Metaphysical Items on Etsy and a Witch Hunt of a Grander Scale - BrianaDragon Creations

Hmm, now here's a perspective from Briana Dragon Creations on the Etsy policy that I hadn't considered, and I think there's a lot of truth in it. Of course, this still affects metaphysical vendors...

Metaphysical Items on Etsy and a Witch Hunt of a Grander Scale - BrianaDragon Creations: Here’s the thing: This is much more than a metaphysical seller issue. This affects pretty much every home business that sells anything that would help someone in any way. Home remedies, herbal remedies, soaps, oils, incense, lotions, and the list goes on and on. This was never about Pagans or any other faith, it’s about the government trying to run all the little guys out of business under the guise of protecting the public. (Briana Dragon Creations)

And, this: (italics mine)

Another point that I’m going to reiterate is that any item which heals or helps a person based on energy rather than direct physical effect is considered a “mind-body healing” item, and is not regulated by the FDA. Metaphysical item sellers actually have a fully legal loophole and are therefore far better off than all the folks who sell bath, body and remedy items. I hate to say it, but the Pagan community needs to get their heads out of their asses and realize that this is not about them, it’s about small business being crushed by unfair laws. If they’d put some energy into questioning the FDA and thinking about the bigger picture, a lot more would happen than just whining about how they can’t sell a spell on Etsy.  (Briana Dragon Creations)

More information and information we can use to change things as well as keep on going.

Etsy Bans "Metaphysical" Items

Sort of. More from Lon Strickler at Phantoms and Monsters:

Phantoms and Monsters: Pulse of the Paranormal: The sales ban of certain items on the popular internet marketplace Etsy has once again effected supernatural vendors. After eBay banned the sale of magic-related services in 2012, Etsy became one of the most popular places for these types of vendors to make a living. Initially it's the restriction of metaphysical goods and services...so what can we expect down the road? Here's a recent article describing the new policy at Etsy: (Lon Strickler)

It's really too bad, and ignorant of course. As the article comments, if Christian religious items are sold, for example, why the ban against other items - and does this violate freedom of religion laws?



Hopefully Etsy will change its policies.

Mind the Gap: Meditations on Magical Realism | EsoterX

From one of my favorite esoteric, Fortean-anomalous-mystical type minded blogs, where the writing is always excellent and the topics varied and unique, is the following on his relationship with knowing tarot -- what to do, how to do it, and much more, such as "truth"… this from ExoterX:

Mind the Gap: Meditations on Magical Realism | EsoterX: So, I put the question to him. Do tarot cards work? After all, he had dabbled in the occult, explored the world of sympathetic magic, altered his own consciousness in myriad ways, and most importantly to the question at hand, given tarot card readings professionally. After I endured a brief diatribe largely summed up by “Who cares?”, and surrounding the poverty of my genetic inheritance and the abysmal greyness of my grey matter, he became more thoughtful, and gave an answer that has long stuck with me as a remarkably sane and fruitful perspective on all things anomalous or esoteric. He said, “Tarot, or frankly any kind of oracle, doesn’t tell you anything you don’t already know”. Then he took a smoke break. (Esoterx blog)

The Ghetto Tarot | Indiegogo

New tarot deck: The Ghetto Tarot. Photographs of Haitians, in poses representing each card based on the Coleman Rider deck. You can fund this project at Indiegogo:

The Ghetto Tarot | Indiegogo: Why call it Ghetto Tarot?

According to the common definition, the ghetto is a part of a city in which members of a minority group live, especially because of social, legal, or economic pressure. The term was originally used in Venice to describe the part of the city to which Jews were restricted and segregated.

Today, a commonly used definition of a ghetto (especially in the United States) is communities distinguished by a homogeneous race or ethnicity. Additionally, a key feature that continues to symbolize the demographics of American ghettos is the prevalence of poverty. Poverty constitutes the separation of ghettos from other, suburbanized or private neighborhoods. The Haitian people have long ago adopted the word Ghetto into their own language Creole and use it to name the poorest neighborhoods of their cities.

A Haiku, and a Tarot Dream

Funny dream last night, as well as one that came true, in a sense…

Dreamt I came into possession of a new tarot deck. A slight lucid dream moment; in the dream the deck was the Robin Hood deck, not the Robin Wood deck. I was aware of the funny change in both title and meaning of the decks.

 Later, I'm at work, and in a heated discussion about paganism and wicca, and found myself defending myself. Not defending myself but rather, really standing up for myself. 

Today at work, co-workers were commenting about paganism and how the meaning of pagan means not believing in god. I said "Pagans believe…" then I paused, and said "We believe…" and spoke about the different paths. "I'm a polytheistic pagan" I said, among other things. The co-workers are Christian, and they were very interested and very respectful. This was the first time I had come out as a pagan and a wiccan/witch at work. A good experience all around, but odd. I don't know what made me speak up in the first place, let alone make my practices known.

And now, for the haiku that I wrote this evening:

the tarot cards spread

summer evening and a full moon

awaiting the visitor 

Witches and Community | Mystic Cauldron Blog

My friend draiga has a new blog post at her very excellent Mystic Cauldron blog on "village witches." And in a moment of synchronicity, I have been thinking on this very perspective the past few days; of what it means to think of oneself as a "witch" and connection with others in that context.

Witches and Community | Mystic Cauldron Blog: To understand the small town witch, I can’t help but notice that the Conjure and Hoodoo community work in very similar ways to the old village witch. They too, will do “work” for members of their local community and are paid for
their services. When I was living in the South, a friend of mine came from a family of witchy practitioners. But they would never call what they did “witchcraft”. They were good Christian folk, and just did what they did. It was just a family tradition. If a neighbor needed help with certain matters, they would come to her family. And there were matters that her family didn’t handle, but another local woman did. So when her family felt hexed, for instance, they would go get Miss Amy, (as an example) because Miss Amy knew how to handle it, and get their luck back.

I like seeing that people are rediscovering their role as village witches. There will always be those who remain incognito in their general community for various reasons, but it’s nice that some are now making themselves available to the general public. When people call on a witch to help them, it is usually their last resort. They feel the only thing left is magic or a miracle, and they’re hoping the witch can make that happen for them. (draiga, at Mystic Cauldron)

From The Wild Hunt: article on coming out as pagan in the workplace

From Manny Tejeda-Moreno, at The Wild Hunt, on workplace "micro-aggressions" in the workplace towards pagan co-workers.

Column: Religious Discrimination in the Workplace | The Wild Hunt: For me, this raised questions about the experiences of Pagans in the workplace. Pagans are, essentially a rarer find in the social fabric of faith where the most common thread is Christian. In other words, when an individual says “I’m Christian” in the United States, most people think some variant of “you and 260 million other Americans.” With less common faiths, such as Judaism, individuals may be marked by stereotypes, but are also recognized as present in the mainline religious experiences. However,if someone says “I’m a witch,” most people – almost exclusively those unfamiliar with Paganism — are just left with Halloween imagery or TV episodes as a way of understanding the statement. That left me with questions about the kind of discrimination potential that could occur when someone discloses their Pagan faith. In other words, what happens when someone’s actual identity collides with the identity society expects us to have? (Manny Tejeda-Moreno, The Wild Hunt)

Micro-aggressions is a term social scientist Tejeda-Moreno used in the article. It's like teeny moments of passive-aggressiveness. A few years ago, at work, a co-worker "teased" me about being a "crystal cruncher." I took it with good humor and never made a thing about it, but this comment was uttered often, in front of others. (Can you imagine calling someone a "crucifix cruncher" or some such?) Those comments about my being a "crystal cruncher" were forms of micro-aggressions. Those of us open about our pagan and/or witchy ways expect such responses, I suppose, but then again, we are always faced with the issue of hiding vs. coming out. It's something each of us need to decide for ourselves. For myself, I am who I am and find myself very unhappy trying to suppress myself. That's just me however. I would never tell anyone to come out, or, not.

Fortean Card: Spring Heeled Jack; Steampunk Tarot

Unexpected birthday gift: Steampunk Tarot: Wisdom from the Gods of the Machine, designed by John and Caitlin Matthews. I haven't explored this deck yet, but this card did get my attention: Springheeled Jack. As any Fortean knows, Spring-Heeled Jack is a mysterious -- and quite steampunkian -- figure. Spring-Heeled Jack was a real person, or entity, (we don't know if he was human or not) that terrorized London in the 1800s:

In January 1838, the Lord Mayor, Sir John Cowan, drew public attention to a letter he had received from a resident of Peckham giving details of an attack by the so-called "Spring-Heeled Jack." This public acknowledgement of the rumors by the Lord Mayor immediately led to a flood of letters from individuals who had been too frightened and embarrassed to report their own encounters previously.
        On a February night of the same year, Jane Alsop, who lived with her father and two sisters, was assaulted by a devilish -- some say alien -- being who spat blue and white flames at her and scratched and tore at her with iron claws, only to leap away into the darkness when one of her sisters called for help. Less than a month later, Lucy Scales and her sister met Jack as they walked home through Green Dragon Alley in Limehouse. A tall, cloaked figure leaped from the shadows and belched blue flames into Lucy’s face, blinding her and causing her to collapse. As her sister attempted to help, the cloaked figure walked quietly away. (From Anomaly Info.com)

Sightings continued for decades afterwards. There is an interesting related phenomea that occurred in the U.S. in the 1940s: The Mad Gasser of Mattoon, Illinois:

The oft told tale of the Mad Gasser of Mattoon — also known as the “Mad Anesthetic” — began (aptly enough) in the small town of Mattoon, Illinois in 1944. Between the dates of August 31st and September 13th, a thin, black clad assailant would spread a reign of terror with a series of unprovoked and invasive “gas attacks.” Although police and FBI agents attempted to dismiss the whole thing as a classic case of mass hysteria, the evidence supports the reality that during those weeks in 1944, an unidentified person (or persons) managed to infiltrate the homes of local citizenry with an unknown gaseous substance, which rendered — through means as yet unidentified — the occupants incapacitated or violently ill. (Rob Morphy, Mysterious Universe)

The Spring -Heeled Jack card in this deck is the Major Arcana "Death" card. Not representing literal death but transformations, changes. Although at first glance this could also represent the Devil card, however, I haven't seen the Devil card in this deck yet.

As to the usefulness of this deck, to each their own. I have no opinion yet since I haven't worked with the deck. I'm engaged in a debate with my dear one concerning "being arbitrary" and "playing around with symbols." That's a whole other issue though! What do we think of creating new decks with new symbols to stand in for more traditional ones, new contexts and designs, etc? More on this in a future post.

Feathers; Crow and Raven

This image popped up on my Facebook page:

I was reminded of a dream I had the night before last. So much going on in that dream! Including my smudging my home with sage. But part of that dream involved Crow and Raven:

I'm standing in front of our house, which is on a little hill. Lots of grass and small plants all around. The city is below us. Twinkling lights. Very peaceful, yet very energized at the same time . Looking up at the active, beautiful sky. No UFOs, but a sort of UFO vibe. The stars are alive. So energizing and beautiful!  I was telling the person I was with about the differences between crows and ravens, and how, in this area, ravens aren't usually seen. A crow appears; with a beautiful violet streak of color on some of its feathers. Now, a raven appears! The raven has the most glorious peacock kind of blue color streak on its feathers. The birds are glowing. I have the distinct impression the raven came because it knew I was talking about it. As with the crow. The two are aware of each other. Not enemies, not at all, but they keep their distance from each other. The raven seems to be telling me to delve deeper, closer. To what, I'm not sure. I awake with such an energized, positive feeling. 

Newfound 'Gospel of the Lots of Mary' discovered in ancient text | Fox News

(cross posted at my blog UFO-Mary)



Professor of religion Anne Marie Luijendijk, author of Forbidden Oracles? The Gospel of the Lots of Mary,  on the find:

Newfound 'Gospel of the Lots of Mary' discovered in ancient text | Fox News: The text would have been used for divination, Luijendijk said. A person seeking an answer to a question could have sought out the owner of this book, asked a question, and gone through a process that would randomly select one of the 37 oracles to help find a solution to the person's problem. The owner of the book could have acted as a diviner, helping to interpret the written oracles, she said.