My Latest Fascination: the 13 Moon Calendar
Posted by Cobalt Witch on Apr 7, 2009
About a week ago I ran into the 13 Moon/28 Day calendar. They had an idea I found intriguing; a 13-month, 52 week calendar, 28 days in each month, regular and perpetual. A day out of time (which also occurs in the Celtic Tree Calendar) completes the year.
They also had a way of naming the days and months and years based (loosely, as it turns out) on the Mayan Tzolkin, a pattern of 20 seals and thirteen tones that created 260 “kin” that matched with the dates every 52 years. With no printer and very scattered information, I pieced together the signs and the tones, the colors and attributes, guides and essences; I went to many different sites to read the information, and read along the way about synchonizing to the rhythms of the universe and galactic kin and telepathy and space travel. I finally found where a kind soul had posted pictures and text from the “Dreamspell: Timeship 2013″ ‘game’ that is still sold online, and realized that this was so far out there I’d need an Infinite Improbability Drive or a TRADIS that took hitchhikers to find my way home. (Let’s just say the “cosmic timeship” metaphor got a little too thick. I may go back and read it later — we’ll see.)
But I got a couple of takeaways from it. The first is the idea of a better calendar, one that is predictable and stable; it turns out that the English were using such a calendar before the Romans forced theirs on the island — I’m hoping I can find more about it. The other is the introduction to the 260-kin system; it looks like an interesting system for exploring time. (I took a look at the Mayan system; it’s just not calling to me like the Dreamspell stuff. It might turn out not to match the real world at all; but until I watch it for a while, I won’t know.)
So if you’d like to look at what I was looking at, 13moon.com and lawoftime.org are the both run by the organization that put the calendar together. http://mayan.tzolkin.com/ will give you the day’s kin and the “daily spell.” I can put up Cheat Sheets if anyone is interested.
A Reason for Picking Up My Daily Practice
Posted by Cobalt Witch on Apr 4, 2009
I’m reading an article called, “Fighting Demons, Raising the Dead, Taking Over the World”, about a recently created Christian sect called The Third Wave, or the New Apostolic Reformation. They have successfully organized over 200 million people around the world in simultaneous prayer, and believes in things like “spiritual mapping:”
“The new paradigm entailed that missionaries had to ‘identify’ and ‘bind territorial spirits’ and ‘unleash’ divine power. Evangelism was to be preceded by ‘prayer walks,’ and prayer was considered best if done geographically ‘on-site,’ within a ‘target area.’ Prayer became the identification of and confrontation with demons… All of this was categorized as ‘Spiritual Mapping’… A team flown in from the New Life Church in Colorado Springs secretively anointed traditional fetish huts and whole villages.” . . . “A year later in 1997, Alix Spiegel described Ted Haggard’s New Life Church members methodically ‘prayer walking’ the streets, trying to drive away territorial demon spirits from Colorado Springs.”
They’ve been in the news before, especially during the election; the Kenyan pastor, Thomas Muthee, that cast all the demons and witches out of a Nairobi suburb (you know, the guy that blessed Sarah Palin against “every spirit of witchcraft?” That’s the one) belongs to this same sect. As does Sarah Palin. I remember seeing those stories then, but what I never got before was the size of this church or what they believed and practised. A rogue pastor and a weird congregation member do not a movement make; and apparently, a movement this is. A movement that believes in the doctrine that “Christians can create a utopia on Earth by driving out territorial demon spirits and alleged witches with the power of massed prayer.”
“Third Wave Christianity claimed, by 2000, some 295 million adherents. “World Christian Trends” calls the Third Wave a “new and disturbingly different kind of Christian renewal.” . . . Within two decades, Third Wave Christianity encompassed over four percent of humanity. It is a seismic change. . . . The biggest megablock outside of the Catholic Church [is] the postdenominational block, 385 million strong by 2000. Wagner calls this block ‘neo-Apostolic.’ . . . it’s the only megablock growing faster than the earth’s population and faster than Islam.”
I am personally really bothered by this. I believe in the ether, if you will, or the Force, or chi, or prana; that the “empty spaces” around us aren’t empty, and that what people say and do in those spaces has an effect on them. Whether or not they can do what they claim, I really don’t think their effect on the environment will be terribly healthy, especially considering their views on what the world is and what is best for it. And with everything else she’s going through, Gaia/Nerthus/Mother Earth doesn’t need a group of fanatics messing with her vibes.
This certainly strengthens my resolve to pick up on my circling, as well as developing a daily practice. It’s reminded me that the planet is in danger from more than just how much we drive or what we throw away. In Norse mythology the World Tree, Yggdrasil, is in constant peril; a dragon gnaws its roots, harts eat at its bark, and this annoying squirrel keeps running up and down it spreading gossip and making the others even crazier. The Norns have a constant duty to tend it, spreading water and clay to heal its wounds. Isn’t that a great analogy? We can help heal the planet by spreading our gifts and energy around. Most of you probably already know that; it’s just hitting home to me on a deeper level right now. I need to stop sitting on my tukkus and not growing myself, not connecting with my gods, not participating on an energy level with the rest of the planet. Because, to paraphrase, “All that is required for someone to mess up the joint is that those who can do nothing.” I can. And I oughta.
How about you? I’d love to hear how you would contribute to the energy welfare of the planet. Every faith does it differently; magic, ritual, gardening, volunteering — what’s yours? Tell us in the Comments!
What I’m Reading
Posted by Cobalt Witch on Mar 18, 2009
A couple of weeks ago I was trying to “get into the pagan mood;” I’ve been concentrating on other stuff for so long that I felt I needed to reconnect to my spiritual side. When I feel like that, there are two places I tend to go: Avalon and Saxony, courtesy of Marion Zimmer Bradley and Stephan Grundy.
First up was the Bradley book, The Mists of Avalon
So I finished those, and then went directly into the world of the Norse gods, courtesy of Rhinegold
So: that’s what I do to get myself back into the pagan swing of things. How about you? Any good fiction that helps you get back to the world you want to live in? Any non-fiction that reminds you of where you should be? Please let all of us know in the Comments. We could get a great list going!