05 Feb 2012 No Comments
Hi, folks, Lorrie here (as Diana’s webmaster) with some important news: Title: The Way of the Oracle: Recovering the Practices of the Past to Find Answers for Today Author: Diana L. Paxson Publisher: Red Wheel/Weiser ISBN: 9781578634835. Come the first of March, you’ll be able to buy it directly from the publisher, and of course [more...]
23 Sep 2011 6 Comments
This past month, one of the runes we’ve been studying in the Rune Class is Wunjo–Joy. In one sense, it’s pretty simple. In another it’s an abstraction that’s almost impossible to define. The best image I could come up with to represent it on the altar was Snoopy doing the happy dance. In the class [more...]
22 Sep 2011 9 Comments
The equinox is past, the fog has come back in, it must really be fall, and time to make plans. Like where I’m going to stay for World Fantasy Con in San Diego. I just recently decided that I really need to be there this year and check out the latest info on what people [more...]
28 Mar 2011 2 Comments
So on a rare evening last week when I didn’t have a meeting, I was sitting at the computer trying to get some work done when my grandson Michael asked if I wanted to participate in a one-hour lights out event. He’s in an environmental emphasis program at Berkeley High, and apparently this had something [more...]
12 Feb 2011 No Comments
Just wanted to let any of my LJ friends who are in my area that we’re starting another round of the Rune Class this Wednesday at Greyhaven at 7:30 p.m. I’m also doing the introductory class as a presentation at PantheaCon at 9 a.m. on Monday. We’ll continue on the 3rd Wednesday of each month. [more...]
23 Jan 2011 3 Comments
Finally got to see /Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows I/ last Friday. I’ve read the book, and I was interested to see that the more relaxed pacing resulting from splitting the novel allowed more time for the actors to show their response to events. But I noticed something else as well. This is the [more...]
27 Dec 2010 1 Comment
…does not actually mean the day on which we box up all the Christmas left-overs and try to put them away, or spend the day lying about recovering from the excesses of the Jul feast.. Nor is it a day for the sport of boxing, although in some places boxing matches, among other competitions, are [more...]
26 Dec 2010 1 Comment
“The Boar’s Head in hand bear I—“ No longer is the Yuletide boar paraded through the feasting hall so that men can lay a hand on his back and swear their oaths for the new year, but the Christmas ham still is the center of the feast, basted with brown sugar, or studded with pineapple [more...]
25 Dec 2010 2 Comments
Tomte, tomte, household wight Ward us well throughout the night. Porridge hot we offer you, And milk that’s laced with tasty brew. As by the holy hearth you dwell, In peace and safety keep us well. Yuletide blessings grant to all Both clan and kin within this hall. Tweet
23 Dec 2010 2 Comments
12/23/10 Hail Thor, Midgard’s Defender, Son of Jordh and Odin the old. You are the strength of the oak, linking earth and heaven, Strong oak, Law oak, Mightiest of trees, Limbs thrashing in the wind, roots gripping fast. You hold out one hand to your people and one to the gods. Sheltering, protecting, Your deep [more...]
23 Dec 2010 2 Comments
12/22/10 In Northern lore, Yuletide is not a holiday, but a season. In northern Europe, it begins with the feast of the dead at Winterfinding or Samhain, and the ancestors remain a part of the process, remembered as we repeat traditions from our childhood or open up the family collection of ornaments for the tree. [more...]
23 Dec 2010 No Comments
12/21/10 Light… and darkness. Dark and Light. From space, a blaze of lights, extending in networks of sparkling lights, like spiderwebs jeweled with dewdrops caught by the rising sun. Networks of light, brighter still at this season when every house is lit. Lights everywhere, a festival of lights, defying the cold and the darkness. In [more...]
12 Oct 2010 1 Comment
lwood and I will be at Edge of the Circle Books in Seattle THIS SATURDAY, October 16th, from 4-6 PM for a book signing. Whoever’s with us at the end of the affair will help us decide where we’re going for dinner–even if you don’t necessarily have anything to sign, it’s always nice to see [more...]
19 Feb 2010 2 Comments
Hope everyone has recovered from PantheaCon. I had a good time, hope you all did too! Last summer I did an interview about Trance-Portation with an online station called “Planetary Spirit.” It will be broadcast this coming Monday evening on www.cyberstationusa.com from 9-10 PM ESTZ. The following week, if you go to the website and [more...]
28 Jan 2010 11 Comments
My father had a PhD in Math from CalTech. He must have been confused when I grew up unable to deal with numbers. He had to tutor me through High School Algebra, which I barely passed. In my twenties, I decided it was unbefitting an educated person to go glassy-eyed whenever I saw an equation [more...]
02 Jan 2010 7 Comments
1/1/10 Focus…relax…listen to the silence of the house, the party done, the guests all gone, only the family, and the rhythms of the house sighing and beginning to ease. It is the 12th day of Yule, time to bring the celebrations to an end, and I seek the world within for the last time this [more...]
01 Jan 2010 4 Comments
12/31/09 Downstairs, the house is full of people, talking, eating, drinking, dancing, small children scurrying with apparently endless energy. Soon it will be midnight and no longer 2009. I’ve made a brief escape to see what’s going on in Asgard (and to be truthful, to sit down for awhile). Breathe in… and out… in…and out [more...]
31 Dec 2009 1 Comment
Too busy cleaning for New Year’s to post until now. 12/30/09 A blue moon, veiled by thin cloud and haloed in rainbows, an evening with only the least of breezes, calm and and still. Moonlight shines in the world within as well. No need for a lantern tonight. I take my dwarven compass from beneath [more...]
30 Dec 2009 1 Comment
12/29/09 Outside, irregular spatters of rain and the sound of wind chimes as the breeze shifts. Inside, the hum of the computer. It’s chilly in my room-—maybe that will help me stay awake. I breathe slowly and deeply, counting, and feel my focus shift. On my mountain it’s cold and wet too. I hurry down [more...]
29 Dec 2009 1 Comment
12/28/09 Breathe in and out… the pattern is established. Let the memories of the day emerge and fade away. I see in memory the pale orange of the sunset between the dark silhouette of the mountain and the bar of grey cloud. Then that fades, darkness falls, and I am on the mountain once more. [more...]
28 Dec 2009 2 Comments
12/27/09 Stop, settle, breathe. Finally, silence, save for the purring of the cat, and the hum of the computer. The pattern takes me, awareness fades, I see the mountain side beneath a half moon, quiet in the darkness. I take the path that leads down the hill into the deep woods, and come out onto [more...]
27 Dec 2009 3 Comments
From now on I will try to post each journey the next day. Except for fixing typos (which are many when you are typing with eyes closed), they are not revised. 12/26/09 Outside, rain and damp, windy darkness…a boom of thunder, a flash of light… no weather to go abroad, but I can go within, [more...]
26 Dec 2009 4 Comments
12/25/09 Breathe in… and out… etc. Down the path to the Tree, call Raven. She settles to my shoulder, a smooth, warm weight, and gives a little raven kiss to my ear. We make our way to the Bridge. The plain is dark, but the colors of the Bridge glow. We make our way upward. [more...]
26 Dec 2009 1 Comment
(After the usual day of furious last minute preparations) 12/24/09 Breathe in and out… try to relax, to let tired muscles ease. I let the chair support me, listen to the silence. I take the path to my place on the mountain side. On the slopes behind, lights twinkle, but here it is all dark [more...]
26 Dec 2009 No Comments
12/23/09 – report on journey led as a pathworking for the trance class I settled myself and began to beat the drum. It was hard to focus with the group around me and noises from the other parts of the house, but soon the trees of my own mountainside were before me. I led the [more...]
26 Dec 2009 1 Comment
12/22/09 The day has been windy, a breeze that is chill, though not yet bitter, not here. The treetops move in the darkness. Inside we have heat and light, but it is chilly even so. I put on a sweater and enjoy the feel of the wool, close my eyes and breathe in… and out… [more...]
26 Dec 2009 3 Comments
Several years ago, I tried doing a trance journey to Asgard each night of the 12 days of Yule, starting with the solstice. It was fascinating, but I didn’t write the results down. This year, I’m trying to do the same thing with automatic writing. I’ll post each night separately up to the present, and [more...]
19 Oct 2009 15 Comments
Greetings from Elaya, where lwood and I have spent the past weekend running a workshop on oracular skills for a very talented group of Los Angeles pagans. We had 24 talented people attending, about half of them heathen and most of the others Celtic Reconstructionists and/or ADF. They were also made of sturdy stuff: the [more...]
13 Oct 2009 1 Comment
Lorrie already posted most of this information on her blog, so if you’ve seen this, apologies, but the two populations don’t entirely overlap, so here’s my schedule in L.A. for any of you who might be able to drop in on an event and say hello, or have friends who might be interested. Thursday 15 [more...]
12 Oct 2009 No Comments
As in ancient ancestress, not evening. Last night I happened upon the BBC Discovery Channel special on Ardipithecus, the earliest hominid for which a fossilized skeleton has been found– a young female nicknamed “Ardi”, unearthed in the Middle Awash valley in Ethiopia. They were expecting the missing link between humans and chimpanzees (our closest primate [more...]
01 Oct 2009 5 Comments
September was Odin’s month this year (with a few exceptions, but that’s another blog). Of course 3 is one of his numbers, but with all those 9 days and nights stories in his history, 9 has become even more significant. On 9-9-09 Hrafnar celebrated with games featuring the number nine and a blot to Himself. [more...]
28 Aug 2009 9 Comments
In 1909, a Colonel of Marines stationed on Treasure Island built a house for his family on the then almost empty swatch of El Camino Real in the Elmwood area of Berkeley. In 1971, our family moved in, at that point consisting of me, Don, Ian (age 3), Paul and Tracy, Fiona (age 2), Mom, [more...]
27 Aug 2009 7 Comments
I really don’t like summers when every week or so I hear that someone else is sick. In addition to Teddy Kennedy, this week, two of the people I have been praying for passed on. The first was the youngest daughter of one of my cousins, Jessica Lliteras, age 30, who had been battling cancer [more...]
08 Aug 2009 4 Comments
Hooray for Inda! Sherwood Smith’s Inda, that is, the hero of a meaty four part series whose concluding book, TREASON’S SHORE, just appeared. I picked up the first volume, INDA, at a MythCon a couple of years ago, but didn’t get around to reading it until last year. I was immediately hooked, and rushed out [more...]
02 Jun 2009 5 Comments
If you know anyone in the South San Francisco Bay area who is interested in trance work– On Thursday evening, June 4th, from 7:30-9:30 p.m., I will be presenting a workshop on trance at the East West Bookstore in Mountain View. This will be a live introduction to the skills covered in Trance-Portation. For anyone [more...]
18 May 2009 No Comments
Time flies when you’re having fun, I guess. This spring has certainly whizzed away. First I was busting my buns to finish Sword of Avalon, and then Turquoise Scepter started eating my brain, not to mention the manual for the Troth Clergy Program. And there was Pantheacon, and recovering from Pantheacon, and a trip to [more...]
10 Nov 2008 8 Comments
We have answers…. If I am going to put this in my blog, I guess I need to provide some explanation for the many who will have no idea what I’m talking about. Way back in 1990, I started working with the survivors of the first rune class to recover the oracular practice of the [more...]
09 Nov 2008 18 Comments
A number of years ago I was at a SFWA (Science Fiction Writers of America) cocktail party at some convention—one of those affairs where we all stand about with drinks in our hands either complaining about our publishers or trying to sound more successful than we are. I fell into conversation with a (male) science [more...]
30 Oct 2008 4 Comments
My, what an exciting week. Samhain and Elections – as Swedish musician Erik Ask-Upmark observed at the Draam concert last night, it’s hard to say which is the most scary. There is, however, a way to combine them– As you call on the ancestors this Samhain, pay some extra attention to our American heroes and [more...]
10 Oct 2008 10 Comments
It’s a song and a sigh of the weary. Hard times, hard times, come again no more. Many days you have lingered around my cabin door. Hard times, come again no more. Stephen Foster It’s been awhile since I’ve posted– I apologize. I meant to continue with reports on the Greek trip, and I do [more...]
04 Aug 2008 12 Comments
(with apologies to Shirley Maclain, who wrote a book with that title, in which it referred to her trip to Peru in search of enlightenment) The thing that nobody tells you about Greece is that it is vertical. Culturally, the country may be ancient, but geologically it is very young. Most of the coastline rises [more...]
27 Jul 2008 8 Comments
(It has been brought to my attention that some of you may not be familiar with the film Never on Sunday starring Melina Mercouri. In that case, do go out and rent it. It will be a good introduction to the Greek spirit as well as explaining the title of this post.) So, as those [more...]
28 May 2008 5 Comments
So, we’re all back from Baycon at the new site in Santa Clara. It was a pretty good Con– interesting panels, amusing GoHs, good Art Show, and an astonishing array of booze at some of the parties. Although in most ways the hotel was quite good– especially the free and abundant parking and the restaurant, [more...]
05 May 2008 1 Comment
For the past month I’ve been doing my best to immerse myself in the Bronze Age, but lferion came to town for CostumeCon, and since she is one of the most enduring and dedicated of Westria fans, talk naturally turned in that direction. In fact she came up with a character who will undoubtedly appear [more...]
25 Apr 2008 No Comments
As many of you already know, Steve Abell got the ball rolling to go down to the old Fernwood campground for an impromptu minimoot on Earth Day weekend. The grandkids really missed those campouts, so we loaded everybody up and trundled down. To our relief, the improvements, far from destroying the site, have actually improved [more...]
21 Apr 2008 9 Comments
Those of you who know my husband, jon_decles — will probably at some time have heard the saga of the once and future teahouse that he has been building at his place on Cobb Mountain in Lake County. Jon has been studying tea at the Urasenke School off and on for about forty years. Along [more...]
05 Apr 2008 5 Comments
Today the twins (my grandchildren Michael and Arael) turn twelve. Their brother Evan is thirteen and a half. How did this happen? Seems like yesterday they were in a playpen, following the action around them with an alert stare that always reminded me of the velociraptors in Jurassic Park. Not evil, just very, very intent. [more...]
06 Feb 2008 17 Comments
So, someone left a big fat calendar book here at Greyhaven that gives you all the historic events, birthdays, etc. that have occurred on each day of the year. The natural response is to look up one’s own birthday and then the day on which one is reading the book. Which is how I discovered [more...]
04 Feb 2008 9 Comments
Tomorrow is “Super Tuesday”. I’ve been waffling about who to vote for. A black man or a woman – both smart, liberal and politically correct. How do I choose? Do I go for the candidate who is the most likely to inspire the nation with new ideas, or the one who knows how to work [more...]
15 Jan 2008 11 Comments
At Greyhaven we’ve managed a number of environmentally friendly changes this year. 1. Got the house re-piped so we don’t have to run the upstairs water for a half hour to get it warm. 2. Got the south side of the house reshingled and repaired, so less cold air gets into the basement. 3. Did [more...]
