Thursday, 7/12/18

I’m now at Starwood, after a long day of flying Tuesday. After a one-hour delay for my connecting flight from St Louis to Columbus, and a nearly 2-hour shuttle drive from the Columbus airport to Wisteria, I actually arrived on-site about 2:00 in the morning.

Yesterday I got my booth set up, and wandered around checking in with old friends. Found Kim, and spent the evening hanging out with her and Sean, making plans for my visit in Pennsylvania in Sept., with a “Meet & Greet” at her store, The Order of Avalon, on Sept. 15.

The big news flying around Starwood this year is the recent death of Lori Cabot, the famous “Official Witch of Salem, MA.” I’d known Lori since the early ‘80s, when MG’s and my travels with the Unicorns took us to Salem. With her store, Crow Haven Corner, she was an institution, as well as a figure of some controversy during the famous “Witch Wars” of the ‘70s-‘80s.

And shortly thereafter Samina texted me that another significant figure and mutual friend from the Boston area, Morwen Two Feathers, had passed. Each of these deaths of old friends makes me feel more and more like a relic from an ancient time: “and I alone survived to tell the tale.”

Monday, 7/9/18

After organizing and packing nearly everything I’ll need to take on the plane for Starwood, Texas and Guatemala, I had a lovely evening with Morganne Baum and her wife, Ivy. Ivy prepared a yummy dinner of chicken with peanut sauce, rice, and corn on the cob. Morganne used to live in Boston, and we’ve been friends for a couple of decades, from Rites of Spring and Firedance. She’s a piano virtuoso, and she played me several of her own beautiful compositions in her series of the Tarot trumps (damn, I hate to have to use that word these days!). She’s identified with Wonder Woman since childhood, and she has the most amazing collection of Wonder Woman toys, figurines, comics and other memorabilia I’ve ever seen. Wonder Woman was my lifelong favorite comic book heroine too (I love Gal Gadot in the recent movies!). Morganne is also a fabulous artist, and she gave me a copy of her Alchemical Oracle, which I look forward to working with.

This morning I went shopping with Samina. Today I’ll finish packing my jewelry, before going to tea with Abbi McBride and dinner with George and Jessica. Tomorrow I fly off to Starwood!

Sunday, 7/8/18

Yesterday was intense! My workshop on “Awakening into Quantum Conscious” ran from 4:00 to 6:30, with a half-hour break. Samina and I showed up at Haven Craft at 2:00 to do all the setup—arranging chairs for 40 people, and getting all my statues, jewelry and books set out on the merchandise table, along with munchies and drinks. Since part of my presentation included a power point slide show of Kiri’s “Song of Gaea,” getting that all hooked up was also a bit of effort, as the cables they had didn’t match any of the ports on my laptop.

My presentation went very well, and the 30 or so people who came were very enthusiastic about it. Afterwards, Melissa and Ian (owners of Haven Craft) took Samina and me out to dinner at a fancy Italian restaurant called Panevino. We had fabulous conversation; Melissa is Romany, and we learned a lot about Romany history, lore, traditions, ritual, and continuing struggles for survival. The Romany are still being persecuted throughout the world, as they have been for centuries, and being thrown out of many countries for their refusal to become citizens. Even here in the US, they have trouble getting driver’s licenses, as they often don’t have birth certificates (they mistrust and avoid hospitals, as there have been notorious cases of involuntary sterilization of thousands of Romany women who responded to offers of free medical care). I’m trying to recruit Melissa to join the faculty of the Grey School.

This morning was a Skype meeting of the Grey School Administration. But several key members were unable to attend, so we didn’t have a quorum to conduct business, and adjourned early. Today and tomorrow I’ll be organizing my stuff and repacking to fly to Starwood on Tuesday, leaving my car here with Samina. This will be the 38^th year of Starwood, and I’ve attended the last 35 of them. I have to pack everything I’ll need for the next couple of months, as after Starwood I’ll be flying to Austin, Texas to be with Belladona, and then we’ll be flying down to Guatemala for four weeks, where we’ll be staying at the LaKazonA Lodge eco-resort on Lake Atitlan. I’ll be presenting a two-day weekend workshop there, and looking forward to other adventures…

Samina has joined CAW and applied to be a Minister. I just finished preparing her certificate and Clergy ID card. This evening I’ll be having dinner with Morganne Baum, creator of the Alchemical Oracle: www.alchemicaloracle.com

Friday, 7/6/18

Last night we had a lovely fajita dinner and conversation with Marco and Heather. We discovered that we had several friends and events in common—particularly around the Oregon Country Faire, with the Flying Karamazov Bros. and other entertainers there. They’ve both led an amazing life of adventures, and travels all over the place—from Portland to Cancun to Guatemala. Marco loves Lake Atitlan, where Dona and I will be heading at the end of this month. Heather is putting together a YouTube show on health, beauty and longevity.

This morning Samina and I went over to Haven Craft to check out the space for my workshop tomorrow, and drop off the statues, books and jewelry I have with me. Today is “First Friday,” so a lot of people will be coming through the shop, and hopefully some of my stuff will sell there and I won’t have to carry it all to Starwood.

Samina threw a lovely potluck get-together tonight. About 17 people were here. So many friends, both old and new. Good food and great conversations, connections, and re-connections. I always feel so welcome in Vegas!

Thursday, 7/5/18

Last night we had a nice little barbeque—as soon as the sun lowered enough that the back yard was in shade and comfortable enough to be out in. Samina was at work, so it was just George, Jessica, Heidi and me, sitting around sharing stories over hot dogs, baked potatoes, and corn on the cob as pretty fireworks lit up the sky over the rooftops, and distant booms punctuated our conversation.

I haven’t done a 4^th of July barbeque in longer than I can remember, and it was very sweet. For many years I worked with Pyro Spectaculars, doing hand-fired fireworks shows with the crew for three nights along the Russian River. Nothing quite like the rush you feel from mortars going off right beside you! And lying on the ground looking up directly underneath the exploding aerial blossoms…

This evening Samina and I are going over to Marco & Heather’s for dinner. And tomorrow evening a bunch of our Desert Moon Circle friends will be coming over here to hang out. Saturday I’ll be presenting a 2-hour workshop on “Quantum Consciousness” at Haven Craft. Pre-registrations indicate we’ll have a full house—something I could never get in Santa Cruz.

Wednesday, 7/4/18

May the Fourth be with you!

Tuesday, 7/3/18

I’m still trying to find some value in TCIM, so I’m going through the Table of Contents and then looking up pages that might have something to offer. Chapter 15 has a subhead: “The Only Real Relationship.” Since I’m really into relationships, I checked it out:

“…let Him Whose teaching is only of God teach you the only meaning of relationships. For God created the only relationship that has meaning, and that is his relationship with you… The reality of this relationship becomes the only truth that you could ever want.” (pp. 299-301)

Nope, that doesn’t work for me. Sure, I have a relationship with The Goddess, but my relationships with women as Her avatars, and men as avatars of the God, and animals as avatars of the Totems, are all really important to me, and I would never dismiss or deny them!

How about Chapter 16, with subhead: “The Illusion and the Reality of Love:”

“The special love relationship is an attempt to limit the destructive effects of hate by finding a haven in the storm of guilt… The special love partner is acceptable only as long as he serves this purpose… It is sure that those who select certain ones as partners in any aspect of living…are trying to live with guilt rather than die of it… There are no triumphs of love. Only hate is at all concerned with the ‘triumph of love.’ The illusion of love can triumph over the illusion of hate, but always at the price of making both illusions… The special love relationship is an attempt to bring love into fear, and make it real in fear… If special relationships of any kind would hinder God’s completion, can they have any value to you? … The special love relationship is the ego’s chief weapon for keeping you from Heaven.” (pp. 314-317)

Having had a “special love relationship” with my beloved Soulmate for 40 years, and many other “special love relationships” as well, I just can’t agree with any of this. So I skipped to the end to see what the conclusion might be:

“And now we say ‘Amen.’ For Christ has come to dwell in the abode You set for Him before time was, in calm eternity. The journey closes, ending at the place where it began. No trace of it remains. Not one illusion is accorded faith, and not one spot of darkness still remains to hide the face of Christ from anyone. Thy Will is done, complete and perfectly, and all creation recognizes You, and knows You as the only Source it has. Clear in Your likeness does the Light shine forth from everything that lives and moves in You. For we have reached where all of us are one, and we are Home, where You would have us be.” (p. 622)

Hmn. Skipping past the Christ references, I can see those final three sentences as an appropriate response to “The Charge of the Star-Goddess”…which, as far as I’m concerned, could replace the entire previous 621 pages.

Monday, 7/2/18

I’ve now slogged through 240 pages of “A Course in Miracles,” and I’m afraid I just can’t take any more. The 6-page Preface was all about immanent Divinity (“Thou Art God”), the interconnectedness of everything, the underlying core essentiality of Love, and the “One Mind” of Universal Consciousness (the quantum field?). Things I’ve believed and striven to live in accordance with most of my life. So I thought, “this is cool,” and eagerly plunged on to see what other grand revelations awaited in the following 1,327 pages.

Unfortunately, I found nothing else to add to those excellent basic premises. Rather, the book went on and on making 2nd person (“you”) accusations, condemnations, and sanctimonious admonitions that I just didn’t get it; that my ego prevented me from seeing the truth; that I was too pig-headed, arrogant, egotistical and ignorant to understand, etc. And all this in the constantly reiterated context that I must accept unquestioningly the authority of the Word of God–Father, Son, and Holy Spook–as presented herein.

Despite the book having been supposedly “channeled” (by Jesus Christ, no less!) through a woman (Helen Schucman), in the first 240 pages at least, there is no hint of anything feminine. No mention of Mothers, Sisters, Lovers, Wives, Daughters–let alone Goddess. Only Father, Son, Brothers, and other masculine references. All “He” and no “She.”

And despite the frequent references to Love as the core essence of everything (which I wholeheartedly believe!), there is nothing about love of people for each other–nothing about romance, affection, sex, soulmates, courtship, marriage, children, family, community, friendship, or any other form of human love for one another. It’s all a pedantic lecture by Jesus Christ to the solitary male reader (presumably an orphan bachelor), and all the Love is just Father-to-Son-to-Man.

The Introduction says, “The underlying premise of the work is the teaching that the greatest ‘miracle’ that one may achieve in one’s life is the act of simply gaining a full ‘awareness of love’s presence’ in one’s own life.” I do agree with that. But I think we have different understandings of what that means…

Moreover (and this is inexcusable!), the book is stultifyingly boring–a real put-you-to-sleep no-page-turner. It’s redundant AND repetitive (try that!), endlessly rehashing the same tired admonitions over and over. And over. I just had to give it up, lest I throw it out the window (and it’s not my copy).

Of course, your mileage may vary. The book has been enormously popular for over 40 years, so many people must find that it works for them. But not for me.

Sunday, 7/1/18

Rabbit, rabbit, rabbit! (Google it) Today and the following three days Samina is working at the Venetian as a singing gondolier. She has muscles like an Amazon from paddling her gondola four days and evenings a week!

Last night we popped popcorn and watched a couple of movies: “The Boy,” and “Alice Through the Looking Glass.” Alice was by far the most fun! The Boy was a scary psychological thriller with some surprising twists, but not exactly a fun flick.

Friday evening Samina showed me a DVD of her legendary father’s final nightclub performance, 4 months before he died on Dec. 4, 2016. His name was Carme Daniel Pitrello, but everyone knew him as simply Carme; his obituary says: “Italian singer, comic, impressionist and a 2012 inductee into the Las Vegas Entertainers Hall of Fame… With more than 10,000 performances during his over 40 years on the Strip, Carme was gifted with an outstanding baritone voice, flawless comedic timing and a special rapport with the audience.”

Samina was born and raised in show business, often on tour, performing onstage with her father when she was growing up. She showed me her photo scrapbook, full of 8”x10” glossy b&w autographed PR pics of her with dozens of famous performers. She’s a stage magician, singer, dancer, burlesque queen, showgirl, and all-around class act. She performed as “Jessica Rabbit” after the “Roger Rabbit” movie came out, and she really looked the part!

Samina turned me on to the thick “Course in Miracles” book (1,333 pages!), which I’m reading while she’s off at work. It claims to be channeled from Jesus, and as a Pagan I have to struggle a bit to translate from the Christian metaphors and the lack of any feminine/Goddess/Mother perspective. But there’s a lot I can relate to regarding “Thou art God,” interconnectedness, and Love…

The Introduction says, “The underlying premise of the work is the teaching that the greatest ‘miracle’ that one may achieve in one’s life is the act of simply gaining a full ‘awareness of love’s presence’ in one’s own life.”

According to Wikipedia, the book states that “everything involving time, space, and perception is illusory. It presents a nondualism which states that God is the only truth and reality: perfect, unchanging, unchangeable, extending only love, though not in time and space, which cannot really be comprehended from a dualistic perspective. The theory further states that all life as we perceive it is actually one life, dreaming of separation and fragmentation.” Ehh…could be.

Friday, 6/29/18

The last two days have been adventuresome. Yesterday we went shopping at a whole foods store called “Sprouts” for groceries for the week, and picked up a bouquet of sunflowers to offer when we visited Samina’s friends Heather and Marco. Their beloved 19-year-old kitty, Sunflower, was on her last legs, and for her final day on Earth she was holding court regally over a moving and tearful celebration of her life, as friends gathered to honor her. Deaf for the past few years, she sat enthroned on a cushion as a slide show behind her projected images from her long life. To our dogs and cats, we are the immortals, living for generations of their kind.

Marco had read about me in “Drawing Down the Moon,” and had to explain to folks who I was, and my role in founding and fostering the Pagan movement. Samina mentioned that I was on Walkabout, and planning on spending a month in Guatemala, at the LaKazonA Lodge eco-resort on Lake Atitlan. Marco had grown up in Cancun and Tulum, where Dona and I were in January. But he was very familiar with Guatemala and Lake Atitlan, and recommended them highly. He and Heather want to have me over for dinner next week, so we can talk about life, the universe, and everything.

After our visit with Sunflower, Marco and Heather, Samina took me to the Venetian, where she works four days a week as a singing gondolier. We went to the new “Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire” in the Void which was an amazing hyper-reality experience. We put on equipment similar to that for laser tag, but with a virtual reality helmet that took us into an awesome walk-through video game adventure as rebel infiltrators disguised as stormtroopers on the lava world of Mustafar…sometime between movie Episodes 3 and 4.

We explored a few of the many art galleries in the Grand Canal Shoppes, and talked with the artists of some truly fabulous works. One guy created ingenious steam-punk kinetic sculptures we could animate with cranks. Others had fantastic paintings and sculptures far beyond anything I’ve seen in museums. So inspiring! They asked me if I was an artist too, and I felt almost embarrassed to say I was, as my work isn’t anywhere in the same league as theirs.

This morning we drove up north into Mount Charleston and went hiking for a few hours at Cathedral Rock with Samina’s giant 9-month-old puppy, Jester (American bulldog and bull mastiff), followed by outdoor lunch at the Lodge. Three different people (including a Park Ranger) called me “Santa Claus,” and one guy had to take a photo of Jester.

This afternoon we went to the comfy-chair Galaxy Theater to see the new Jurassic World movie, “Fallen Kingdom.” It was quite entertaining, except that the volume was turned up so loud we had to stuff tissue in our ears.

Tonight Samina is making seared tuna salad for dinner. She’s a pescatarian, and I love seafood.