. Pagans are found all across the political spectrum from radical extreme liberals to reactionary extreme conservatives. Also, please remember that this forum has members from all over the world and that the laws and political procedures of your country are not universal. This forum is not an appropriate place for blatant political campaigning. Most of the Cauldron's US members, however, are center left to left. While we do have members who lean center right to right, they are usually in the minority and therefore sometimes feel outgunned in political discussions. Some of our members, however, are hard to pigeonhole politically, while their views on one issue might be seen as conservative, their views on another issue might be seen as liberal. Many of our members who participate in our political discussions are very well-read with respect to the news - reading US news sources from the left, from the center, and from the right and getting a broader view by reading some major foreign news sources. If you only read/listen to news that agrees with your politics, chances are good that you will have trouble being taken seriously in many political discussions on our board. Political discussions are expected to obey the regular forum rules. This means that much of the type of nasty discussion that goes on in many other political discussion areas on the Internet (e.g. the Yahoo Message Boards) will quickly get one banned on The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum. Here are some things to remember: * Keep political discussions civil. Attack ideas, do not attack the people who hold them. * Personal attacks (like name-calling) on other members, people, countries, or political institutions are not allowed. While we do allow political figures to be referred to by fairly common, polite nicknames (e.g. Tricky Dick, Slick Willie, Shrub), the type of insulting name calling that goes in many other online political discussions (e.g. calling liberals things like "libtards" or conservatives "contards") is not welcome here. * Those who disagree with you are not idiots, terrorists, communists, Nazis, anti-American, retards, etc. While you may not be willing to believe it, they might be right and you might be wrong. * Don't expect to convince a political opponent by citing opinion pieces or biased "factual" pieces from sources generally considered be strongly aligned with one political camp or another. Citing Rush Limbaugh or NewsMax isn't likely to convince a liberal any more than citing TruthOut or Counterpunch is likely to convince a conservative. * If you are making a claim and asked to support it, do not try to avoid doing so by demanding that your opponents instead disprove it. It is the duty of those making a positive claim to support it if asked. It is not the duty of those opposing the idea either to disprove it or accept it. * Finally, take a look at your message before you post it. It if reads like children taunting each other on the playground, please revise it as you will only make a fool of yourself (and perhaps get into rules violation trouble) if you post it. Tolerance Guideline: The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum expects its members to be tolerant of the religious beliefs of others. This means we expect you to respect the right of others to the religious beliefs and practices of their choice. This does not mean that you have to agree with those beliefs, that you cannot argue politely that factual beliefs are incorrect, or that you cannot politely state that you believe certain other beliefs are simply wrong. It is definitely not intolerant to ask someone for the sources of their information. 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You can see how they look in the footer of this page. A site sponsorship will get you more than 700 links which can be extremely helpful if you are trying to get a decent page rank with search engines. Site Sponsorship Rate Table Payment Plan Rate Notes Monthly $200.00 $200 per month Less than 30 cents per link per month Quarterly $540.00 $180 per month Less than 26 cents per link per month Semi-Annual $960.00 $160 per month Less than 23 cents per link per month The Cauldron reserves the right to refuse any ad for any reason. For example, we do not accept ads from hate sites, porn sites, or gambling sites. No refunds will be made. Major temporary down time (one week of longer) will extend your ad duration by at least a like amount. No tracking or hit information is available. If you are interested in an ad, email tcads00@ecauldron.com. Note that this address will change from time to time to reduce spam. [04] ========= ========= FLAMEKEEPING ========= SUBMISSION OF THE SELF ========= by HeartShadow ========= HeartShadow is following her own religious path. She calls it FlameKeeping. This regular column will present articles on FlameKeeping, many taken from HeartShadow's FlameKeeping blog at: http://flamekeeping.blogspot.com/ ===== ===== Submission of the Self ===== here are many times and many places in our lives where one can wish to submit. Submit to the system, to the rules, to another person. It appears easier, in many ways. When we give up our own filter of moral judgment, we allow another's judgment to step in, let them make the decisions. While it is necessary to submit to reality and to ourselves, to accept our limitations and the consequences of our actions, it is just as necessary to not use submission as an excuse to abrogate responsibility for ourselves. Even though the consequences may not be what we would wish for, they are still the consequences we earn. Submission is directly tied to the concept of consequence. We fear consequences in our life, both not getting the consequence we desire and receiving the consequence we don't. So we try to find ways to dodge the consequences, ways to change our realities to match what we desire. We play games with ourselves, find excuses where no such excuse can possibly exist. One of those games is submission. Submission is an attempt to give to another our own responsibilities, to say that another person has the right to say what we can and cannot do. We say, "We're just doing our job," when we realize what we're doing isn't something we'd do otherwise. Or, "It's the law," even if it's something we morally disagree with. We sometimes even come to finding a desire to give all our responsibility to another person, and become totally submissive to another's will. The problem is that we cannot truly give our will over to another at any time. While we say we are not responsible, that does not make it so. We cannot simply give up responsibility morally or legally, for we are what we do, not the spin we put on it. When we try to give our responsibilities to another, we saddle them with something impossible. === === Questions: === * Why is submission wrong? Why is it impossible? * Why do we try to dodge moral culpability for our actions? * Why is the law not a good excuse for moral submission? Do you think such an excuse exists? Would you allow it if someone else used it and hurt you in the process? [05] ========= ========= SOFTWARE GADGETS: THE COLUMN ========= Interesting Items From The Software Gadgets Blog ========= http://softwaregadgets.gridspace.net/ ========= The Software Gadgets Blog aims to present a different "software gadget" every weekday. A software gadget is a program or addon that is both interesting and useful -- and often free. This column highlights three of the programs listed recently. Many more were listed and you'll find more gadgets like these added every week at the Software Gadgets Blog at: http://softwaregadgets.gridspace.net/ ===== ===== MAXTHON BROWSER -- THE IE ENGINE SUPERCHARGED ===== When I wrote about the new Internet Explorer 7 last Friday, I complained that I could not find an ad blocker for it. A Software Gadgets reader emailed me and suggested I try Maxthon. Formerly known as MyIE (I used MyIE years ago), Maxthon uses IE's HTML engine to display sites, but wraps it with a different user interface -- and it comes with an ad blocker that works something like the Ad Blocker Plus extension for Firefox. I downloaded the latest version of Maxthon and gave it a spin. According Maxthon's home page, it includes a number of additions to IE including: * Mouse Gestures * Super Drag&Drop * Privacy Protection * AD Hunter * IE Extensions Support * External Utility Bar * Skinning I took Maxthon for a spin and found it lives up to its claims. The interface is a bit busy, but it adds a lot of nice features to IE -- even IE 7. Most importantly for me, the ad blocker works. I can't cruise the net without the ability to block the more annoying ads. I don't block them all, but if they try to track me around the net, block my view of the web page, make noise, or otherwise act annoying to try to get my attention, they get my attention long enough to block ads from that ad server/ad company. Maxthon's tabs are a bit more polished than those of IE 7 and Maxthon seems to use a bit less memory than IE 7 (which means far less than Firefox). Maxthon can use some major IE Plugins and even has several hundred Maxthon plugins -- something like Firefox extensions -- although IE 7 seems to a broken some of them. The Maxthon web sites lists a number of other minor features Maxthon provides out of the box, such as, Page Zooming, Simple Collector, Web Services, Password protecting Tabs, URL Aliases and many others. I like Maxthon. Not enough for it to replace Firefox as my primary browser, but it has already replaced Internet Explorer for those times I just have to use IE on some web site or another. Maxthon is just a better IE than IE. Rating: 5.0 Operating System: Windows 98+ with Internet Explorer 5.5+ License: Commercial Freeware Price: Freewar Version: 1.5.8 build 116 Web Site: http://www.maxthon.com/ ===== ===== FOLDER MARKER -- COLORIZE AND MARK FOLDER ICONS ===== Chances are you have thousands of folders on your computer. Most of their icons look exactly alike. If you are visually oriented, this visual sameness can make it hard to see the folders you consider important in large collection of folders in Explorer. While there have always been ways to fiddle around in Windows and replace folder icons, the majority of methods have either been error-prone or expensive. Folder Marker changes that. Folder Marker puts a "Mark Folder" option on the menu when you right click on a folder. Selecting "Mark Folder" brings up a menu of special symbols you can overlay on a folder or you can change its color. It's one of those programs that "just works" -- and, best of all, it's free. Here are some of the program features from the Folder Marker web site: * Folder Marker can change a folder icon with one mouse click * Folder Marker can mark folders by priority (high, normal, low), by degree of work completeness (done, half-done, planned) and by the form of the information contained in a folder (work files, important files, temp files, private files). * Folder Marker can change a folder's color * Folder Marker changes folder icons from a popup menu of the folders. To mark a folder, you don't even need to run the program! * Folder Marker's menu can contain convenient category submenus. * Folder Marker contains a User's Icons tab. Add up to 10 of your favorite icons and mark folders with them. It's easy! * Folder Marker can work with several folders at once * Folder Marker can assign an icon to a folder from: ICO, ICL, EXE, DLL, CPL or BMP file * Folder Marker supports 32-bits icons Rating: 4.0 Operating System: Windows License: Freeware Price: Free Version: 1.2 Web Site: http://www.foldermarker.com/ ===== ===== POWERPRO -- THE ULTIMATE WINDOWS UTILITY ===== I discovered a freeware program for Windows 3.1 called Stiletto in the early 1990s. On the surface, it was a bar you could launch programs from. But the author, Bruce Switzer, just kept adding features to it. It seemed like a new version with even more features came out every month. It quickly became the most important desktop enhancement/utility program on my computer. When Windows 95 arrived, the author rewrote the program for 9x based systems and made the new 9x version shareware. When I finally ordered a Windows 95 capable computer, I bought a license before my new computer arrived so I would be able to have my favorite program installed and fully functional immediately. It was the best money I've ever spent on computer software (and it was only $20 or $30). The years rolled by with new versions every few months. Then Bruce rewrote the program from scratch and renamed it "Powerpro" and new versions with even more features continued to roll out every few months. A few years ago, Bruce got tired of the hassles of shareware support and made the program freeware again. New versions, generally with piles of new features, still come out two or three times a year, however. It is impossible to describe everything Powerpro can do in this short article as it does a heck of a lot and does it all while being very resource friendly. Here's a partial description of what can be done with Powerpro taken from the Powerpro help file. This is a general summary of PowerPro's features: * Powerpro provides many user actions for launching programs and commands, such as bar buttons, menu items, hotkeys, mouse actions, scheduled commands, or from a script. * Whichever user action you choose to launch an application, you can also choose how it will be launched. For example PowerPro has a "Switch to if active" checkbox (which prevents accidentally starting a program twice); you can start an application maximised, minimised, hidden, etc; specify whether it should have OnTop status; define its exact window size and position. You can even automate sending commands to an application every time it starts, such as switching Explorer to Details view. There are other ways to start programs (such as ordinary toolbar programs, or Desktop shortcuts, or the Start Menu) but PowerPro can start programs with more customisable options. * PowerPro offers several ways to control a running program, such as sending simulated keystrokes to a specified window, or simulating mouse clicks and movements anywhere on the screen. * Powerpro provides many ways to switch between tasks. You can make an "active bar" as an improved substitute for the Windows TaskBar; or if you prefer, create your own Task Switching Menu, shown by a hotkey perhaps. * Powerpro offers many ways to configure and control the Windows system and Windows features such as Explorer, the Clipboard, the Desktop, etc. * Powerpro bars can be positioned, colored and sized in many ways. You can even apply skins to bars. * The menus you create with Powerpro are also very customisable in appearance with submenus and conditional sections. * The variety of results you can set for clicking a bar button or a menu item is limited only by your imagination of what you would like it to do. Read here about the demonstration bars. * Powerpro can retrieve a wide range of information about the system and running programs, then display that information however you wish. Or use the retrieved information as parameters in your commands. * It can be set to monitor the computer for various conditions then respond with a warning message or an action, such as automatically starting your email program and a timer whenever the modem connects. * Powerpro can replace many small utilities such as a tray utility, a virtual desktops program, a sticky notes program and more. By using PowerPro's tray features, vdesks, notes, etc, instead of dozens of small programs, you can integrate all of these into a single user interface of your own design. Also the parts can be made to interact with each other in more interesting ways. * Not only is there unlimited variety to what different users create with PowerPro. There is also variety in how they create it. One user will develop a comprehensive setup without writing a single script, only using the GUI dialogs. Another will prefer to use their text editor to create file based scripts and .ini files to define their configuration. This leaves out many features and doesn't even begin to mention all the things that can be done with third party plugins. Powerpro is one of the most complex windows utility programs out there if you try to figure out and use every feature for all it is worth. But while a bit overwhelming, it is easy to get Powerpro to do very useful things without a lot of effort by going through the tutorials in the help file. There are also two helpful Powerpro mailing lists: one for beginners (where Powerpro experts try to help without overwhelming beginners) and one for everyone (Bruce is often active on this group and beta versions are made available for testing and debugging here). I would not know what to do without Powerpro. I launch most of my programs from a tiny transparent Powerpro bar at the right side of my screen. Powerpro manages my virtual desktops, tells me the day of the month, sizes and positions windows, and much more. Yet for all it does for me, I doubt I use a quarter of its features. Give Powerpro a try and I expect you will probably find it as invaluable as I do. Powerpro's web site doesn't do it justice, by the way -- especially the awful (and ancient) screenshots. Rating: 5.0 Operating System: Windows 95+ License: Freeware Price: Freeware Version: 4.5 Web Site: http://powerpro.webeddie.com/ [06] ========= ========= From the Spell Grimoire: ========= BASIC CANDLEBURNING SPELL ========= Do this spell the last thing at night. Then go to bed with the thought that the ritual will succeed. Select a candle of an appropriate color. The candle should be new and never used for any other purpose. The following information will help you select an appropriate color: * White: A balance of all colors; Spiritual enlightenment, cleansing, clairvoyance, healing, truth seeking; Rituals involving lunar energy. May be substituted for any color candle. * Yellow: Activity, Creativity, unity; brings power of concentration and imagination to a ritual; use in rituals where you wish to gain another's confidence or persuade someone, or in rituals that require solar energy. * Gold: Fosters understanding and attracts the powers of cosmic influences; beneficial in rituals intended to bring about fast luck or money, or in rituals needing solar energy. * Pink: Promotes romance, friendship; standard color for rituals to draw affections; a color of femininity, honor, service, brings friendly, lively conversation to the dinner table. * Red: Health, passion, love, fertility, strength, courage, will power; increases magnetism in rituals; draws Aries and Scorpio energy. * Silver: Removes negativity and encourages stability; helps develop psychic abilities; attracts the influence of the Mother Goddess. * Purple: Power, success, idealism, psychic manifestations; ideals for rituals to secure ambitions, independence, financial rewards, or to make contact with the spiritual other world; increases Neptune energy. * Magenta: Combination of red and violet that oscillates on a high frequency; energizes rituals where immediate action and high levels of power or spiritual healing are required. * Brown: Earthly, balanced color; for rituals of material increase; eliminates indecisiveness; improves powers of concentration, study, telepathy; increases financial success; locates objects that have been lost. * Indigo: Color of inertia; stops situations or people; use in rituals that require a deep meditational state; or in rituals that demand Saturn energy. * Royal Blue: Promotes laughter and joviality; color or loyalty; use to attract Jupiter energy, or whenever an influence needs to be increased. * Light Blue: Spiritual color; helpful in devotional or inspirational meditations; brings peace and tranquility to the home; radiates Aquarius energy; employ where a situation must be synthesized. * Blue: Primary spiritual color; for rituals to obtain wisdom, harmony, inner light, or peace; confers truth and guidance. * Emerald Green: Important component in Venusian rituals; attracts love, social delights, and fertility. * Dark Green: Color of ambition, greed, and jealousy; counteracts these influences in a ritual. * Green: Promotes prosperity, fertility, success; stimulates rituals for good luck, money, harmony, and rejuvenation. * Grey: Neutral color useful when pondering complex issues during meditation; in magic, this color often sparks confusion; it also negates or neutralizes a negative influence. * Black: Opens up the deeper levels of the unconscious; use in rituals to induce a deep meditational state, or to banish evil or negativity as in uncrossing rituals; attracts Saturn energy. Anoint the candle to impress your thoughts on it and to consecrate it to your purpose. The best type of oils to use for dressing candles are natural ones which can be obtained quite easily. Some occult suppliers will provide candle magic oils with exotic names. The oil soluble perfumes sold by craft shops for inclusion in candles will work as well. Before starting get clear on what you wish, then write your wish on new paper. Put this paper under the candle holder. Lower or turn off other lights. Rub the anointing oil on your fingers and gently rub it onto the candle. Light the candle and sit in quiet concentration upon your wish. Above all visualize the thing you want. Use the burning candle as a focus of concentration. When you feel that you have concentrated for long enough take the paper and burn it in the flame of the candle, with the thought that you are now projecting your wish into the beyond to find fulfillment. As the paper burns, chant the following: Candle shining in the night With your flame enchanted, By the powers of magic might May my wish be granted. When the candle sheds its gleam At the mystic hour, Let fulfillment of my dream Gather secret power. Flame of magic, brightly burn, Spirit of the fire. Let the wheel of fortune turn, Grant me my desire. One, two, three - so mote it be! Blow out the candle if its not consumed. Wrap it up in clean paper to use again on the same wish only! Repeat the spell as necessary to reinforce it. === === About This Spell === This spell is taken from The Cauldron's Spell Grimoire, a collection of basic spells available on The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum's web site. You'll find more spells at: http://www.ecauldron.com/spells/index.php [07] ========= ========= From the Cauldron Cookbook: ========= SPICED CRANBERRY SAUCE WITH ZINFANDEL ========= submitted by Eadie ========= === Ingredients 1 3/4 cups red Zinfandel 1 cup sugar 1 cup (packed) brown sugar 6 wole cloves 6 whole allspice 2 sinnamon sticks 1 3x1 inch strip orange peel 1 12-ounce bag fresh cranberries === Procedure Combine everything but the cranberries in a saucepan. Bring to boil over medium-high heat, stirring until sugar dissolves. Reduce heat and simmer until reduced to 1 3/4 cups, about 10 minutes. Strain syrup into large saucepan. Add cranberries to syrup and cook over meduim heat until berries burst, about 6 minutes. Cool. Transfer to bowl and refrigerate until cold. Can be made 1 week ahead. Makes about 3 cups. === === About This Recipe === This recipe is taken from the Cauldron Cookbook, a growing collection of recipes submitted by members of The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum. You'll find more recipes at: http://www.ecauldron.com/cookbook/index.php [08] ========= ========= 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 300 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 new 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://www.ecauldron.net/mb/ ===== ===== 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/bnbarticleform.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/bnbbkreviewform.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/zamazon.php If you are a regular user of the US version of Amazon, you can help The Cauldron by replacing the URL of your ebay bookmark in your browser with the above link so that TC gets credit every time you visit Amazon.com. To do this in Internet Explorer or Firefox, find Amazon in your bookmark list. RIGHT click on it and select Properties from the popup menu which will appear. A dialog box describing your bookmark will appear. You'll see the standard Amazon url -- probably http://www.amazon.com/ -- in an edit box (labeled "Location" in FireFox and "URL" in IE). Erase that url completely and replace with one listed above, then click on OK. If you use Amazon UK, you can use this address http://www.ecauldron.com/zamazonuk.php If you use Amazon Canada, you can use this addess: http://www.ecauldron.com/zamazonca.php ===== ===== Ebay Purchases ===== Are you an Ebay user? Ebay has a new program that pays affiliates a small percent of the winning bid if the winning bidder enters ebay from an affiliate link (some like how our Amazon.com affiliate program works). So if you visit the US version ebay via the following link, the Cauldron will get credit for your bids: http://www.ecauldron.com/zebay.php If you are a regular user of the US version of ebay, you can help The Cauldron by replacing the URL of your ebay bookmark in your browser with the above link so that TC gets credit every time you visit ebay. To do this in Internet Explorer or Firefox, find ebay in your bookmark list. RIGHT click on it and select Properties from the popup menu which will appear. A dialog box describing your bookmark will appear. You'll see the standard ebay url -- probably http://www.ebay.com/ -- in an edit box (labeled "Location" in FireFox and "URL" in IE). Erase that url completely and replace with one listed above, then click on OK. ===== ===== 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.) [09] ========= ========= 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) 2006 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 (lyricfox01@ecauldron.GETRIDOFME.com) or Randall Sapphire (rssapphire01@.ecauldron.GETRIDOFME.com). Typos are, as usual, courtesy of the Goddess Eris.

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