StregaNola - Stregheria - Nature Speaks

But our race is of the stars

2012-02-07T00:00:00.000-06:00

Neil DeGrasse Tyson

The molecules in mybody are traceable to phenomena in the cosmos

The iron from the meteorite and the iron from you blood

has common origin in the core of a star...

It is quite literally true that we are stardust;

in the highest exalted way one can use that phrase.

A Christian gets it and calls it her own

2012-02-05T10:00:00.000-06:00

An article by Sallie McFague... shows that it is possible for Christians to understand what we pagans have always known in our bones, or perhaps never forgotton. We are all connected.
"... the ecological model claims that housemates must abide by three main rules: take only your share, clean up after yourselves, and keep the house in good repair for future occupants. We don’t own this house; we don’t even rent it. It is loaned to us "free" for our lifetime with the proviso that we obey the above rules so that it can continue to feed, shelter, nurture, and delight others. These rules are not laws that we can circumvent or disobey; they are the conditions of our existence and they are intrinsic to our happiness. If we were to follow these rules we would be living within a different vision of the good life, the abundant life, than is current in our consumer culture and that is destroying the planet."

"... take only your share, clean up after yourselves, and keep the house in good repair for future occupants."

Ah.... yep.... dare I say "Duh?"

She claims there are:
"two worldviews—the neo-classical economic one and the ecological economic view"
Ok... a classic "us" and "them" but Ok.

and that:
"The second model" (ecological) "sees the planet more like an organism or a community, that survives and prospers through the interdependence of all its parts, human and non-human."

and while the description of the ecological/pagan model is correct....

this is not:
"The second model rests on assumptions from postmodern science in its view of human beings as the conscious and radically-dependent part of the planet, and of the world as a community or organism, internally related in all its parts."

The "second" ecological model is NOT postmodern It is shamanistic, pagan, primal, as old as dirt. Only from a Judeo-Christian Genesis "have dominion over" viewpoint is it postmodern.

But if other Christians take what she has written and begin to *act* on it, perhaps there is hope.

We are all connected

2012-02-04T00:00:00.000-06:00

Symphony of Science: We are all connected

[deGrasse Tyson]
We are all connected;
To each other, biologically
To the earth, chemically
To the rest of the universe atomically

[Feynman]
I think nature's imagination
Is so much greater than man's
She's never going to let us relax

[Sagan]
We live in an in-between universe
Where things change all right
But according to patterns, rules,
Or as we call them, laws of nature

[Nye]
I'm this guy standing on a planet
Really I'm just a speck
Compared with a star, the planet is just another speck
To think about all of this
To think about the vast emptiness of space
There's billions and billions of stars
Billions and billions of specks

[Sagan]
The beauty of a living thing is not the atoms that go into it
But the way those atoms are put together
The cosmos is also within us
We're made of star stuff
We are a way for the cosmos to know itself

Across the sea of space
The stars are other suns
We have traveled this way before
And there is much to be learned

I find it elevating and exhilarating
To discover that we live in a universe
Which permits the evolution of molecular machines
As intricate and subtle as we

[deGrasse Tyson]
I know that the molecules in my body are traceable
To phenomena in the cosmos
That makes me want to grab people in the street
And say, have you heard this??

(Richard Feynman on hand drums and chanting)

[Feynman]
There's this tremendous mess
Of waves all over in space
Which is the light bouncing around the room
And going from one thing to the other

And it's all really there
But you gotta stop and think about it
About the complexity to really get the pleasure
And it's all really there
The inconceivable nature of nature

Gods Behaving Badly

2012-02-02T06:00:00.000-06:00

Above is the cover of the book and the original statute

Publishing notes from on Amazon say:
"Being a Greek god is not all it once was. Yes, the twelve gods of Olympus are alive and well in the twenty-first century, but they are crammed together in a London townhouse-and none too happy about it. And they've had to get day jobs: Artemis as a dog-walker, Apollo as a TV psychic, Aphrodite as a phone sex operator, Dionysus as a DJ.

Even more disturbingly, their powers are waning, and even turning mortals into trees-a favorite pastime of Apollo's-is sapping their vital reserves of strength.

Soon, what begins as a minor squabble between Aphrodite and Apollo escalates into an epic battle of wills. Two perplexed humans, Alice and Neil, who are caught in the crossfire, must fear not only for their own lives, but for the survival of humankind. Nothing less than a true act of heroism is needed-but can these two decidedly ordinary people replicate the feats of the mythical heroes and save the world?"

It's Neil Gaiman's American Gods with wry British humor. It explores the concept of egregore
and the thought that our attention and worship feed the gods with the energy they need to exist.
The book is a fun way to look at the base "personality traits" of the gods and how hard it is to weave our modern life into "ancient ways". Keep a look out for the movie. IMDB says it's in "post production".

Take the time to Howl a little this Lupercus and shed, for just a little, while the cares of the modern world. Take a look at this statue, a copy at the Louvre, which shows the "wolf cloak".

USDA Zone Maps..... duh!

2012-01-27T00:31:00.003-06:00

The USDA has decided that it is OK to officially tell us what we already knew; that our environment is changing and that this affects what will grow where and when. Anyone who operates under the tenent that Nature is the Great Teacher.... or who gardens.... has know what the USDA told us this week for at least a decade.

Read the article for yourself. I get our local newspaper and the article below was published in our Times Picayune. But when I "googled" to find the article on the web I found scores of other articles with the same basic Associated Press lead but with local details on local impacts added for scores of locations.

The article below tells us: "Spring is arriving earlier in the year." Again, Duh!
Take a look at this NASA model and tell me you didn't feel this in your pagan bones.

New USDA Plant Zone map reflects warmer temperatures in south Louisiana and nationwide.
Times Picayune January 25, 2010 - nola.com & January 26, 2012 - hard copy
Associated Press Seth Borenstein

WASHINGTON -- Global warming is hitting not just home, but in the garden. The government's colorful map of planting zones, most often seen on the back of seed packets, is changing, illustrating a hotter 21st century.

An update of the official guide for 80 million gardeners reflects a new reality: The coldest day of the year isn't as cold as it used to be. So some plants and trees that once seemed too vulnerable to cold can now survive farther north.

It's the first time since 1990 that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has updated the map and much has changed. Nearly entire states, such as Ohio, Nebraska and Texas, are in warmer zones.
South Louisiana, which had been in Zone 8, is now placed in Zone 9. Times-Picayune garden writer Dan Gill, an LSU AgCenter horticulturist, has long advised south shore gardeners to "firmly place themselves in Zone 9."

New Orleans and adjoining parts of Jefferson and St. Bernard parishes are now officially in Zone 9b, which has an average annual extreme minimum temperature of 25 to 30 degrees Farenheit; the surrounding areas are in Zone 9a, with lows of 20 to 25.

The new guide, unveiled Wednesday at the National Arboretum, also uses better weather data and offers more interactive technology. For the first time it takes into factors such as how cities are hotter than suburbs and rural areas, nearby large bodies of water, prevailing winds, and the slope of land.
"It truly does reflect state of the art," said USDA chief scientist Catherine Woteki.

The new map can be found online at www.planthardiness.ars.usda.gov. Gardeners can register their zip code into the online map and their zone will pop up. It shows the exact average coldest temperature for each zip code. The 26 zones, however, are based on 5-degree increments.

USDA

It's the first time since 1990 that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has updated the map and much has changed.

For example, Des Moines, Iowa, used to be in zone 5a, meaning the lowest temperature on average was between minus 15 and minus 20 degrees Fahrenheit. Now it's 5b, which has a coldest temperature of 10 to 15 degrees below zero.

"People who grow plants are well aware of the fact that temperatures have gotten more mild throughout the year, particularly in the winter time," said Boston University biology professor Richard Primack. "There's a lot of things you can grow now that you couldn't grow before."
He uses the giant fig tree in his suburban Boston yard as an example.

"People don't think of figs as a crop you can grow in the Boston area. You can do it now," he said.
In the old 1990 map, the USDA mentions 34 different U.S. cities on its key. Eighteen of those, including Honolulu, St. Louis, Des Moines, St. Paul and even Fairbanks, are in newer warmer zones. Agriculture officials said they didn't examine the map to see how much of the map has changed for the hotter. But Mark Kaplan, the New York meteorologist who co-created the 1990 map and a 2003 update that the USDA didn't use, said the latest version clearly shows warmer zones migrating north. Other experts agreed.

The 1990 map was based on temperatures from 1974 to 1986; the new map from 1976 to 2005. The nation's average temperature from 1976 to 2005 was two-thirds of a degree warmer than for the old time period, according to statistics at the National Climatic Data Center.
USDA spokeswoman Kim Kaplan, who was part of the map team, repeatedly tried to distance the new zones in the map from global warming issues. She said even though much of the country is in warmer zones, the map "is simply not a good instrument" to demonstrate climate change because it is based on just the coldest days of the year.

David W. Wolfe, professor of plant and soil ecology in Cornell University's Department of Horticulture said the USDA is being too cautious and disagrees with Kaplan about whether this reflects warming.
"At a time when the 'normal' climate has become a moving target, this revision of the hardiness zone map gives us a clear picture of the 'new normal,' and will be an essential tool for gardeners, farmers, and natural resource managers as they begin to cope with rapid climate change," Wolfe said in an email.

Another and even more dramatic sign of global warming in the plant world is that spring is arriving earlier in the year, Wolfe said.

The new map is based on temperature records.

An earlier effort to update the planting map caused a bit of an uproar when the USDA in 2003 decided not to use an updated map that reflected warmer weather. Kaplan said the 2003 map wasn't interactive enough.

The Arbor Day Foundation later issued its own hardiness guide that had the toastier climate zones. The new federal map is very similar to the one the private plant group adopted six years ago, said Arbor Day Foundation Vice President Woodrow Nelson.
"We got a lot of comments that the 1990 map wasn't accurate anymore," Nelson said. "I look forward to (the new map). It's been a long time coming."
Nelson, who lives in Lincoln, Neb., where the zone warmed to a 5b. Nelson said he used to "a solid 4" but now he's got Japanese maples and fraser firs in his yard -- trees that shouldn't survive in a zone 4.

In Des Moines, Jerry Holub, a manager for the Earl May Nursery chain, doesn't think the warmer zone will have much of an impact on gardeners. But he said this may mean residents can even try passion flowers.
"Now you can put them in safely, when you couldn't before," he said.
Vaughn Speer, an 87-year-old master gardener in Ames, Iowa, doubts the change in zones will mean much to him, but he said he has seen redbud trees, one of the earliest blooming trees, a little further north in recent years.
"They always said redbuds don't go beyond U.S. Highway 30, but I'm seeing them near Roland," he said, referring to a small Iowa town about 10 miles north of the highway that spans central Iowa.

The Times-Picayune staff contributed to this report.

Obama's Gemini Moon

2012-01-22T12:31:00.001-06:00

http://billmoyers.com/content/reviewing-obamas-first-year/

In this election year there are many who are trying to figure out who to vote for and many who are trying to figure out why the person who is president is so different from what they expected.

I think that a hint on why Pres. Obama does what Pres Obama does is......
His Gemini moon.

He *likes* to look at all parts of the issue. So he does. Sometimes for what seems too long. Sometimes to the detriment of what he wants to accomplish. All the more reason for Pres Obama to be surrounded by really good thinkers.

Using data from the birth certificate provided in this article, and Astrolabe's free chart
you can take a look yourself and see what Astrology says about our current President.

President Obama *reads* like the Aquarian change many hoped for BUT his Gemini Moon does not allow him to directly the Leonine energy as well as he could. Knowledge is power Barack

Name: Obama
August 4 1961
7:24 PM Time Zone is AHST
Honolulu, HI

Rising Sign is in 18 Degrees Aquarius
You like new ideas and concepts, but you prefer to discover them by yourself -- it is not easy for others to convert you to anything. You form your own opinions, but once you do form them, you then want to convince everyone else that they are correct. Try to be more tolerant of the opinions of others. You have a deep and abiding interest in science, mathematics, and the great social problems of the day. Very sympathetic toward the downtrodden, equality is your battle cry! You demand that those in authority be fair to all. You are an intellectual -- emotions and emotional people are difficult for you to understand. You are known for being calm, cool, detached and objective.

Sun is in 12 Degrees Leo.
More than a bit of a showoff, you love to be the center of attention! But others do not usually mind because they tend to enjoy your genuine warmth and affection. Very spirited and willful, proud and self-important at times, you demand your own way. You are quite honest, however, and the respect of others is very important to you. You never compromise yourself and you pursue your goals with persistence and dedication. Your regal presence and demeanor draws you to positions of leadership and authority. But beware of being overly hardheaded, domineering, ostentatious or patronizing or you will lose the goodwill and admiration that you enjoy. Very theatrical, you live life on a grand scale wherever and whenever possible. Your strength and energy vitalizes those who come in contact with you.

Moon is in 03 Degrees Gemini.
Restless in the extreme, you are easily bored because of your short attention span. Your emotions change rapidly and you love to talk about your feelings. Generally, you have good judgment -- your intellect controls your emotions and you do not overreact emotionally to things. A good jack-of-all-trades, you have many- sided interests and enjoy reasoning things through. With your mental agility and need for physical mobility, you are attracted to traveling and learning about other peoples and cultures. You have vivid powers of emotional self-expression - - you can be a nonstop talker. You love to share your ideas with anyone who will listen.

Backyard Habitat - weaving yourself into the Web of Life

2012-01-15T06:00:00.000-06:00

I'm an urban pagan. I last year I spent 2 weeks on my teacher's homestead and loved it! But day in day out, I'm an urban pagan. So my yard and the skies above my house is where I watch and listen to Nature, the great teacher.

By some standards we have a lot of yard.\; by others not so much.

In New Orleans, specially postKatrina, yard sizes vary greatly. In some older parts of town, houses have 3 feet of alleyway down each side, are right on the street. There is 10 to maybe 15 feet behind the house. In these areas there may not even be a greenstrip in front of the house where a small tree could be planted. New Orleans also has a Garden District where the houses and the yards are larger and the houses are set back from the street in the American fashion rather than the French/Spanish fashion of placing the house fronts right on or very close to the sidewalk. And then there is the PostWar Lakefront and New Orleans East a combination of what was once swampland, farmland, PostWar development & 60s/70s sprawl. PostK in these areas there are some houses that now sit on their original lots and also have the lots or lots next door making for really large yards. In other areas there is every combination of the above. New Orleans is nothing if not diverse.

And then there is the lower 9th Ward. This area is still a shadow of its former self. Areas near the river in the Holy Cross Area are recovering and looking more like they once did. There is the area that Brad Pitt has worked to help redevelop with more solar powered, sustainable green houses popping up every day. It's impressive and a tourist attraction and rightfully so on so many levels. And then there are broad areas where there are only vacant lots. There is a push to make this area large urban gardens, which is in many ways, a return to its roots. There are other endeavors that are linking people to the wetlands in a way they were not before. It is a land of devastation and opportunity. Leftover sadness and hope. But I digress.

In our yard have a combination of both small scale intimate backyard and a large open area front yard. What we don't have is a lawn mower.

In the back of the house there is the French/Spanish private garden a bricked courtyard with plantings around the edges and a covered area which can allow us to be outside and protected from the sun and rain. This patio is overlooked by a deck that allows us to watch the sunsets and pick papayas and naval oranges without getting a ladder or a picking tool. Because we now have a mature tree at the center back of the patio this area along the back fence is more shaded and subdued than it used to be. We've started trying to grow mushrooms in the shade. And I've planted some slow growing ever sweet olive trees along this area because the now mature bradford pear won't last forever and because these trees are evergreen and will one day provide a better privacy barrier. But mostly I planted these because absolutely nothing beats the smell of sweet olive. Our Queen of the Night and butterfly ginger provide occasional competition but nothing tops sweet olive. Even with the shade along the back there is still room in the sun for a lime, a grapefruit and a few kumquats. And of course no patio is complete without a water feature, so we have a small fountain surrounded by lavender and garlic chives and oregano. And no garden is complete without roses so we have some of those as well. The patio is where we treat the birds to sunflower seeds, at least if they get to the seeds before the squirrels do.

There is also a more sun-drenched area in the front of the house that probably sightly larger than the back patio, especially if you count the strip between the sidewalk and the street. This front yard is planted with evergreens: yews, gardenias, camellias against the house, satsumas, rosemary, roses and perennials like lantana and mint around the edges. But the center of this area is where I work with more closely the seasons and broadcast seeds from American Meadows. In the late winter/early spring we have creeping daisy and baby blue eyes, baby snapdragons and poppies. I'm trying some old rue seeds to see if I can get this growing in the cool of our year. I have been successful with rue only once. I've seeded alyssum again for probably the last time because this seems to freely reseed itself and create a wonderful backdrop for just about any other flower. In the summer we'll have heat loving zinnias and cosmos and some Chinese forget me nots. Our summers are so long that just after Cornucopia I have to reseed with more zinnia's and cosmos. While all these flowers freely self seed, saving the seed or getting an occasional new batch from American Meadows makes for more robust displays. The zinnias will die off in the fall but the cosmos can make it through the bulk of the winter (providing seed for the birds). The blanket flower is coming up where it was last year and in any other place it wants. This flower also tends to bridge the seasons; leafy in winter, flowering in late spring/early summer and then self seeding away (with a little of my help to spread the wealth!).

It may sound lush but, it's still the city. Cars pass in front of my house just 3 feet on the other side of the sidewalk. There are 2 side by side paved driveways on one side of the house; one for us one for our neighbor. It's a heat sink that we can do nothing about. Our back patio abuts our backyard neighbor's driveway. The other side of the house is a yard, separated by a high fence from the front of the house, where there are air conditioning units and limited sun between the houses. It's enough space to grow some sweet potatoes, more papayas (because they are so easy to seed), some bananas (new as of last fall), a fig (which I keep trying to kill off because it is not a good producer, but the birds like it) and a grapevine and where I let the basil go wild. The ground is hard clay. The limited light makes growing tricky but nature usually fines a way for something to grow. My only job is to figure out what this is. I can get arugula, greens (mustard, spinach) to grow but other vegetables elude me.

As an urban pagan, the city and more specifically my yard is where I have had to learn to relate to Nature. The collective yard is also a Certified National Wildlife Backyard Habitat. I don't use pesticides. I let the caterpillars (except for tomato horn worms!!!!) have free reign. I have enough seeding and nectar producers to keep the birds happy. This year we had a possum in the neighborhood. Anyone can register for their yard to be a Backyard Habitat. It's not about how big your yard is; it is about how closely the yard works with nature and how much habitat it can provide for species other than homo sapiens.

It's a new year and spring is not that far away. Think about what you can do to weave where your live into the Web of Life. I think the guidelines for the National Wildlife Federation's Backyard Habitat are a good place to start.

Spirit Flame

2012-01-09T15:29:00.000-06:00

The picture of this piece of sculpture (about 3 feet high) was taken in New Orleans.
It looks like there is a copper pipe (just to the left of the highest flame point) that could be used
to actually have a flame burn. Now how cool would that be???

Working with Nature - Chocolate Toothpaste makes teeth stronger

2012-01-08T12:06:00.001-06:00

Starting in 2012 Theodent will be available at Whole Foods and online.

Nature is the Great Teacher....

Working with Nature leads to looking at cocoa extract and studying the mineralogy of your teeth. Experts from Tulane University, LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans (the plant extract guys) and the University of New Orleans (the mineral guy) resulted in an alternative to Flouride in our water and toothpaste.

Read the entire aritcle from the Times Picayune below.

New Toothpaste derived from cocoa extract heralds sweet potential for New Orleans

Chris Granger/The Times-Picayune

Is chocolate good for your teeth? Probably not but a certain extract of cocoa might be.

We decided out of principle that we would absolutely 100 percent keep the technology hereâ in Louisiana, says Theodent CEO Arman Sadeghpour, left, who works with colleague Dr. Tetsuo Nakamoto in their offices in the New Orleans BioInnovation Center on Canal Street.

A team of university researchers in Louisiana made the discovery and used their findings to develop a new toothpaste that hits retail shelves around the country this week.
The toothpaste -- called Theodent -- contains no fluoride and relies instead on a proprietary blend of cocoa extract and other minerals to strengthen and harden tooth enamel. Developers say the toothpaste offers an alternative to consumers who worry about consuming fluoride, which has been associated with a number of health conditions, including thyroid disorders and bone disease.
The toothpaste doesn't actually taste like chocolate; it is mint-flavored. But developers hope to expand the Theodent line to include dental floss, mouthwash and, yes, a chocolate-flavored, sugar-free toothpaste for children.

"When kids hear about it, the first thing they ask is, 'Does it taste like chocolate?' And they really want it to," said Arman Sadeghpour, CEO of the company making the toothpaste, Theodent LLC. "If children really want that, we're in a position to give it to them."
Theodent will officially launch its toothpaste at a news conference in New Orleans on Wednesday, and the product will be available for sale starting this week online and at Whole Foods stores around the country, including those in the New Orleans area, said Sadeghpour, who worked on the research behind the toothpaste as part of his doctoral research at Tulane University.

Theodent is housed in the 7-month-old New Orleans BioInnovation Center, a $47 million business incubator that is focused on developing a local bioscience industry centered on university research. The firm is one of the first tenants in the center to convert a scientific discovery into a commercial product.

Aaron Miscenich, president of the New Orleans BioInnovation Center, said Theodent's success in bringing a new toothpaste product onto the market will bolster efforts to develop the local bioscience industry.
"You look at some of the historical doubt about our (city's) ability to grow and attract these companies," Miscenich said. "(Theodent) has basically been able to show that we can do this here."

Rooting project in Louisiana

Theodent toothpaste will sell in 3.4-ounce tubes for $9.99. The company hopes to secure financing so it can expand its product line.

Sadeghpour acknowledges that the research team behind Theodent considered setting up the business elsewhere.
"We looked at California because California is, as usual, a very early adopter of new technology and particularly interested in health and beauty," he said.
But Sadeghpour has watched the brain drain that has occurred in Louisiana as promising university graduates and newly developed technologies migrate out of state.
Theodent, Sadeghpour and his partners decided, would be different.
"We decided out of principle that we would absolutely 100 percent keep the technology here. This needs to be retained in the state of Louisiana, and the state has done an amazing job of building a home for us, which is the BioInnovation Center. I think we made the right decision," Sadeghpour said. "I think biotechnology is going to be a burgeoning part of the economy here."
The academic research behind Theodent dates back to the 1980s, when Tetsuo Nakamoto, now a co-founder of Theodent and a professor emeritus at the LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans, began studying the effects of nutritional ingredients on pre-natal teeth. Nakamoto, with the help of University of New Orleans researchers, found that a cocoa extract was beneficial in fighting cavities.
Nakamoto said he knew he had made a significant discovery, but the find was not widely recognized until Sadeghpour took the research a step further as part of his doctoral thesis at Tulane, testing the finding on human teeth and making a head-to-head comparison between the abilities of cocoa extract and fluoride to strengthen tooth enamel.

The research confirmed Nakamoto's earlier discovery: that cocoa extract strengthens and enlarges the crystals that make up the tooth, resulting in a more robust enamel. Fluoride, on the other hand, strengthens teeth by adhering to and incorporating itself into the tooth.
The interest generated in 2007 by Sadeghpour's additional study prompted the researchers to work toward commercializing their find. Sadeghpour and Nakamoto, along with University of New Orleans professor William Simmons and Tulane School of Medicine assistant professor Joseph Fuselier, founded Theodent LLC. They developed a proprietary blend of cocoa extract and other minerals called Rennou, which is the active ingredient in the toothpaste.

Orchestrating the product
Converting years of research into a marketable product had its challenges.
Though the company operates out of the BioInnovation Center, Theodent contracted with a tube manufacturer in New Jersey, a box manufacturer in Washington state, and an FDA-inspected tube-filling facility in Idaho.
"Bringing the three of those things together was no small feat," Sadeghpour said. "The biggest pain for me has been working on the product itself and the number of iterations you go through with language and showing it to people and really refining the product to its final form."
Miscenich, of the BioInnovation Center, said management expertise -- including the oversight of production, distribution and marketing -- is often one of the more challenging aspects of converting academic research into a commercially viable product.
"We've always have this fantastic research base. And since (Hurricane) Katrina, we've had a surge in capital coming through the city," he said. "But the management expertise is one of the more difficult pieces."
Miscenich also said it's not unusual for a company like Theodent to rely on out-of-state manufacturing and testing facilities.
"We have a lot of device companies and a lot of drug companies. A lot of the time, most of that work has to be done out of state," he said. "That's too bad. That's one of the pieces that we need to start working on. We need to put that piece of infrastructure in place."
Sadeghpour agrees.
"Our ultimate goal, though, of course is to bring the manufacturing and all of that here. But to build an FDA-inspected and registered facility is very difficult, and it's not something that can happen overnight."

'A great success story'
Sadeghpour said Theodent is raising additional financing so it can expand its product line. Theodent has been approved by Louisiana Economic Development for the Angel Investor Tax Credit Program in 2012. The program, which had been dormant since 2009 but was restarted with a bill in the 2011 legislative session, grants investors in startup companies a tax break of up to 35 percent of the money they invest.
State Secretary of Economic Development Stephen Moret said the goal of the tax credit program is to increase the amount of early stage risk capital that is available in Louisiana so that companies like Theodent won't have to leave the state to obtain financing.
Retaining more of those technology startups, he said, strengthens the state's economy.
"This kind of company, not only do you get great new jobs and economic activity, but it also helps to diversify the economy into new growth areas," Moret said.
"It's just become such a great success story in New Orleans," Moret said. "To me, one of the most positive things that's happened in our state since (Hurricane) Katrina is this spark of entrepreneurship that has taken hold and is attracting capital and entrepreneurs and new business formation. It's a really exciting development and one that we want to support as much as we can at the state level."
Miscenich said that in addition to the entrepreneurial momentum, awareness is growing about the value of the research being done in south Louisiana and the importance of developing it locally.
"This is world-class research that's either been sitting there or has been licensed away," he said. The work that Theodent and other tenants in the center are doing is "meaningful to the economy and the future of the city."

Whole Foods signs on
Sadeghpour said Theodent will be marketed broadly to educated consumers.
"Trend setters, tastemakers, people who really are concerned about their health," said Sadeghpour, who has been using the toothpaste for a couple of months. "Not just people who are concerned about fluoride."
He thinks the chocolate-flavored toothpaste for children, once it rolls out, will be a hit with parents because it will help kids get excited about brushing their teeth.
In addition to stores in New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Whole Foods will sell the toothpaste in New York, New Jersey, and in a number of markets along the West Coast, he said.
"As a company, we are always excited to offer innovative body and dental care products to our guests that meet and exceed our quality standards," said Susan Oelker, who coordinates sales of body products for Whole Foods' Southwest Region. "Whole Foods Market Southwest is proud to support local Louisiana vendor Theodent in the debut of their product line."
Sadeghpour said Whole Foods has exclusive rights to sell the toothpaste for 90 days, but other retailers have also expressed interest in carrying Theodent after that period of exclusivity expires.
"I think the distribution will quickly expand," he said.

Deemed safe to ingest
Sadeghpour said the Food and Drug Administration has awarded a 'generally regarded as safe' designation to Theodent that means the product is considered safe by experts for ingestion.
He also said that this year, Theodent plans to seek the American Dental Association's Seal of Approval, a widely recognized symbol of a dental product's safety and effectiveness. Theodent has not previously sought the seal because it was unable to share information about its product while patent applications were pending. The company has been awarded two patents and has a third pending.
Theodent toothpaste will sell in 3.4-ounce tubes for $9.99.
"We are really excited," Theodent co-founder Nakamoto said. "I think we have done a great thing for the well-being of the human race."

And the launch article from the Times Picayune below.
Toothpaste based on Cocoa Extract officially launches in New Orleans.
Kimberly Quillin Wednesday January 4, 2012
A New Orleans technology firm on Wednesday officially launched a toothpaste that uses an extract of cocoa as its active ingredient. With local economic development leaders looking on, Theodent LLC unveiled at a press conference Theodent Classic, which is being sold at Whole Foods stores in the United States and Canada, and Theodent 300, an extra-strength version that is being sold on the company's web site and at dental and medical offices.

Chris Granger/The Times-PicayuneTheodent toothpaste, developed by a New Orleans firms, is being rolled out in Whole Foods stores this week.

Theodent toothpaste contains no fluoride, which has been associated with a number of health problems, and relies instead on a proprietary blend of cocoa extract and other minerals that has been found to strengthen and harden tooth enamel. Henry Gremillion, dean of Louisiana State University's School of Dentistry, on Wednesday called the toothpaste "a major step forward in oral health." Dental disease often preceeds other health issues, Gremillion said. "We are entering a new era of quality health care in which Theodent plays an important role," he added.
Tetsuo Nakamoto, Chief Scientific Officer of Theodent and a professor emeritus at the LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans, discovered the benefits of the cocoa extract years ago. He collaborated with researchers at Tulane University and the University of New Orleans to develop the find and create the toothpaste.
Kurt Weigle, president of the Downtown Development District, said the new product is the result of "collaboration among universities and among individuals to produce something that is truly world-changing."
Theodent's offices are in the New Orleans BioInnovation Center, a 7-month-old business incubator that is focused on developing a local bioscience industry centered on university research. The firm is one of the first tenants in the center to convert a scientific discovery coming out of local universities into a commercial product.
"We've done a terrific job (in New Orleans) of creating intellectual property here in the universities, but we haven't done a good job of developing companies" out of the research, said Joseph A. Fuselier, a co-founder and member of Theodent's board.
Arman Sadeghpour, who is the CEO of Theodent and was one of the researchers who developed the find, said the process of converting academic research into a commercially viable product was a challenge.
"The product launch has been a long and daunting process, but we're very excited" he said.
"Dental decay is the only disease that every human on this earth suffers from," Sadeghpour said. "(Nakamoto's) discovery is such an important one for humankind."

Kimberly Quillen can be reached at kquillen@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3416.

Epiphany - Manifestation

2012-01-06T00:00:00.000-06:00

"Today is the Feast of the Epiphany. The word "epiphany" comes from an ancient Greek word meaning "manifestation" or "striking appearance." Before Christianity, the word was used to record occasions when Greek gods and goddesses made appearances on earth."

I know that for many who follow an Italian path Befana's day is a big deal. But, gasp, it really isn't a big deal in my practice. Perhaps this is because I was not raised in an Italian family. It's not that this day hasn't always been important culturally for me. In New Orleanians we have our Epiphany celebrations. Today is the day we take our Christmas trees down and recycle them to help rebuild our wetlands. Today is the official start of our carnival season. Let the King Cakes begin! We'll end the carnival season with Mardi Gras. The carnival season is a pagan celebration bookended by 2 Christian Holidays Epiphany & Ash Wednesday. Perhaps it is this subliminal cultural awareness of how the pagan and Christian intermingle that has always made me thing of Befana's Day as culturally Italian and not necessarily part of my pagan practice.

But that is not to say that I do not think that this day has significance to those of us who follow the wheel of the year. We celebrate the Winter Solstice. This is when the day is shortest and the night longest. On Solstice we celebrate the fact that the sun will return even as it "stands still". The sun stands still until Epiphany when it again "makes its appearance here on earth" manifest.

Here is some science from USNO and the Royal Observatory science to help explain why it is logical that, even with out the Christian Epiphany, January 6th is an important day of mainfestation:

US Naval Observatory:
The 8 December crossover day is the date of earliest sunset. Why? In the weeks before solstice, the two effects act in opposite directions on the time of sunset: the declination effect pulling it earlier and the Equation of Time pushing it later. On 8 December the Equation of Time begins to dominate and sunset begins to move later. Meanwhile both effects are pushing sunrise later and later. After solstice, the situation reverses. Both effects push sunset later. But for sunrise, the declination effect now pulls it earlier while the Equation of Time effect continues to push it later. The Equation of Time prevails until 5 January, when the declination effect takes over and sunrises begin to move earlier. So 5 January is the date of latest sunrise.

Royal Observatory
The winter solstice is the time when the Sun reaches its southmost distance from the celestial equator and hence, in northern latitudes is the day when the Sun is lowest in the sky at noon. This is, naturally, the shortest day of the year in northern latitudes. To many people it seems odd, therefore, that the time of sunrise continues to get later in the day after the solstice.

The reason for this is that the Sun does not cross the meridian (when it is highest in the sky) at precisely noon each day. The difference between clock-defined noon and the time when the Sun is on the meridian is called the Equation of Time and represents the correction which must be applied to the time given by a sundial to make it agree with clock time.

There are two reasons why the Sun is not on the meridian at noon each day. The first is that the path of the Earth around the Sun is an ellipse, and not a circle. The second is that the Earth's equatorial plane and its orbital plane are inclined to one another. The two effects add together to yield the equation of time which can amount to some 16 minutes difference between solar and mean time.

The period when the equation of time is changing fastest in the whole year is very close to the winter solstice. It changes by 10 minutes from December 16 to January 5. This means that the time at which the Sun crosses the meridian changes by 10 minutes in this interval and also that the times of sunrise and sunset will change by the same amount.

Near the solstice the Sun's height in the sky changes very slowly and the length of the day also changes slowly. The rapid change due to the equation of time dominates the very slow change in day length and leads to the observed sunrise times.

It also leads to an Epiphany in the Greek sense of the word, Manifestation. The sun has truly returned and we can actually *see* the difference in the sunrise and sunset. The sun has stopped "standing still".

Aradia's Words on Worship indicate that we celebrate the Festival of Fana on December 19th. I have always wondered why have a festival at this time when the Winter Solstice celebration is so close. Perhaps it is to remind us to make this a season of change instead of single of a day of solar birth. Our Mythos indicate that Manea, the Crone, acts as midwife and assists with the birth of the Sun God at Solstice. Manea is said to rule this time of year. So it seems appropriate that a older lady bring gifts to the world. I have envisioned January 6th as the day that the Gods show the new Sun God to the people, with Manea, doing the work of bringing things to the physical world. I think that what we have Epiphany as hybridized cultural remnant of the recognition of the fact that this day is the day we can see the sun's return and Italy's unique capacity to retain aspects of feminine spirituality and the Christian Epiphany with its 3 kings bring gifts to the Christ child.

What is especially interesting to me is that on the Winter Solstice the belt of Orion (3 kings?) and Sirius point to where the sun will rise. These stars, like Befana and the 3 kings, help us mark and align with the Wheel of the Year.

Befana & Leland

2012-01-04T19:09:00.000-06:00

This is a COPY of an original Post from another blog. It is copied here because too often I link to other places on the web only to have the wonderful data disapper. My apologies to the original author because when I went to check the link before posting it, I managed to lose the link in my edits. Even the link at the bottom is now broken. BUT that does not diminish the validity of the writing below (which again is NOT mine!!!).

“When I shall have departed from this world,
Whenever ye have need of anything,
Once in the month, and when the moon is full,
Ye shall assemble in some desert place,
Or in a forest all together join
To adore the potent spirit of your queen,
My mother, great Diana. She who fain
Would learn all sorcery yet has not won
Its deepest secrets, them my mother will
Teach her, in truth all things as yet unknown.”
[The Aradia, Gospel of the Witches, C.G. Leland]

If I had to choose a “father” to the modern Witchcraft / Wicca movement, it would not be any of the names usually branded about, for me without a doubt, it would be Charles G Leland. His work has been hugely influential on the modern Witchcraft revival in the West, and in fact some of it has become quoted so often that it is familiar to most of us who have read a few books or websites on neopaganism and Wicca. In fact one of the best known pieces of prose, that of the first part of the “Charge of the Goddess” which we attribute to various priestesses who have made it famous, is in fact a nearly direct quote from the English translation of the Italian text published by Leland in 1899 (See above, and compare from “once in a month…” with the text of the Charge). Leland claimed that the material was given to him by an Italian Witch, something which has been disputed by some modern scholars, though the evidence continues to show that it is more than likely that Leland was not only telling the truth, but that the woman who provided him with the text, was indeed a practitioner of a longstanding Italian witchcraft tradition.

I have recently written an article on the connections which can be found in Italy between the Key of the Solomon (a grimoire which has been hugely influential on the practices found in Wicca, and subsequently in most modern Pagan traditions) and Witchcraft in the 1600′s. It will be published on Witchvox this week , and was actually born out of my original attempt at writing a blog on the subject - it just got longer and longer! (and could have been much longer still) [UPDATE 2011 / copy of this article can be found at http://wicca.avalonia.co.uk/?page_id=170 ]

Italy also provides us with the most likely source for the image of the Witch which is so popular today, both by fictional writers and the media – as well as those pagan witches who like to dress up and have a bit of a fun. In the image of La Befana we have an old lady, on a broomstick, complete with the correct dresscode – well known to Italian children as the bringer of gifts on the 6th of January (in the same way as Santa Claus, through the chimney and only if you had been good of course!). The difference is that La Befana is quite likely to be the folk memory of a Roman Goddess, and she is as much part of a Catholic’s household as any (if not more so!).

Children recite poems about the Befana, two in particular are often used, both expressing themes which would be very familiar to pagans today:

La Befana vien di notte
Con le scarpe tutte rotte
Col cappello alla romana
Viva, Viva La Befana!

(The Befana comes by night
With her shoes all tattered and torn
She comes dressed in the Roman way
Long life to the Befana!)

or:

Viene, viene la Befana
Vien dai monti a notte fonda
Come è stanca! la circonda
Neve e gelo e tramontana!
Viene, viene la Befana

(Here comes, here come the Befana
She comes from the mountains in the deep of the night
Snow and frost (ice) surrounds her
Snow and frost and the north wind
Here comes, here comes the Befana!)

For a copy of the article Italy, Clavicles & Witchcraft, please see http://wicca.avalonia.co.uk/?page_id=170

2012 the Year to Vote

2012-01-01T12:00:00.000-06:00

It's an election year and this is a post about starting the New Year.
But it's NOT about the presidential election.
It is about how we all vote every time we spend a dollar on any thing.

Each dollar you pump into the economy matters. It matters to you. It matters to the business who takes your dollar in exchange for goods and/or services. It matters to the local/state.federal tax base. It matters.

Do you see more organic produce when you have your grocery shopping experience? You know why? Because years ago people, thought fringe or fantic by others, started buying organic.

Do you see reusable bags for sale in stores these days? You know why? Because years ago people, thought fringe or fanatics by others, started using and buying reusable bags.

These are just 2 examples of why I think that each dollar you spend matters. Each dollar is a VOTE for how you WANT the world to work. So even if you don't vote in this year's election, take the opportunity to vote with the dollars you spend. Take just a little bit of the time you will probably spend this year worrying about your bank account or the economy or the environment and before you hand over cash or swipe that card or fill out a webform to buy something THINK about who will be getting the money you spend and whether this is how you really want to be VOTING.

We all know that when we do magic we have to put energy into the process, whether it is our own raised energy or energy that we are drawing in from other sources. You put energy into acquiring the dollars you have. For this exercise, think of the dollar as stored energy (I know that modern currency has more than a few issues). You want to take the stored energy in the dollar and distribute it magically to make changes in the world.

Magic was defined by the British occultist Aleister Crowley as "the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will". When you vote each time you use your dollars that is causing Change to occur in conformity with your Will. Raven Grimassi on page 179 of Italian Witchcraft enhances Crowley's approach.

So take your imagination, concentration and your will to visualize

and FULLY EXPECT

that each time you spread your dollars around it will make a difference in the world.

Year of the Bat

2011-12-31T00:00:00.000-06:00

I know. I know. Bats are not typical New Year topics. And to be fair the article below was published in the Chicago Tribune October 24, 2011. A much better seasonal article. But it just showed up in the New Orleans Times Picayune in December. So.... given that the United Nations has the Year of the Bat (2 years actually) campaign and given it's a new calendar year and given bats are associated with witches and so beneficial to our environment, I offer William Hageman's article below.
Do what you can for Bats in 2012. Even if it is only educating those around you.

Bats - Garden Allies
William Hageman - Chicago Tribune

Let's get the myths out of the way. Bats are not blind, rabies-infested vermin that will suck your blood and entangle themselves in your hair. What they are, obviously, is misunderstood. And, sadly, threatened.

Rob Mies got interested in bats while a student at Eastern Michigan University almost 20 years ago.
"Over the years I became fascinated with how important bats are and how much people don't know," he says. "If they learn just a little bit of information about them, people become pro-bat. Or just not hate them."

Mies educates folks as founder and director of the Organization for Bat Conservation at the Cranbrook Institute of Science in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., where he teaches the importance of bats and dispels those old wives' tales. He has also co-written two books: "Beginner's Guide To Bats" (Little, Brown and Co.) and "Understanding Bats" (Bird Watchers Digest).
"We present at schools, museums, nature centers," he says. "We're focused on educating people."
For the record, he says, bats can see, their rate of rabies is less than half a percent, there are vampire bats but they are small and nothing like you see in the movies, and bats don't dive into your hair.
Here's another fact: They're not just a bunch of pretty faces. Mies says some of the bats OBC uses in its presentations — they are older bats or ones that were injured and rescued but can't be returned to the wild — have learned to recognize certain presenters and will call out, asking to be picked up.
"They're as smart, almost, as some primates," he says. "I know them to be pretty intelligent. They have different personalities as well."
Ask Mies about bats, and he's off and running. Unfortunately, a lot of the news he has isn't good.

The big die-off
North America's bat population is being decimated by white-nose syndrome, a fungus found in 2006 in New York that seems to disrupt bats' hibernation. It has been found in 16 states and three Canadian provinces and is spreading.
"It's going to be devastating," Mies says. "It's going through Pennsylvania, Indiana. In places it has been found — Vermont, New York — we're seeing 90, 95 percent mortality. So, unfortunately, we're going to see a huge die-off."
The disease is largely in the eastern U.S. and Canada right now, but it is slowly spreading west and south. Bat Conservation International (batcon.org), an organization that sponsors research and education programs, says that the bat population across the U.S. is at risk.
"It's been projected that over the next 16 years, they'll be regionally extinct," Mies says. "There was a cave in Vermont that had 16,000 bats. Now, zero."

And what's bad for bats may be bad for people.
"With millions of bats dying — literally, millions — we don't know what the impact will be. A bat eats 2,000 to 6,000 insects a night, and some of them, certain beetles and moths, are agricultural pests."

Bat facts
There are about 40 species of bats in North America, the most common being the little brown bat. There are more than 1,100 species worldwide, according to Phil Richardson in his excellent book "Bats" (Firefly). Some bats can live 30 years or more in captivity. The biggest bat in the world is the giant flying fox, which can have a 6-foot wingspan, and the smallest is the Kitti's hog-nosed bat, about the size of a large bumblebee. Scientists earlier this year announced the discovery of a plant in the Cuban rain forest that has acoustically shaped leaves that work with a bat's sonar, drawing the bat to it and facilitating pollination.

How important are bats?
Plenty. Bats have three main benefits: insect control, pollination and the spreading of seeds.
Bats eat 50 to 100 percent of their weight in insects each night — mostly mosquitoes — and fruit bats can eat 21/2 times their weight. All that fruit includes seeds, which get scattered when the bat does his business. Even their poop, guano, is valuable as a fertilizer because of its high nitrogen content. Bats also help pollinate plants, eat moths that produce caterpillars that feast on gardens, and are part of the food chain — food for hawks, owls, eagles and snakes, while some eat rodents or scorpions.
A study published this year in Science magazine stated that insect-eating bats saved the U.S. agricultural industry at least $3 billion a year, with some estimates of more than $50 billion.

Gardeners, take note
A colony of bats will do wonders if you have an insect problem, Mies says. There are a couple of things gardeners can do to encourage bat populations.
Spray as little pesticide as possible. If you have room on your property and it's safe, leave up dead and dying trees; they're the best habitat for bats. And next season, plant night-blooming flowers, such as the evening primrose (Oenothera macrocarpa), which will attract moths and other insects for your colony's dining pleasure.

Want to be the coolest homeowner in your neighborhood? Or would you like to give your garden a boost? Set up a bat house.
A bat house can be home to a couple hundred bats, females and their offspring usually, from spring through fall. They can be set up on a pole or side of a building — trees generally aren't a good idea — 15 to 20 feet off the ground, in an open location where they get at least 6 hours of sun a day.

"Food, they'll find. But a place for them to live is the key thing," Mies says. "Unfortunately, people often chase them from their house or kill them in the barn, so they need somewhere to go."
Bat houses are readily available, but those sold at home improvement centers often don't meet bats' standards and don't attract the animals. Instead, check out the bat houses sold by the Organization for Bat Conservation, which get up to an 80 percent occupancy rate. Several sizes are available at batconservation.org ($38-$72), or you can buy plans to build your own.

Fear not
Mies says it's adults, not kids, who tend to be spooked by bats.
"There have been a lot of great books, especially children's books, to come out. One, "Stellaluna" (Harcourt Children's Books) by Jannell Cannon, tells a decent story about bats, that they're not bloodthirsty killers. Things like that have really helped kids be less fearful of bats."

bhageman@tribune.com

8 Decidedly Unromantic Facts About Mistletoe

2011-12-23T12:10:00.000-06:00

8 Decidedly Unromantic Facts About Mistletoe from Mental Floss.
The information below is not mine; it is from another blog
But as I've said before so many times I find and link to interesting data on the web only to have it disappear. At least this way it doesn't get lost. Think of it a bit like having to copy your own Book of Shadows. If the links wouldn't disappear I'd be happy to JUST link. But ... well... you know.

1. Mistletoe, not unlike some you may have smooched beneath it, is a parasite. The plant sucks water and minerals through a sinister-sounding bump called a haustorium that forms on the host tree. It might make you feel better to know that, technically, mistletoe is only partially parasitic: The plant is capable of photosynthesis, unlike true parasites that take all of their nutrients from their hosts. So while mistletoe doesn’t pay rent, it does occasionally do the laundry or whip up a nice soufflé.

2. Candle companies love to peddle holiday scents labeled “Mistletoe” –- you can even buy mistletoe-scented air fresheners for your car—but the plant, says mistletoe expert Jonathan Briggs, has no scent at all. Briggs, who hails from Gloucestershire, England, debunks all manner of mistletoe misinformation in A Little Book About Mistletoe and on his wonderful mistletoe blog.

3. Throughout the ages, mistletoe has been used to treat a battery of ailments, from leprosy, worms and labor pains to high blood pressure. In Europe, injections of mistletoe extract are often prescribed as a complementary treatment for cancer patients.

4. A time-honored southern tradition for fetching mistletoe out of a tall tree is to blast it down with a shotgun. Let’s hope no one’s kissing under it at the time.

5. In medieval times, mistletoe wasn’t just a Christmas decoration, but one perhaps better suited to Halloween: Hung over doors to homes and stables, it was thought to prevent witches and ghosts from entering.

6. According to some accounts, the name mistletoe means “dung branch,” a nod to the seeds’ ability to stick to tree branches when pooped out by birds. The viscous middle layer of the fruit is so sticky that the seeds get glued where they land post-digestion, which starts a new mistletoe plant. Mistletoe goo is so sticky that trappers used to smear it on tree branches to catch birds, which would land and then be unable to fly away.

7. The Roman historian Pliny the Elder told how druids revered mistletoe, recounting a ceremony where they gathered it with a golden sickle, then sacrificed two white bulls. The ceremony still takes place each year, minus the bull-slaying, at the Tenbury Mistletoe Festival in England.

8. In Norse mythology, mistletoe is a god-killer. Balder, the son of Odin and Frigg, was felled by an arrow made of mistletoe, the only material that could hurt him. Oddly, this may have been the origin of the kissing tradition, as some retellings say that Frigg revived Balder and was so happy, she commanded anyone who stood under the plant to kiss as a reminder of how love conquered death

Winter Soltice.... BEST MESSAGE for a new Solar Year.

2011-12-21T00:00:00.000-06:00

Tracy Chapman's Heaven's here on Earth

And again in Italian

You can look to the stars in search of the answers
Look for God and life on distant planets
Have your faith in the ever after
While each of us holds inside the map to the labyrinth
Heaven's here on earth

We are the spirit the collective conscience
We create the pain and the suffering and the beauty in this world
Heaven's here on earth
In our faith in humankind
In our respect for what is earthly
In our unfaltering belief in peace and love and understanding

I've seen and met angels wearing the disguise
Of ordinary people leading ordinary lives
Filled with love, compassion, forgiveness and sacrifice
Heaven's in our hearts
In our faith in humankind
In our respect for what is earthly
In our unfaltering belief in peace and love and understanding

Look around
Believe in what you see
The kingdom is at hand
The promised land is at your feet
We can and will become what we aspire to be
Heaven's here on earth

If we have faith in humankind
And respect for what is earthly
And an unfaltering belief that truth is divinity
Heaven's here on earth

I've seen spirits
I've met angels
Touched creations beautiful and wondrous
I've been places where I question all I think I know
But I believe, I believe, I believe this could be heaven

We are born inside the gates with the power to create life
And to take it away
The world is our temple
The world is our church
Heaven's here on earth

If we have faith in humankind
And respect for what is earthly
And an unfaltering belief
In peace and love and understanding
This could be heaven here on earth

Why Solstice Matters

2011-12-20T09:02:00.000-06:00

Worthwhile thoughts on solstice...

Give it a read.... I happen to know and trust the source for this one. The blog made it through Katrina and I am counting on it being around for quite some time.

"Anyhow, I am happy to remember and the solstice and celebrate it explicitly. It’s about as universal and natural a holiday as one could ask for. It’s available to everyone, people of every religion or no religion, everywhere on the planet."

Brains, energy, magic

2011-12-18T20:40:00.000-06:00

Listen to it all... It has amazing ramifications for how we use our brains and our energy to do magic.
See the transcript here.

Below is the video that made me look up the one above. Autotune ruins modern music but this is the most appropriate and amazing use of Autotune.

Something to think about this Holiday Season

2011-12-11T14:17:00.001-06:00

The High Price of Materialism

Now we're talking

2011-12-10T20:56:00.001-06:00

It took Katrina to get the people of the region to really stand up to the Corps of Engineers
but finally the RIGHT projects are going through.... we need more...
but at least now there is movement.

See recent article in New Orleans Times Picayune in full below

Coastal restoration projects move forward
Saturday, December 10, 2011 - Times Picayune
By Mark Schleifstein

Construction of a half-dozen major coastal restoration projects in Louisiana took a small step forward Friday with federal and state officials signing an agreement outlining how to design the projects. The agreement frees up the first $20 million appropriated by Congress this year to be spent on pre-construction engineering and design work.

Ellis Lucia, The Times-PicayuneThe Terrebonne Basin Barrier Shoreline Restoration project will rebuild marshland, dunes and beaches on Raccoon, Whiskey, Trinity and Timbalier islands in Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes. Whiskey Island was photographed in October 2002, after it had sustained significant damage from Hurricane Lili.

The first six of 15 projects, proposed as part of the Louisiana Coastal Area Ecosystem Restoration program, will require an investment of $1.4 billion. The federal government will pay 65 percent and the state will pay the rest.
Traditionally, such projects are financed by appropriations by Congress, which may be sparse during the next few years.
But some of the projects may get funded through fines or mitigation costs levied against BP and other companies found responsible under the federal Clean Water Act and the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
The state also hopes to use part of its share of future revenue from federal offshore oil and gas leases, similar revenue from in-state leases, and from past state budget surpluses to pay its share of construction costs.
“These projects will help to reduce the risk from storm surge of a hurricane by supporting the multiple lines of defense system,” said Col. Ed Fleming, commander of the Army Corps of Engineers’ New Orleans District office.
He was referring to a strategy underlying both the federal restoration plan and the state’s coastal restoration master plan that locates land-building projects in areas where they can help protect populated areas from storm surges.
“The LCA 6 projects utilize the three important coastal restoration methods: barrier island restoration, river diversions, and marsh creation and nourishment,” Fleming said.
The first projects will include:

Amite River Diversion Canal Modification, which will improve the flow of water into the cypress swamp and wetlands to the west of Lake Maurepas in Livingston and Ascension parishes.
Small Diversion at Convent/Blind River, where about 3,000 cubic feet per second of Mississippi River water will be pumped through a canal near Romeville into the cypress swamp and wetlands west of Lake Maurepas in Ascension and St. James parishes.
Medium Diversion at White Ditch will allow up to 35,000 cubic feet per second of Mississippi River water and sediment to be diverted near Phoenix into wetlands on the east bank of Plaquemines Parish.
Terrebonne Basin Barrier Shoreline Restoration will rebuild marshland, dunes and beaches on Raccoon, Whiskey, Trinity and Timbalier islands in Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes.
Convey Atchafalaya River Water to Northern Terrebonne Marshes. This project combines two proposals — routing Atchafalaya water into the Bayou Chene/Gulf Intracoastal Waterway system and designing a gate structure in the Houma Navigation Channel to allow that water to pass into sensitive wetlands.

Federally recognize the United Houma Nation - YOU can help

2011-11-24T09:02:00.001-06:00

The United Houma Nation has sought federal recognition for decades. The tribe has been recognized by state and foreign governments as an Indian tribe. In fact, Houma children were forced to attend a segregated Indian school until the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Located along Louisiana's Gulf Coast, the Houma Indian culture and community depend on the wetlands. The BP spill has devastated the Houma. However, BP denied the Houma's claim because they are not federally recognized.

The White House promised to review the United Houma Nation's petition for federal recognition if 25,000 signatures are acquired. Currently the petition is just over 5000 signatures. December 1, 2011 is the deadline. We can all play a role in making this happen if we ask our friends and family to sign.

As pagan one of the things that we know is that relationship to the land and our ancestors and our history is critical. The Houma Nation is part of South Louisiana history and America's History. Federal designation will help preserve the Houma’s culture and the lands that are a part of this culture.

Please click here to sign as a way to be thankful for what we all have and as a way to ensure that we can be aware of an thankful of a past and a culture that is so closely connected to the land.

Please take the time to Honor the past and Protect the Future by acting on this opportunity.

Moonlight Sonata

2011-11-10T17:14:00.000-06:00

On Classical Guitar by Eric Henderson

I know it's originally for piano, but I love the classical guitar.

All Soul's Day

2011-11-01T09:13:00.000-05:00

Taken directly from International House New Orleans

All Souls/All Saints Day
In heavily Catholic New Orleans, All Saints Day (November 1) and All Souls' Day (November 2) have been observed for centuries through rituals celebrating life over death.

During the Yellow Fever epidemics in eighteenth century New Orleans, death always loomed close. It's presence left the lasting impression on this city and its inhabitants that life is a gift, perhaps fleeting, and should be enjoyed to its fullest each day. And so, on All Saints Day and All Souls Day, New Orleanians honor the lives of their dead loved ones by painting tombs with brilliant whitewashes, placing yellow chrysanthemums and red coxcombs on graves and ringing statuary with immortelles (wreaths of black glass beads). On these days, cemeteries throughout the city are alive with the flickering glow from fields of candles, as death is forgotten and lives lived are celebrated.

It is one of the many rich New Orleans' traditions we observe annually at International House, for we can imagine no other city which has turned such tragedy into such a joyous celebration of life.

Tomb with a View

2011-10-30T20:56:00.001-05:00

Life next to a cemetery
Tomb with a View
Chris Rose - Gambit

I see dead people. Every day, I am presented with the physical manifestations of eternity. Or maybe faith is the better term. I live amid the remnants and architecture of ritual. I bear witness to the ceremonial and liturgical transference of the departed from this world to, presumably, the next.

Fancy talk for telling you: I live next to a cemetery.

In some towns, that might not be a good thing. It might be spooky or depressing. I don't know anything about real estate, but it seems reasonable to postulate that these little cities of granite, marble and stone, with their solicitations of grief and their constant reminder of mortality — hell, why sugarcoat? With their constant reminder of death! — might not be the curb appeal every potential homebuyer is looking for.

In some towns.

They are serene, oddly comforting, the small, quiet gatherings that occur here. There are no more than two or three a month in my cemetery, it seems. They never strike me as depressing. Truth is, I hear more laughter in my cemetery than sorrow. Maybe that's part of New Orleans' curious relationship with death; you know, that "we put the 'fun' in funerals" thing.

I have lived in New Orleans for 25 years, but only this fall did I move across the street from a cemetery. It is such an iconic neighbor, like living, I suppose, next to a vineyard in France, a Roman aqueduct in Italy, pyramids in Egypt or in the shadow of the Great Wall of China; before the senses have fully taken in the surroundings, the story of these places is already revealed to us. They are not natural wonders by any means, but reminders that man, too, is capable of producing wondrous things.

That's one way to put it. The terms I generally use to describe living next to a cemetery are considerably less didactic: "It's really cool!" is generally how I explain it to my friends.

Most old cities seem to have at least one cemetery that is a source of civic pride and/or historical significance. But I don't know of any other place where every cemetery invokes a sense of place, a sense of pride; in New Orleans, cemeteries are among the most pervasive and visible reminders of our otherness.

Drop me into a cemetery anywhere else in the country, and I would be at a loss to tell you where I am. Drop me off in New Orleans, and I can tell you immediately: I am home.

My kids — 7, 9 and 11 — are just getting over their squeamishness about our new neighbors. For a long time, they exuded a determined disinterest in the cemetery; they knew they weren't supposed to be scared of it — after all, the other kids in the neighborhood seem fine with it — but, still, they were pretty freaked out for a while.

Now, we walk our dog, scooter and play in our cemetery. In fact, I've often wondered about the propriety of that, wondered, as I once watched my children play hide and seek: What are the boundaries?

Many years ago, a girlfriend of mine took my mother and my aunt — visiting from Maryland — to lunch while I was at work. She picked up some seafood po-boys and sodas at the St. Roch Market and took them to St. Roch Cemetery where she spread their bounty across a stranger's tomb and they ate and visited with each other.

Needless to say, my folks thought St. Roch was a marvelous, beautiful place to behold. But the story they brought home with them was about the curious girl who took them to lunch at a cemetery! Now there's a story for the folks back home.

But that's what we do, no? Is that OK? What are the rules, I have always wondered? (And I've no doubt that before this week is out, someone will dutifully inform me.)

My cemetery is rundown, overgrown and mostly deserted. Tourists don't come here. But I find I have taken a proprietary interest in my cemetery. To me, it is prettier than all the grand Cities of the Dead that make New Orleans famous.

Funny, I realize: I love my cemetery. From it, I draw a great deal of reflection, serenity and peace. Odd, but from my cemetery, I draw so much life.

Music for the Equinox or a Full Moon

2011-09-20T16:58:00.000-05:00

World Premiere of Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings conducted by ArturoToscanini

New York on May 11th, 1938

Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings conducted Leonard Slatlin

(who conducted in New Orleans from 1977-1979)

London September 15 2001

What flower are you....

2011-08-20T14:25:00.003-05:00

I am a
Snapdragon

What Flower
Are You?

Perfect Cornucopia Advice

2011-08-13T12:54:00.000-05:00

Perfect Cornucopia advice... for your garden.... for your life...
What do you need? What is working? What is not? What will you keep? What will you eliminate?

Thank you Dan Gill.

Take stock of your landscape
Published: Thursday, August 11, 2011, 8:00 PM
By Dan Gill, Times-Picayune garden columnist NOLA.com

It's really too hot to do much of anything strenuous in the garden this time of the year.

I would certainly put off labor-intensive jobs such as creating new beds (or even reworking old beds), building structures like decks and arbors or major landscape plantings.

About all I feel like doing now is slowly strolling around my gardens in the early morning or late evening when the temperatures are somewhat cooler. Oh, I'll stop to take care of some weed issues (that never ends). Still, I try to keep the physical activity to a minimum. But, I'm not wasting time.

I'm doing three important things as I ramble around my landscape.

First, I'm enjoying it. I'm appreciating the beautiful flowers and bright colors of summer bedding plants and tropicals blooming this time of year. I'm sticking my nose into the flowers of butterfly ginger (Hedychium coronarium) and devouring the wonderful fragrance. You work hard to create and maintain your gardens -- don't forget to appreciate and enjoy them.

Second, I'm evaluating. I'm looking carefully at how well new plants are doing in this stressful late-summer weather. I'm also scrutinizing new plantings to see if plant and color combinations look as good in the garden as they did in my mind.

Finally, I'm re-evaluating my landscape. I tend to do this fairly constantly to some degree, but this time of the year I like to put a little extra thought into it. This is a good thing for everyone to do.

Why re-evaluate

As landscapes mature, things change. Trees get taller and cast deeper shade, and bushes can become overgrown.

People's lifestyles also change, and that area given over to a sandbox or a swing set may no longer be needed. Or you may have purchased an older home with mature plantings that no longer work well, or at least they don't satisfy you. Maybe the arrival of a new baby limits the amount of time you once had to maintain your gardens.

Whatever the reason, reevaluation is an important part of maintaining a landscape that is attractive and provides for the current needs of a family.

To start re-evaluating a landscape, you have to take a hard, honest look at what you have.

Changes in the garden can happen subtly over years, and you might overlook the obvious, such as an increase in shade or a physical change in your garden, unless you really focus.

Or, there are more sudden changes that haven't been properly integrated into the landscape. Maybe you added a deck, for instance, and traffic patterns have changed, but you haven't reworked the walkways.

Pretend you are the new owner of the house and garden you are surveying, and look at it with as much objectivity as you can.

Trees

One of the biggest changes that can creep up silently on a landscape over time is the growth of trees. They not only grow taller and larger, but they can dramatically influence what can or can't grow under or around them.

If your landscape has been planted for a number of years, you may find that some plants don't perform as well as they used to.

You might notice, for instance, that a bed of azaleas that has bloomed well for many years is no longer doing so, and the plants look leggy and thin. It could be that they need more light. Trees that were smaller when the azaleas were planted will grow larger over the years and cast more and deeper shade.

Lawns also often succumb to shade from a tree that has grown large over the years.

When shade makes existing plants grow poorly and look bad, consider removing those plants and replacing them with something more shade-tolerant. Plant areas where grass will not grow with shade-loving ground covers such as monkey grass or Asiatic jasmine.

In a few rare circumstances, you may decide that too many trees were planted in the landscape (easy to do, since trees are small when first planted). Sometimes it's necessary to make the difficult decision to remove a tree.

Shrubs

Overgrown shrubs can be trimmed back, trimmed up or removed entirely if no longer desirable.

It can be visually unattractive for a while, but a severe trimming can rejuvenate some types of old shrubs.

Hard pruning is best done just before shrubs start active growth. February or March is a good time to hard-prune shrubs that bloom in the summer. Prune spring-flowering shrubs in late March or April after they flower.

Once they begin growing again, you can control their size with regular pruning.

In other cases, if height is not an issue, you can trim a shrub up. To do this, selectively remove the lower branches of an overgrown shrub, training it into a small tree-form. This opens up space under and around the plant, making it less dominant.

Do you find yourself constantly pruning back shrubs that are too large for the area where they are planted? This is a fight you will never win. Often, removing and replacing these shrubs is the best idea. If you do decide to do this, make sure that you select new shrubs that will not grow too large for their location.

Planning ahead

The best time for planting hardy trees, shrubs ground covers and perennials in the landscape is November through March, with fall and early winter being best. That's why now is a good time to start doing this type of re-evaluation.

It gives you plenty of time to rethink your landscape and make plans for what needs to be done when the weather turns cooler.

And it's a great way to avoid working hard out in this hot weather, while still doing something important.

Chapter 44 – Worms

2011-08-11T21:14:00.006-05:00

Owen picked up Latasha’s grandson, Bryant, and then picked up Nola for 7:30AM. Nola jumped in the back seat of the truck. He took her for coffee at a shop on Jefferson Avenue and smiled to himself as he watched her breathe in the scent and relax the warm of the cup in her hand. Then they made their way to the first uptown house where Joe was waiting.
Nola got out of the truck and said, “Morning Joe. Thank you for coming with us.”
“You’re kidding right? I wouldn’t miss seeing you handle LeBlanc for the world.”
She smiled and said, “WE’re going to handle LeBlanc.” Then “Shall we get started?”
Joe nodded and he and Nola went off to walk around the property. Owen and Bryant took site measurements. It was a typical uptown shotgun double, strip of green space between the side walk and the street big enough for a crepe myrtle, citrus tree or fast growing fringe tree. There was a small front yard with enough room for a tree or small bush. There needed to be space for the incredibly large postKatrina garbage cans that wouldn’t fit down narrow walkways along each side of the house. There was a small, sad, empty back yard.
Joe looked at the back yard and said, “Not much to work with.”
Nola nodded and said, “Well, not much but something. Is this one of the houses you and Owen have worked on already?”
“Yes. How did you know that?”
“The A/C units are on the roof, right?”
“Yep.”
“It’s a signature design feature of Owen’s that I personally like because it stops what little yard we have here from being completely taken over by the air handling units.”
Joe nodded, “And I always thought that Owen was a little silly to do it. But lots of people go for it these days so their A/C won’t be messed up by minor flooding. I never realized how it changed what you could do with a yard.”
“Here’s what I think we should do. Put up a privacy fence between the 2 halves. Leave a small bit of open ground on each side of the fencing and plant a flowering vine, jasmine is essentially evergreen. Then in each corner leave a slightly curved triangular area and plant a citrus – Navel Orange, Lemon or Satsuma. We can edge with blue daze or oregano and mulch like crazy.
On each side of the steps we can either go tropical with Elephant Ears or Mediterranean with Rosemary and Roses. Another option is to expand the steps lengthwise so they can be used for "stoop-sitting" and not interfere with traffic in and out of the house. I'll leave that for you and Owen to decide. Maurice can work his magic with a stamped and stained-like-brick concrete courtyard. The vine will make the yard feel green. The tree will be interesting and eventually provide some shade and the courtyard will make the small space useful.”
“I like it. Simple. Functional. Easy to maintain.”
“Ready to go up front?”
“Yep.”
Owen and Bryant were making their way down the alleyway. As they squeezed by each other Owen put his hand around her waist and Nola smiled and said, “I'm seeing one of Maurice’s courtyards in the back. Make sure your measurements will satisfy the master.”
He hugged her lightly and said, “Ok, Chief.”
Bryant's eyebrows rose up and Joe nodded as if to say, Yep, they’re an item.
Nola was standing on the front porch looking things over. She finally said, “I think that the garbage cans can go on each side of the porch. They will discourage folks from heading down the side of the houses but can be moved easily enough if needed. We should plant some small trees between the sidewalk and the street. I think given the narrowness of the space crepe myrtles will have to do. Then here in the front area between the 2 sets of steps some simple Knockout roses. Lots of mulch and we’re done.”
“What do you think Joe?”
Owen and Bryant had come up the other side of the house and heard Joe say, “I think that you are too good at this. I think that it will make this house look better than any other on the block. I think it’s going to be crazy easy to maintain. I like it.”
She smiled at him. Why don’t you let Owen know what the options are for the backyards?”
Joe explained the plan to Owen and Bryant. Owen nodded and understood how easy it would be to pull off but also how it would significantly change the look of the property. LeBlanc would probably end up being able to charge enough extra in rent to cover any maintenance costs.
Nola said, “The plans should be too hard to draw up.”
Owen said, “Piece of cake.” And he and Joe went to the backyard to discuss the option of changing steps or just adding a courtyard.

Nola stayed in front with Bryant and explained, “The key to maintenance will be pruning the trees so they grow up, keeping the weeds down with mulch and occasionally some weed killer like Round Up and trimming the roses only if they get too wild and high. The hardest thing in the first few months will be keeping the new plantings it properly watered. We’ll have to make sure that Owen puts that in the proposal he draws up for Mr. LeBlanc’s properties. We'll work hard on the properties initially, the prep work is everything, after that we let nature do most of the work. You’ll have to let me know when the plantings look a little rough and unruly and then I teach you how to prune."
“You are really going to let me have the maintenance work as a regular job?”
“Well if you want to Bryant. I know that’s what Owen thinks will happen. But if this is not what you want then that’s ok. We can find someone else.”
“Oh no. I want to do it. I hated cutting grass, but I like working with plants.”
“Ok then. For this kind of care the hardest part is watching the plantings and getting feel for how much tending, watering, weeding they need. You have to swing by or have Joe swing by to check fairly regularly especially in the beginning. Do you have a car?”
“Yes,” and he was a little embarrassed as he said, “a really old beat up car that my grandma helped me get. She knows how important transportation is to getting work.”
Nola smiled. “There are times when I still miss my very first beat up old pick up truck. I bought it for a dollar from my grandpa and sometimes it was hard to have enough money to pay the insurance and keep it in gas, but it definitely was worth the effort. We’ll make sure that part of the landscaping maintenance fees cover what you need for insurance and gas to get to your jobs.”
“Really?”
“Yes, I think that I can talk to Owen about working something out.”

Owen and Joe returned from the backyard and gave them a thumbs up. Nola said, “Well, fellas, shall we head to the next house? I’m hoping that they are fairly similar in layout and that we can do these quickly.” Nola made her way down the steps to the gate and looked back at them smiling, “Coming?”

Nola rode with Owen and Bryant rode with Joe. This gave Nola a chance to talk to Owen about Bryant and transportation. Owen was amazed at how sometimes she got to where he was going faster than he did. The other uptown houses were essentially the same as the first. Owen had already worked on half of them. Nola insisted that Owen put moving the A/C to the roof into the landscaping plans for the other houses. They finished up early and were able to take a look at the Lakeview house. This was a bit more interesting because the yard was much larger. Nola wondered out loud. “Is this a rental or is he looking to sell this one?”
Owen said, “I don’t know. We’ll have to ask.”
“Well I have ideas but I need to know what he plans to do with the house before I make any significant suggestions.”
“Oh well, then I’m hungry. Let’s eat before we see LeBlanc.”

Owen took the signs off his truck and then they swung by the house where they were supposed to meet LeBlanc at 1PM. There were no cars in the driveway and there was no fence around the yard. There were a significant number of empty lots. While they were at lunch Nola laid out the plans. She wanted to go to LeBlanc’s front door by herself. After all LeBlanc was only expecting her. She wanted Joe to come by a few minutes later and ring the door bell and Owen and Bryant to show up a little later.

Owen said, “I don’t like it.”
Joe agreed, “Neither do I.”
Bryant kept his mouth shut and watched. He was just waiting to see what Nola would come up with next.
“Look I know it’s a bit sneaky. But from where I sit LeBlanc is trying to back me into a corner. Turnaround is fair play. We’ve done the site assessment work. We didn’t skimp on the ideas or the plans. I think they are good and will improve his properties. I’m not suggesting you cheat him. I know that if he gives you the jobs you all will do the same excellent work you’ve done every other location you’ve ever touched. But I want him to realize once and for all that I’m not interested and that we don’t play around. NO Lawnmower Landscaping does professional dependable work. He needs to fish for his creepy, controlling fix in another pond.”
“Woman, it’s not LeBlanc I’m worried about it’s you!”
Joe smiled discretely and nudged Bryant. They had talked about how protective Owen was about Nola as they rode in the truck. Joe had shared the LeBlanc Pool Party story with him.
“Owen, I’m a big girl. I know how to handle myself. You all will be right there as my backup. I just need you to come in about 15 minutes after I’ve go into the house. I think that Joe should knock on the front door and you and Bryant should be at the back yard, measuring.”
Owen looked at her and insisted, “I don’t like it.” Then he looked to Joe for support.
Joe looked at Owen and said, “Look man, Nola does the assessments. I trust her. The whole landscaping thing is her show. I say let her do it her way. I think she can handle LeBlanc.”
“Thank you Joe.” Nola smiled.
Owen looked at her and insisted, “I still don’t like it.”
“That’s why Joe will knock on the front door and you and Bryant will be in the back yard.” Owen looked at her and Joe could see that Owen was going to let her have her way and God Help LeBlanc if he did anything Nola didn't like.
Joe said, “Nola, You can ride with me. LeBlanc probably knows Owen’s truck. I doubt he’ll know mine. We’ll go first.” Then he turned to Owen and Bryant, “Give us 10 minutes head start before you leave here. Bryant, check out your watch. Start counting when Nola & I hit that door. OK?”
Bryant looked at his watch and said, “OK.”
Owen said, “Last time I checked I was the boss.”
Joe said, “Sorry boss, but this is Nola’s show.” And he stood up nodded to Nola. Owen stood up to let her out of the booth. She saw his worry and leaned into him and he put his arms around her. She stood up on her toes and hugged him back and whispered in his ear, “I promise to be careful.” then left with Joe while Owen paid the lunch bill.

Nola knocked on the front door. There was a car in the driveway so LeBlanc had to be here now.
LeBlanc opened the door and smiled, “Hello, Nola.” He looked at the truck on the street. Joe was hiding in back seat area.
“Hello Mr. LeBlanc.”
“Jeff. And thanks for coming.”
“I’m happy to, Jeff.”
And LeBlanc thought that perhaps she preferred privacy instead of a party for making the connections he intended. And as he closed the door he put his hand on her back and said, “Let’s go into the living room.”
“Do you live here?”
“No.”
“But it’s furnished.”
“Well it’s an old family house. I keep it, in case I need it.” He waved at the sofa.
“Oh.” And Nola sat down and put the folder with all the plans on the table. “I’ve had an opportunity to look at your other shotgun double properties in Uptown and MidCity. I assume that those properties are all rentals?”
“Yes. You’ve looked at them already?”
“Yes, Jeff. You gave Owen the list of all the properties so I took a look at them this morning in preparation for this meeting. I think that we can landscape the properties so they will be more appealing than they already are to your renters. The plan is that the changes should essentially pay for themselves by attracting higher quality renters and higher rents. Here take a look at a sample of what we can do.”
And she pulled out a quick sketch Owen had made of her ideas on the first uptown house. LeBlanc moved closer to her and looked at the plans and Nola let him look and get closer to her than she preferred then continued, “Most of your properties have similar layouts. The A/C units on the roof make for a much nicer back yard. I’d encourage you to let OA move A/C units on the rest of the properties as part of the landscaping work. It makes a huge difference in how appealing we can make the landscaping.” She intentionally leaned into him and said, “What do you think?”
LeBlanc was actually impressed and as she leaned into him, a little flattered. This was more like it. She would probably have been willing before she just hadn't wanted an audience. He put his hand on her leg and said, “I like the ideas. Simple. Efficient.”
And Nola laid her hand on his knee and said, “And easy to execute and easier to maintain long term and appealing to your renters. Now what I need to know is what do you want to do with your Lakefront properties?” And she stood up and started to walk toward the back of the house. LeBlanc got up. Nola continued. “Are you looking to do some quick landscaping to help you sell or to make this a place where you can have guests or are you landscaping for yourself?”
And LeBlanc thought, is that code for a quickie or a longer term arrangement?
“Well Nola” and he moved in a little closer, “I hadn’t decided yet.”
“I see. Well then my suggestion would be that you consider landscaping for minimal curb appeal for now and maybe a little strategic shade and then wait until you decide how you are going to handle the properties longer term.”
“Well, that’s very practical of you.” And he put his hand on her back and said. “There’s a great view of the back yard from second floor. Why don’t we go upstairs so you can get a better look at the property and decide how you want to lay it out?”
Nola was pretty sure that a suggestion for more than landscaping services. And thought, Joe should be ringing the bell at any minute. What she said was, “Do you only have one lot or did you buy any of the surrounding property via the lot next door program?”
“As a matter of fact I’ve added half of the lot next door on 3 sides. I’m assuming that larger yards will sell better in the future.”
Where the hell was Joe? “That’s probably very smart. Did you do that on both Lakefront properties?”
With his hand around her waist he started to walk them toward the stairs, “Yes. Let’s go upstairs to the bedroom and take a look.”
She was going have to sound like she was actually willing to go where he was thinking this was headed, “Ok, Jeff. Getting a view from upstairs would probably be very helpful.” And the doorbell rang. Nola looked at LeBlanc.
LeBlanc looked frustrated and said, “I’ll be right back.”
Nola nodded and walked back to the table in front of the sofa to pick up her folder, then walked to the hall she could see the front door. LeBlanc opened the door and there was Joe.
“Hello, Mr. LeBlanc.”
LeBlanc just stood there. From behind him Nola said, “Hello Joe.”
LeBlanc turned and looked at her and she said, “Joe is working with me on the site assessments. He’s the reason I was able to complete the site assessments on all of your other properties today. Come on in Joe. We were just going upstairs to take a look at the back yard.” And she turned and started toward the stairs. Joe smiled and shook LeBlanc’s hand and headed toward Nola. LeBlanc had no choice but to follow them up the stairs. They went through the bedroom past a king size bed to get to the large balcony. They were standing on it when Owen and Bryant showed up. Nola waved and then turned to LeBlanc and said. “Owen and Bryant are here to take measurements so he can draw up the plans. We’re hoping that you will be interested in a NO Lawnmower maintenance plan for your rental properties. Bryant does the maintenance work.” LeBlanc could do nothing but nod. Nola said, “I think I have the layout and some ideas. Shall we go downstairs and discuss them?”
When they got to the backyard Owen did his best not to look pissed. LeBlanc could see he was out numbered. Now that all the troops were here Nola took LeBlanc’s arm and walked around the property with him from the back yard to the front and made some suggestions. Nola handed Joe her folder and he followed pretending like he was taking notes.
“I think that the first thing to do is put up a fence. Then we can set some medium sized trees between the sidewalk and the street. I’d put in a water oak on this south side of the front of the house. It’s a fast grower and will make great shade over the sidewalk and on the side of the house that will get the most sun. It will help with energy efficiency. After you get the fence and a few trees in we can decide how you want to landscape the front of the house. You'll probably want a walkway from the driveway to the front door. Since the front yard here is fairly large I’d suggest a walkway similar to the one in Owen’s yard that looks like it winds but that is actually a straight shot if you don't meander around the curves. This can make the front yard more interesting to look at and will allow us to put in more roses and other easy maintenance bushes. The back and side yards are so large that I’d suggest not spending too much money on landscaping because I think anyone looking at buying a property this large and fabulous is probably going to consider putting in a pool.”
LeBlanc just nodded and said, “I do like the ideas.”
She had walked them to where Owen and Bryant were standing when she asked, “Well Jeff, I think with these suggestions Owen has enough to finish drawing up some plans and estimates. Owen will have to let you know how soon his crews can start.” And she discretely looked at Owen to make sure that he got the message, “I’d suggest doing the rental properties first, more bang for your bucks. While the path work can be done right away at the larger Lakefront houses, it would be better to wait until September to plant these larger areas. They would be too expensive to keep watered and plantings would be a risk. You don’t want to waste your money.” Then she turned to LeBlanc and asked, “What do you think?”
Jeff LeBlanc thought, I’m not getting the bang I thought I would. But the ideas are good. “Sure, Sure. Why not.”
“Excellent Jeff. I look forward to working on your properties. I’ll let you and Owen chat about timing and specifics.” And she turned to Joe and said, “Joe shall we go and take another look at the other Lakefront house? Owen and Bryant can meet us there once they finish up with Mr. LeBlanc,”
Then she held out her hand to LeBlanc and said, “It was a pleasure.”
What could he do but shake it and nod?

Nola and Joe walked to his truck and waved as they drove off. When they were a block away Nola turned to Joe and he busted out laughing. She did too and then said, “Boy I’m glad that’s over. I was beginning to think I was going to have to let him take me upstairs to the bedroom alone. You rang the doorbell just in time.”
“You were so smooth. You should be an actress.”
“Thanks Joe. The trick is to keep thinking about the actual job of landscaping and then to gently layer on the flattery. He’ll thank us eventually.”
Joe said, “It’s a shame Roger couldn’t have seen you in action.”
Nola smiled. “You were pretty good too. Nice touch, looking like you were taking notes on the folder.”
Joe smiled, “I’m a quick learner. You’re a good teacher.” And then added, “I hope Owen will keep it together.”
“Owen will be fine. He knows what he’s doing. He is a natural charmer.”
“Well usually. But he is also protective and a little touchy when it comes to you and making sure you're Ok.”
“He’s a gentleman Joe. He’ll be fine. He needs to stop worrying about me. I've been taking care of myself for a long time."

Owen and Bryant drove up about 15 minutes later. Joe and Nola were sitting in the shade on the front porch steps of LeBlanc’s other lakefront house. Owen was out of the truck first. Bryant followed smiling. Owen had dratted and fumed worrying about Nola on the way to LeBlanc’s and then sputtered in amazement after they finished up with LeBlanc at how smoothly she had handled him. From what Bryant could tell they would start working on LeBlanc’s rentals in less than 3 weeks and a minimally LeBlanc had agreed to let them fence both the Lakefront yards. It had been pretty impressive to watch.

Nola said, “Well, boss?...”
Joe laughed and then looked with mock seriousness at Owen.
Nola finished, “… when do you start?”
Owen shook his head and said, “in 3 weeks landscaping the rentals. We’ll be moving the A/Cs just like you wanted on 2 of the properties that are empty. We’ll eventually move the other one as well. And minimally we’ll be fencing the Lakefront properties now and doing curb plantings in the fall but I think that he also wants to add the walkway. So I'll be putting that in the quote.”
Nola raised her eyebrows, leaned back on her elbows looking satisfied and smiled.
Owen said, “Ok, you were right.”
Nola got up from the steps and she took Owen’s arm and said, “Let’s go, Big Man. Take me home. I’m sure Bryant has more interesting things to do with the rest of his weekend.”
Bryant what thinking, Nope…. I don’t, just homework. This was fun!
As Joe got up from the steps she gave him a hug, “Thank you, Joe. I couldn’t have done it without you. I know you’ll give Roger and Maurice a full report.”

Scents and listening to subtleties

2011-08-10T20:15:00.003-05:00

Cooling scents: the right perfume can lift your spirits and cool you down
Published: Tuesday, August 09, 2011
By Susan Langenhennig, The Times-Picayune NOLA.com

Debra Jones-Scie has an old-fashioned trick for dealing with the sticky heat and humidity of late summer in the city.

She keeps a bottle of Verveine, a bright, lemon verbena cologne, in the refrigerator. Before stepping outside, she spritzes a little on her skin, sending a chilling tingle down her spine.

“When I go on a walk, I pull it out and give a little spray,” said Jones-Scie, the “nose” for Hové, the 80-year-old French Quarter perfume house. "It cools you."

Scents are the escape artists of the beauty world. One whiff of the right perfume, and you can be in another place and time — one preferably about 20 degrees cooler and 50 percent less sweaty than August in New Orleans.

I’ve come to Jones-Scie's door seeking relief from the relentless humidity that’s sapping my energy like a tapeworm. She turns to a shelf in Hové’s 19th-century townhouse and her hand falls on a few options.

There’s Elan d’Orange, a surprisingly bracing scent that features orange blossom, but presented in a way that’s not like the sweet floral we often associate with the heady flowers of the bitter orange tree. Elan d’Orange has a pleasant tang, like iced tea with a slice of lemon.

Plage d’Ete is another option, but it’s a little too suntan-lotion-like for me, with those familiar notes of coconut and lime. It conjures thoughts of a frosty pina colada by the pool or memories of slathering Coppertone on your skin.

Hové’s Vetiver, a pure, green, grassy scent, is refreshingly sharp and has a side benefit. “I use the Vetiver on my legs, and it keeps the mosquitoes away, at least on me,” Jones-Scie said.

Perfume blogger Victoria Frolova has a poetic way of describing the cooling effects of certain perfumes: “The effervescence of citrus — be it the bracing sharpness of lime, the peppery shimmer of bergamot, the intense verdancy of petitgrain or the playful sweetness of mandarin — has a refreshing, exhilarating effect,” she writes. “It instantly cools, evoking the delicious sensation of an ice cube melting on hot skin.”

Frolova has a technical nose that gives an insightful edge to her fragrance observations at BoisdeJasmin.com. There’s a reason, she said, why some colognes are particularly appealing in warm climates.

“Neroli and petitgrain oils share the same pungent component as perspiration and allow it to become masked by the bright, green freshness of orange flower,” she writes in a post highlighting summer scents.

The bitter orange tree — the variety that gives marmalade its bite — is like “the pig of the fragrance world,” Frolova said during a recent chat by phone from her home in New Jersey. “Every part of the plant is used.”

Orange bigarade, an essential oil, comes from cold-pressing the fruit, while sweet neroli oil is derived from the orange blossoms. Petitgrain, another essential oil, comes from distilling the twigs, making for a green, woodsy smell.

“Neroli is less floral and more citrusy,” Frolova said, “while orange blossom absolu is richer and sweeter, more seductive.

“One of my personal favorites is Annick Goutal Neroli, a blend of orange blossom and neroli,” she added. “It has so many facets, but when you put them together, you end up having an accord that’s very fresh.”

Orange blossom fragrances can be boldly feminine, like Serge Lutens’ Fleurs d’Oranger, which leaves a lingering sweetness to the skin.

Or they can be darker and brooding, as in the case of Narcisse Noir, a scent launched in 1911, said Barbara Herman, who blogs about vintage perfumes at yesterdaysperfume.typepad.com.
“Narcisse Noir has amazing orange blossom, but the predominate character of that perfume is dark and sexy,” she said. “It’s mixed with incense and in a musk base, which makes it very interesting.”

Herman has been living in New Orleans this summer while writing a book, with the working title “Scent and Subversion: A Century of Provocative Perfume.” She doesn’t subscribe to the idea that hot months call only for simple scents.

“Just as you probably don’t want to eat beef stroganoff in the dead of summer when it’s 96 degrees out, you don’t generally want to wear heavy perfumes in the Oriental family either,” she said. “Lighter and fresher scents in the floral and chypre perfume families act like olfactory air conditioning to lift your spirits and cool you down. They may be light, but they’re not lightweight. Some of these are complex beauties.”

Chypres (pronounced “SHEE-pres”) are that lovely family of fragrances with notes of citrus mixed with oak moss, musk and, often, patchouli. One of Herman’s favorite summer scents is Clarins Eau Dynamisante, a chypre she describes as “citrusy, woody, herbaceous, spicy. Prozac in a perfume bottle.”

Some of her other warm-month favorites include Estee Lauder White Linen — “as elegant and fresh as a starched white shirt; smells like summer to me” — and Hové’s Vetiver — "peppery, dusty, salty, wild. One of the best vetivers out there.”

But Herman has a special affection for Christian Dior Diorella, which she describes as “fresh, funky, fruity, mossy, like citrus perfume spilled inside a suede purse.”

The first time she smelled it, she was on a lunch break from her office job in San Francisco. “I sprayed it on and just got a funny look on my face,” she recalled. “I walked around, sniffing my arm for the next half an hour.

“I think perfumes are really visceral experiences. You feel more connected to yourself and your senses.”

Sitting around a coffee table last Friday in the back of Avery, a new niche fragrance boutique in the Warehouse District, Lauren Lagarde was having a perfume moment.

We were discussing summery scents when Shannon Drake, director of marketing for the company, opened a bottle of Nuda, an intense jasmine fragrance by Nasomatto, a line created by perfumer Alessandro Gualtieri. The fragrance is derived from jasmine blossoms picked at night by gloved workers on a farm on the Cote d’Azur.

Lagarde closed her eyes and shook her head. The scent didn’t bring her to the Cote d’Azur.

“We used to have jasmine growing around our house in Bay St. Louis. This takes me right back there,” Lagarde said. “When I smell this, I’m seven years old again, and it’s summer.”

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I found this post on Herman's blog particularly interesting:
"The more you smell and categorize what you're smelling, comparing one scent with the next, etc., the better you get at recognizing aspects of perfume, even being able to conjure it up in your memory."

Which is exactly why ritual and smells and bells are so important to our practice.

Teacher's Homestead... Lovely View

2011-08-01T14:47:00.001-05:00

The Watchers - Table of Contents

2011-08-01T00:00:00.000-05:00

Chapter 1 - Lift Off – November 15, 2007 Thursday

Chapter 2 - Seek and ye shall find - November 15, Thursday

Chapter 3 – Landing - November 15, Thursday

Chapter 4 – Mom - November 15, Thursday

Chapter 5 - Back Home - November 15, Thursday

Chapter 6 – Ridgeline - November 16, Friday

Chapter 7 – Surprise - November 19, Monday

Chapter 8 - Arrival Gate – November 19, Monday

Chapter 9 - Aradia's Words – November 23, Friday

Chapter 10 – Introductions – November 29, Thursday

Chapter 11 - The Mythos – December 6, Thursday

Chapter 12 - Down the Rabbit Hole – December 13, Thursday

Chapter 13 - Winter Solstice – December 20, Thursday

Chapter 14 - First Full Moon – December 22, Saturday

Chapter 15 - Star Trek Lessons – December 27, Thursday

Chapter 16 - New Year – January 3, Thursday

Chapter 17 – Leaving – January 10, Thursday

Chapter 18 - The Table – January 15, Tuesday

Chapter 19 - Second Full Moon - January 22, Tuesday

Chapter 20 - Planning Lupercus – January 24, Thursday

Chapter 21 – Lupercus – February 2, Saturday

Chapter 22 - Processing Lupercus – February 7, Thursday

Chapter 23 - Portals and the Past – February 14, Thursday

Chapter 24 - Eclipse Moon – February 20, Wednesday

Chapter 25 - Ground Work - February 22, Friday - February 23, Saturday

Chapter 26 - Magic, The Astral Plane, the Law of Return – February 28, Thursday

Chapter 27 - The Pool & Sirens – March 6, Thursday

Chapter 28 - Spring Equinox Lessons – March 13 - Thursday

Chapter 29 - Full Moon Spring Equinox – March 20, Thursday - March 21, Friday

Chapter 30 - Owen's Magic - March 27, Thursday

Chapter 31 - Covenant of Aradia – April 3, Thursday

Chapter 32 - Pool Landscaping - April 5, Saturday

Chapter 33 - Papa Eric's Plan – April 10, Thursday

Chapter 34 - Worship & the Gods – April 17, Thursday

Chapter 35 - Benevento Full Moon - April 20, Sunday

Chapter 36 - Nola Permaculture – April 24, Thursday

Chapter 37- Happy May Day Birthday – May 2, Friday

Chapter 38 – Passing – May 8, Thursday

Chapter 39 – Teachers & Initiation – May 15, Thursday, May 19, Monday

Chapter 40 – Insights - May 25, Sunday

Chapter 41 - Pool Party - May 29th, Thursday

Chapter 42: Next - June 5th, Thursday

Chapter 43: Elemental Summer Solstice Lesson - June 12th, Thursday

Chapter 44: Worms – June 14th, Saturday

Chapter 45: Initiate Full Moon – June 18th, Wednesday

Chapter 46: Summer Solstice - June 21th, Saturday

Chapter 47: Cycle of Being - June 26th, Thursday

Raven on blogspot & recent history

2011-07-25T10:26:00.001-05:00

I'm so glad to see Raven on blogspot!
and, as always, his insights are worth sharing.

Ignored on the Internet

2011-07-24T10:06:00.004-05:00

For the past 3 months I have been doing 2 jobs for the company who pays my salary:
- my regular job, in which I wear no less than 4 hats on any given day
- and project lead for an activity, now completed, that has locked in half a million dollars in savings annually.
(I work for a really big company)

Anyone who is a mom, knows that you never stop being a mom, no matter how crazy the rest of your life gets.   Managing a household doesn't go away either unless you are willing to live in squalor; I'm not. As a postKatrina neighborhood leader, there are times when it feels like I'm working at this and the response time and dedication to neighborhood issues needs to be as good as what the people who pay me get. It can't be or I wouldn't have a job.

Why do I post this?   Because posts to this blog, to the neighborhood blog, and responses to email other than those at work have been sporadic at best.  And because I read an article in the newspaper today, over a cup of coffee and my quiche made by my own hands, about how not responding to "the ether" that is eMail is potentially rude.

The article quotes another author saying: "the No. 1 complaint is that 'people feel they’re being ignored.' "

And I can respect that. I have 4 eMail accounts that I manage: the one a work, my own personal "Nola as mom" email account, the one for the neighborhood organization (and thankfully I have help here), and my email account as a Strega. Sometimes the last 2 don't get as much attention.  Is that rude? I can see how those who only communicate with one aspect of "me" might think so. But it's not rude; it's the physical limitations of being human and not virtual or electronic. There is only so much "resource sharing" a human can do. It's not that I don't love you... it is just that there is only so much of any one person to go around. And the eMail associated with work and the capacity to get a pay check will *always* win.  Is this an excuse? No, as a trained scientist I can say, this is supporting data for the effect noticed.

My beef with the author is that he mixes professional-they are paying you-eMail with personal. It is so NOT the same. Like it or not eMail as work is a tool. When responses are required there is no excuse. And if you can't get to the task or need more time then the *only* professional thing to do is reply with *when* you will be able t o accomplish what the email has requested. And for inside the company mail, there is always the "return receipt" option if it is really, really important.

I think the real reason that people don't respond as fast as some would like is that we are overwhelmed with communication: Voice mail messages on office phone, on cell phone, on home phone; Multiple email addresses (by necessity); And then there is texting... and facebook and now Google+. Overload doesn't begin to describe... It seems the people who are most likely to be annoyed are those individuals who have one life, one job, one, for lack of a better word, "identity". Those of us who have more facets to our lives have it harder and this can manifest itself as non-responsive.

The only other option is to constantly have you face in your smartphone and respond to all the electronic communications and tune out face to face communications. You tell me... which is "more rude"?

You could be Basque?

2011-07-24T07:37:00.000-05:00

Bruce Eggler article from New Orleans Times Picayune
Few New Orleanians would identify themselves as of Basque heritage, but according to one of them, that's only because they're unaware of their families' origins a few centuries ago.

Ellis Lucia, The Times-Picayune

Michel-Antoine Goitia-Nicolas was photographed in 2003, with a Basque flag and coat of arms.

From Abadie and Alciatore to Yzaguirre and Zatarain, says Michel-Antoine Goitia-Nicolas, dozens of longtime local families can trace their origins back to the Basque region that straddles the border between France and Spain. Most of them, he says, are aware only that their ancestors emigrated from France or Spain, not of their exact ethnic background. But, he says, whether Barbe or Begue, Chachere or Charbonnet, Gayarre or Goyeneche, Lacombe or Lemoyne, Mandeville or Marigny, Sapir or Soraparu -- all have Basque origins.

Goitia-Nicolas, 46, who was born in Canada and has lived in New Orleans since 1984, founded a nonprofit group, the Louisiana Basque-American Society and Cultural Organization, or LABASCO, in 2003 to promote awareness of the state's Basque heritage. He has ambitious plans for the group, though so far its list of accomplishments is confined mainly to numerous speeches Goitia-Nicolas has given around Louisiana and the Gulf Coast to raise awareness of Basque history and local families' connection to the region.

The group will hold a dinner meeting today from 5 to 8 p.m. at Galvez Restaurant in the French Quarter. Goitia-Nicolas will speak on Basque history in Louisiana and announce a fund to raise a monument to Jean Lafitte and other local Basque worthies.

Lafitte -- or Laffite, as he spelled it -- is remembered by most as a successful pirate or privateer and smuggler who operated out of Barataria Bay and New Orleans and helped Gen. Andrew Jackson defend the city from British invasion in 1814-15. Goitia-Nicolas, however, refers to him as a "man of mark," as in "letter of marque and reprisal," an official government licence authorizing a private vessel to attack and capture enemy vessels.

Why July 23, and why Galvez Restaurant for the dinner? Because, Goitia-Nicolas said this week, this is the birthday of Bernardo de Galvez, the Spanish military leader who served as governor of Louisiana from 1777 to 1785. Himself of Basque descent, Galvez "brought both Cajuns and Islenos to Louisiana," and both groups contained large numbers of people with Basque heritage, according to Goitia-Nicolas.

The easiest way to recognize a family's Basque origins, Goitia-Nicolas said, is by a name that means nothing in French or Spanish but shows origins in the Basque tongue, which is unrelated to any other language. "Garcia," he said, is automatically considered a Spanish name, but it really means "wheatfield" in Basque. "Lafitte," he said, is Basque for "blackberry."

Because his family spoke Basque, Goitia-Nicolas said, he quickly recognized names such as "Soraparu" and "Zatarain" on street signs and grocery shelves when he arrived in New Orleans, and he realized the city had a strong Basque connection he had not suspected. He began studying records of immigration to New Orleans in the 1700s and 1800s. Even before the city was founded in 1718, he said, most of the early Spanish and French explorers and colonizers in Louisiana were Basques.
Goitia-Nicolas' said LABASCO's other goals include publishing a book about Basques' role in Louisiana history, establishing a Basque cultural center and creating an endowment to promote awareness of the state's Basque heritage. He said the center and endowment could appropriately be based at either Loyola or Tulane universities -- both, he said, named for people from Basque families.
Goitia-Nicolas said he had about 30 reservations for tonight's dinner but was hoping for many more.

The price is $50. Reservations can be made at 504.595.3400. The restaurant is at 914 N. Peters St.
Goitia-Nicolas can be reached at grecetbasque@aol.com.

Full Moon Effects

2011-07-22T21:00:00.000-05:00

Listen to this article on PRI's The World about how the Moon impacts life on earth.

It's specifically talking about lion attacks and how the waning moon makes for a greater chance of lions being hungry and attacking people as they look for other prey.

The article says that people are safer when the Moon is full.
And most dangerous when the moon is waning.

Now think about how the moon affected our ancestors and therefore our practices.

Interview with Raven Grimassi

2011-07-21T17:56:00.000-05:00

A 2009 Interview with Raven Grimassi on PaganPages.org

Don Quixote - Barataria

2011-07-08T22:33:00.007-05:00

Re: "Did Don Quixote inspire Barataria name?" Your Opinions, July 8.
Records show that early French colonists named a swampy region south of New Orleans "Barataria'' after an episode in Cervantes' "Don Quixote de la Mancha.'' As Spanish literature teacher Mary Jo Brown explained in her letter, Don Quixote's sidekick, Sancho Panza, received an imaginary island on dry land named Barataria.

As early as 1732, French maps show the "Isle Barataria,'' encircled by Bayous Villars, Barataria, Rigolettes and Perot and Lake Salvador. The colonist Le Page du Pratz stated in his "History of Louisiana'' that the area was named for the fictional Barataria "because it was enclosed by these lakes and their outlets to form almost an island on dry land, as was that island of which Sancho Panza was made governor.''
Claude Joseph Villars Dubreuil, who was the king's contractor of public works, claimed to have named the Isle of Barataria. It was part of his extensive "Barataria Plantation'' that he acquired about 1730, partly for the extraction of timber and shells for construction work. Jean-Baptiste Massy, who received his land grant across the bayou in 1726, also named his plantation "Barataria.''

The labyrinth of bayous that served as a hideout for pirates and smugglers may have been responsible for the sense in which the name was applied to the whole region.

"Barataria'' is a Provencal equivalent to the 15th century French words "baraterie,'' meaning deception, and "barater'' meaning to deceive, to exchange, to barter. The English equivalents of "baraterie'' is barratry, one meaning of which is fraudulence or illegality at sea.

Betsy Swanson
Harahan

It's so easy to lose the past...Thank Besty for saving some of it for us.

Solstice Magic

2011-06-21T00:27:00.001-05:00

Nature is speaking to us. Some are listening.

Thomas Friedman says the Earth is Full. He bases his NY Times article on the work of Paul Gilding.

As we approach the Summer Solstice, we are charged with doing magic to protect the earth.

But magic must always be *informed* . We must watch...we must listen... before we can know how to act.

Personally... I'm thinking cool, wet thoughts. We have been in serious drought for at least 2 months.
The weather has been, dry and warm. In the afternoons and early moring the humidity is so, unnaturally, low that it feels like Colorado instead of Louisiana. I know there has been too much snow & rain in the Mississippi Watershed. We watched the river gauge hoover at flood stage, while we waited for the Corps to send the water into the floodplains where it would flow naturally if not leveed for our protection. And we had to water our gardens to stop them from drying up at the same time.

The earth is speaking to us... we need to listen before it's too late.

Benevento

2011-06-19T08:27:00.001-05:00

I am a mostly silent member of the Traditional Stregheria yahoo group...

One of the members, Myth, does significant research and graciously posts to the site.
She often reposts things she has researched and written in the past.

A resent repost on Benevento was quite interesting.

Who are the real Strega?

2011-06-07T10:55:00.002-05:00

Raven Grimassi answers this question on his new blogspot blog.

Stormy Weather - Start of Hurricane Season 2011

2011-06-01T00:00:00.001-05:00

Hurricane Season starts June 1st and ends November 30th.

I'd like a 2011 Hurricane Season a lot like 2009 or 2010. Just enough to keep the Gulf cooled off... storms far enough away from New Orleans not to make any of us crazy.

Listen to Lena and hope that we don't have Stormy Weather. I know it's been more than 5 years but we're still sad and mad and we don't want a repeat any time soon. And too many families are still apart.

Chapter 43 – Elemental Summer Solstice Lesson

2011-04-17T00:00:00.001-05:00

Owen thought that Nola had been perfect with the clients of the Second Street house. The owners were both there and armed with her questionnaire she had been able to walk the fine line between reading the wife’s mind on what she wanted and the husband mind about how much money he was willing to spend. Owen and Joe had finished taking the final measurements that Owen would use to draw up the plans. As he and Joe had watched Nola talk about the large fruit trees the wife wanted and the husband had balked at cost, it seemed Nola had walked between the worlds or become 2 Nola’s to interact with their clients. Owen recalled the conversation.
“Yes, sir I understand concerns about cost for larger established plants especially the trees. If you don’t want to put all the trees in at one time, we can phase them in. We can also retain or even reuse and move some of your existing plantings. Not all plants will survive a move but I successfully moved and reused azaleas and plumbago. But you have to be willing to water these transplants carefully. If there are plants that you absolutely want to eliminate then let us know and we’ll work with you. But if you really want to change the way the garden feels to you then I think the most important thing is to have the walkways established and the beds laid out with some key plantings, like the larger fruit trees, and then heavily mulched. You can then phase in additions or changes over time.”
And the husband had agreed about the walkways and when he did Joe had discretely nudged Owen because they knew that that was where they made their money. That and maintenance.
And she had looked to the wife and said, “Sometimes it is better to let some of the bones grown in before you add more large plants. As the plants fill in and you live with the space sometimes you change you mind on what you want. If we are able to lay out the beds and we mulch like crazy, then we can use naturally reseeding plants so you can have seasonal change rather than the same bushes all year long. Using seeds is for people who like to see a garden change. It’s for people who don’t mind when a garden looks a little bare because they enjoy watching the seeds sprout and having different flowers at different times of the year. I personally find it fun, but then I like putting my hands in the dirt.”
And then turning to the husband, “Have you seen Owen’s garden?”
And he had indicated they hadn’t. “Well before you decide on the approach you’d like to take, it might be a good idea to take a ride and see it in person. It’s only about 15 minutes away. The before and after, for his yard, was more drastic than yours will be. But it will give you an idea about what your yard will look like when we’re done and help you decide on the size of the plants you want to use.”
The wife was looking forward to a garden tour and the husband felt like he had made his point. Nola had turned to Owen, “Why don’t you talk to Owen about a tour while Joe & I take another look around you yard? It will help us work out the details so that Owen will be able to draw up the suggestions.”
While Owen had given instructions on how to get to his home, Joe and Nola walked to the back of the house and then slowly worked their way forward. Joe was a natural. He understood where the issues would be with laying walkways and he was beginning to understand Nola’s approach to how she decided which plants to use where. By the time they left the clients had decided that Nola was the most practical understanding planner they had ever worked with and were looking forward to a garden tour of Owen’s home on Saturday after Nola looked at the Lakeview house. Joe was sure they were in and that he’d get that Garden District feather for his cap. Owen had been more than a little pleased himself. He had known that Nola would be able to handle herself and the clients. He could also see that Joe liked working landscaping almost as much as Nola did and that eventually Joe would be managing this end of the business just like Roger managed the repair and renovation work. Owen was never happier than when those around him were happy and successful.

As Nola drove to Owen’s for the Thursday lesson she thought about the amount of time she had spent with Owen the past weekend, up to and including his charming her daughter with another sushi dinner. This was getting out of hand. She was felt like she was spending too much time with him. And Settrano popped into her head and said, “Yes, but it’s fun.” And she thought, yes it is. But I’m not sure it’s smart. We have Solstice coming up. The lessons need to get back on track. And she pulled into the driveway and got out of her truck.

Owen was on the phone and didn’t realize she was there until she rang the front door bell.
“Hey there, sorry I was on the phone. LeBlanc just called and he wants you to do some site assessments this weekend.”
Nola’s stomach flipped. Owen could see that she was already working strategy.
“I did just what you said and told him sure you’d be glad too. I just needed contact you and confirm when you could be there and get back to him. I didn’t tell him that Joe and I will be there with you.”
She sighed and said, “Ok. Where are the houses?”
He handed her the list that he had in his hand. “Come all the way in. I’ll get you some wine. I should let you get all the way in the door before you start working.” And he took her by the arm and ushered her in and they headed to the kitchen.
Nola had glanced at the list. Most were sprinkled in the uptown area with a few in MidCity and Lakeview. As she sat on the bar stool she said, “Could I please have some water instead of wine?”
“Sure.”
She was still looking at the list. “Did he say which sites he wants done this weekend?”
“Well…” and Owen put the glass of iced San Pellegrino water in front of her, “he said this one” and he pointed to a Lakefront area house, “should be first.”
Nola shook her head. “Of course.”
“Of course?”
“Yep, this area is still pretty empty. Dare I say, secluded? The man is a worm.”
And Owen realized that LeBlanc was essentially trying to use him to get to Nola in a compromised and even potentially dangerous situation.
Nola could see Owen’s mind starting to spin and said, “Owen, its fine. I knew this was coming. You and Joe will be there. LeBlanc will realize he’s lost. We’ll take a look at his properties…” and she looked down at the list and counted, “… his 10 properties, all in one day. Saturday or Sunday. And then you will take his money.”
“Just like that?”
“Yes. Just like that. Joe will get a crash course on site assessment. You’ll draw up some simple plans and a maintenance contract for all of the properties. He’ll sign and you’ll take his money. After this your landscaping business will be big enough to make Joe head landscape specialist. He’s earned it and he’s a natural.”
Owen’s head was spinning. He had already assumed that Joe would manage the landscaping, but having Nola say it out loud as if it was a foregone conclusion was… was… well…
“Owen? Are you alright?”
And he looked up as she said, “I know Joe wants to do the landscaping. Do you still want to do the landscaping?”
“Yes. Yes woman I do. But I’m usually the one who does the planning.”
She smiled at him, “But this is different. LeBlanc is a worm. Use him like a worm. Let him work the soil for you but don’t think to hard about him.”
“What?”
“Nature is the Great Teacher. You can’t change who LeBlanc is at his core. He is a worm. Worms can be useful. I can use these properties to train Joe. We’ll make the properties look good for LeBlanc’s tenants and their neighbors. The properties will be low maintenance. Joe can establish a presence in the area as he works maintenance and folks will see the signs you had made for the side of his truck. Joe will probably begin to generate business on his own. He is a natural with clients: friendly, easy going, professional. LeBlanc will simply have worked the soil so this aspect of your business can grow. In the process we will get rid of him as a problem and turn him into an asset.”
“Nature and worms as a business model?”
“Well I wouldn’t have put it quite like that.” And she smiled, “but, yes.”
“Woman, you are amazing.”
She smiled at him, “I don’t know about amazing, but thank you.”
She could see that his mind was still working but wanted to get to the lesson in preparation for next week’s Treguenda. “Do you think that Joe can start working with us around 8AM at” and she pointed to an uptown house, “this house?”
Owen snapped out of it as he looked at the list, “I think so. I’ll have to confirm.”
“Why don’t you call Joe and ask if he’s available? I think we can do all of these uptown houses” and she pointed to 6 houses on the list, “pretty quickly, then move on to these MidCity houses before we meet LeBlanc at the Lakefront house. I’m pretty sure LeBlanc won’t be able to meet us until later in the afternoon. But try to pin him down to as early a time as possible.”
“Ok. Joe early on Saturday. LeBlanc in the afternoon.”
“umm hmmm.” And she took a sip of her water.
Owen looked at her, “You want me to call Joe now.”
“hmm hmmm. Let’s confirm the plan will work so we can stop talking about LeBlanc and start talking about something more interesting and fun.”
He smiled at her. “Ok.”
“I’ll take my water to the library and then I think I’ll visit your fish while you nail down this weekend’s details. Please try for all in one day. I don’t want to spend any more time on LeBlanc then we have to.”
“Ok, Chief.” And he smiled and shook his head at how unusual this woman was and went to his office to make some phone calls.

Nola was sitting on the edge of the fish fountain when Owen returned. She had been trying unsuccessfully to determine why the fates kept pushing her together with Owen. Tago was smiling. Nola had decided that after 10 properties in 1 day that Joe would probably be able to read her mind and do site assessments himself. Once that aspect of Owen’s business settled down into a more established mode she figured she could begin to back out slowly. What she wanted to do tonight was get Owen thinking about Summer Solstice and go home. Well that wasn’t really true. What she wanted was to get Owen thinking about Summer Solstice and then escape from how easy it was to be here with him in his house. She was beginning to prefer being in his space to being in her own and that was ridiculous.

Owen met her at the fish. “Well it’s all set for Saturday. Joe will meet us uptown. I also asked Latasha if her grandson wanted to come along with us. I think that Joe likes the planning and planting more than he likes the maintenance and I think it will make Latasha happy if her grandson has the potential for consistent work. He has actually always been very good at yard work. He, like you, likes looking back on his finished product. I'll pick you up at your house at 7:30AM.”
She smiled at him, “Sounds like a plan. LeBlanc won’t know what hit him.”

Owen smiled and opened the can of fish food. “I thought I’d get in a little fish training. I haven’t fed them today.”
And he moved his hand over the water and the one with the red dot on its head followed him, came to the top and Owen dropped in few pellets. “That one is now breaking the surface but it still won’t open its mouth.”
He moved his hand over the water and the other fish followed and broke the surface with its mouth open and Owen dropped in a few pellets. “I guess you could say that’s fish training perfection.”
Nola smiled, “Could I have a few pellets?”
“Sure.”
She waited until it looked like the fish were finished with their first round of pellets and then moved her hand over both fish until they were swimming and together following her hand over the water. She arranged the pellets so that she had some in each hand. She moved her hands closer to the water and then slowly moved her fingers into the water so the pellets could roll down them. The fish hesitated and then moved in and swam up to her hands and began eating as the pellets floated out of her hands and into the water.
Owen watched. Nola looked up and said, “Very gentle, trusting fish. I was hoping that I could get Red Dot to open his mouth near my hand. I think it might be the first step in getting him to open his mouth so you can drop the pellets in.”
“Training fish.”
She brushed off her hands and said, “I think it’s time we got back to training you, student. Summer Solstice is next week. We need to review the ritual. Shall we work in the library?”
“Ok.” He smiled, “I’ll put the fish food away while you wash your hands and I’ll meet you in the library.”

Nola cleaned up and then went to the kitchen for more ice and water and then went to the library expecting Owen to be there. She turned as he came into the library with wine glasses and wine in one hand and the manual in the other.
“The manual was upstairs and I thought that you might want some wine.”
She held up her water glass and said, “Maybe a little later.”
He poured some red wine in each glass and placed hers on the table behind the sofa within her reach. Then he lifted the book and said, “I’m assuming that you’ll want me to read?”
“Maybe. There really isn’t much to read in this ritual. Have you looked over the ritual?”
“Yes, teacher.”
She smiled at him. “Ok then we’ll walk through it and talk about the key elements in a minute but first, I think we should talk about how you cast the circle.”
His brow furrowed, “Is there something wrong with how I cast the circle?”
She laughed, “No, not at all. It’s just that for this ritual I think that we should have the altar downstairs and that you should cast the circle around the entire property.”
He smiled, “Like I did on my birthday.”
“Yes, like you did on May Day but with the altar downstairs” She corrected with a smile.
“Ok, why?”
“Because this ritual is about interacting with and honoring the Gods and Nature. Part of the ritual is providing an offering for the nature spirits. I thought that it would be good if we could do this at the four corners of your property. Plus with the altar downstairs it’s easier for us to move in and out of the house.”
And he thought about that. “Well I don’t see an issue with the North or West, those are in private areas of the yard, but I’m not so sure about the south and east. The landscaping isn’t substantial enough in the front just yet. And the east is open to the street from the drive way. While we can do this when few people are out and about, I’m not sure I want to chance my neighbors seeing me running around in the yard at night with a naked woman.”
And she giggled. “Ok…. I think that the gods will be ok with us slipping on our robes for that activity.” Then she joked, “Maybe you could put a privacy panel on the gate. One that you could put on or take off as you needed to. Then once the gardenias grow in you could run naked in your yard with lots of women and none of your neighbors would see.”
“A privacy panel. You mean like a shade for the gate.”
“Well yes, but I was just joking.”
But his brain was buzzing with how to make that happen. “Grometted canvas that could slide over the top of the fence pikes. I could put it on or take it off whenever I wanted.”
“Owen…. it’s not necessary. We can wear robes.”
“If they see us in matching robes don’t you think that is just as likely to raise eyebrows as being naked? Actually now that I think about it, in New Orleans naked might be less likely to raise an eyebrow than robes.”
And she had to smile at that. “Well I leave you to decide what you want to do. We have robes. Or I could also bring the wrap I use around swim suits. You could slip on shorts. We can make it work.”
He thought about that and said, “I think that we’d be less likely to cause people to wonder what we are in shorts and a wrap.”
“Ok, then I’ll bring a wrap next week and you can cast a large circle around your property.”
He nodded, “Ok.”
“I’ll bring the libation fluid.”
“Is that the honey, wine, milk mixture?” and he made a face that said, yuk.
“Yes, but I am planning on leaving out the milk. I have a pitcher that will work well for pouring libation. My wand is a fennel stalk. I don’t have any sorghum.”
And she could hear the dubiousness in his voice as he said, “For the mock battle between Light and Darkness.”
“Yes, but there is a battle between Light and Darkness, Day and Night, Summer and Winter, Good and Evil. It is real. We each struggle every day to find the balance. We can make good decisions or not so good decisions. I think of this as the opportunity to magically encourage the world and all its entities whether individuals, governments, corporations, or other groups to understand that there is a battle, that there is a choice and to choose a path of balance and understanding. I think, but can’t know for sure or prove, that this piece of the ritual was added at a later date in human history, sometime after we had moved out of our hunter gatherer stage and into fiefdoms, city states, more organized governments. I think that it is important for us moderns to reach out to the greater world, to larger Nature and the unseen energies and to call on them to help us battle the forces that do not seek the same balance and alignment with nature.”
“Wow.” He teased.
She rolled her eyes at him and reached for the manual that was on the sofa between them and turned to the ritual. “Let’s take a look.”
And he chuckled and nodded Ok.
“You'll cast the circle. Then the priest and priestess would enter the circle as God and Goddess. Summer Solstice marks the maturity of the Gods and the wedding of the God and Goddess, the blending of male and female energies in all of us. With only the 2 of us we won’t be able to do this part but we can adjust the ritual to make it work.

She handed him the book and said. “Here why don’t you read the address.”
He took it and read:
“We gather now on this sacred night of Summer’s Eve and join ourselves to the powers and forces of this mystical season. On this night the Foletti gather, as do all those spirits of Nature to which we are kindred. For the witch and the fata are of a similar race. So it was in the time of the beginning, so it is now, so it shall be.”
And then he said, “Nature Spirits. Fairies?”
“Well yes and no. The Folleti and most other Italian representations of spirits aren’t simple, sweet fairies from childhood stories. They have power. But they are representational, a way of looking at powers and forces in nature.”
He still had a questioning look on his face. She smiled as she realized that fairies weren’t working on this practical, heterosexual man. Then she said,
“Think about being who you are as an individual and as a follower of the Ways. Think about how you blend the 2 together. Think about how the Ways can influence your life. Think about being a part of the wider world and universe and all its energies and quantum possibilities. As you open yourself up the rest will come naturally. Trust me.”
“I do trust you. I’m just not so sure about me and fairies.”
She chuckled, “You’ll be fine. It’s not about fairies. You’ll probably have to spend some time thinking about it but then I need you to let your worry go and it will be just fine.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yes, I am.”
“Ok, Yoda.”

“You know I don’t remember us going over Aradia’s Words on the Elements. I think that this is as good time as any to do just that. And she flipped the pages in the book, and handed it to him so he could read.
He looked at her not sure how all this fit together. But read,
“There is a vaporous, subtle and invisible quality to each of these things which are called the physical elements. The ancients have told us that all of creation was brought into being when Spirit drew the four elements unto itself. These elements are called Earth, Air, Fire and Water. And they are controlled by Spirit.
Each of these elements possess an etheric double. It is this essence which gives vitality or fertility to the physical object.
Just as the physical realms or matter contain their own forms of life, so too do the etheric realms. These entities have been personified as the many spirits and creatures of myth and legend. It is their activity which creates and maintains the vital essence within all matter.
The etheric powers of the elements also give potency to spells and works of Magick. It is within their realms that the Magickal powers ebb and flow. Thus are the spirits of the elements summoned to assist us.
She said, “This is essentially the as above so below concept. Elementals link us from the physical below to the etheric above. The elementals are placed at the 4 cardinal directions on the altar. But we’re going to give offering to the nature spirits at the 4 quarters of your property. What we do in ritual is align ourselves with energy that is invisible, subtle. We are going to call on this vaporous, subtle, invisible force of creation and we are going to channel it back to the universe for the benefit of nature, as a gift back to that which provides for us. Think of it like this and not fairies and you'll be fine.”
He nodded. He felt he understood the elementals through the process of casting the circle. They were called and resided in the substance provided. When he cast it felt like putting the pieces together, naturally. He understood the power of nature and the earth. This was why he felt aligned with a nature religion. He smiled at how Nola commented on his earth sign tendencies. She was right he was grounded and practical. What he said was, “I think I get it. I’ve felt the power of nature. It’s what drew me to paganism in the first place. I understand the elementals through circle casting. In this ritual we’re aligning ourselves with both.”
She nodded. “Right.” And smiled at him and took a sip from the glass of wine he had poured for her and let it all soak in for him.

When it looked like he was ready she went on and said, “You’ll need an offering for the Gods.”
“What should that be?”
“I can’t tell you. You’ll have to figure it out for yourself. Think about the season. Think about the battle between Light and Dark, growth and decay. Think about how these play out in your life today. Something will come to you. Remember an important part of an offering is the thing that comes from your heart. The thing that you place in the cauldron is a symbol.”
“What will you give as offering?”
“I haven’t decided yet.”
“Well that’s helpful.”

She chuckled, “You’ll figure it out. You’re an initiate now. The offerings to the God and Goddess come right after we do the Rite of Union. I think the Rite will help make sure that you’re in exactly the right state of mind.
After this we’ll have to get marginally dressed and take the libations and offerings to the nature spirits at the four quarters. We do this to align with and ask for their assistance before we do mock battle and then send draw on these and our own energies and send it into the universe.”
“This ritual seems different than the other rituals.”
And she thought about the fact that she thought so too. “Well, yes. In the other rituals we recreate what the Gods have done and in the process we align with the Gods. In those rituals we are asking them to come to us or hear our pleas. In this ritual we are actively doing magic for more than ourselves. We are acting and interacting with the larger forces of the universe. We are actively charged to give back. You’re right it is different.”
“I think I understand. But the mock battle seems a little strange. Am I really going to be chasing you around with a stick?”
“Well yes. But it is symbolic. I think that in some ways this mock battle is to remind us that we have to do things on the physical plane in order for our magic to work. That’s why we do battle before we send the healing energy into the universe with the Cone of Power. No magic works unless energy is expended on the physical plane as well as in the Astral.”
“You really believe this? You’re trained as a scientist and you really believe this?’
“Yes. I do. As a scientist I know that we see and measure what we know but history shows us there is more there than we can see and measure at any given moment. We humans didn’t understand oxygen until the late 1700s. We didn’t know about it or name it or understand how it worked or how important it is to us. But it was there all along and without it we die.
Genes and DNA are a part of us and all life but Mendel didn’t name them until the late 1800’s and we didn’t have the model and concept of DNA until almost a century later. Yet we as humans have been working with genes and DNA in breeding experiments for thousands of years.
We have the model of an atom. But quantum physics tells us that the pretty simple picture of a nucleus of protons & neutrons with electrons floating around is only a shadow of what is really going on. And we are only now beginning to see what is possible.
As a scientist I have to acknowledge that there are many things that I do not, now, know for certain and that I can not, now, measure. As a strega, I know that even without names and measurements that my ancestors interacted with the forces of the universe and I can too. One day we may have scientific names and processes for it all. But for now I have to trust the mystery of things that I feel intuitively and wait for science to catch up.”
Owen was amazed at how practical and yet how willing to acknowledge the unknown and mystical this woman was. What he said was, “How do you hold all that in your head at one time?”
She sighed and smiled. “I really don’t know. It’s just there. I don’t get to say it out loud to many people. Sorry if I was a little… energetic in my delivery.”
“Energetic. Woman you were passionate and I love that about you.”
“Well thanks. It is this energy, this passion, that we have to create in the cone of power. Have you ever created a Cone of Power before?”

He shook his head and said, “No.”
She nodded. “Do you know about the chakra concept from Eastern philosophy?”
“Yes, but what does that have to do with creating a Strega cone of power?”
“Reasonable question. Let me explain. I have found that the symbols and colors of the chakra system can be helpful in creating a cone of power. What we are attempting to do is to raise energy, from within ourselves and to draw energy from the physical plane and the elementals and the unseen and send it to the Astral to help balance and heal the earth. I’ve done this with a larger group but, it’s just the 2 of us so we will sit across from each other on the floor and hold hands. We will raise energy in ourselves by centering and then we will begin to draw energy to us. We’ll start at the base chakra and push the energy from our right hands into the left hand of the other as we move the energy and draw the energy up from chakra to chakra. I’ve found that spiraling the energy up and using a color change as we move the energy from chakra to chakra help contain and channel the energies.
And she moved to the ottoman and held out her hands right hand palm down, left hand palm up and said, “Here place your hands in mine.” And he moved toward her and put his left hand under her right palm and his right hand over her left palm. She looked down at their hands and touched palms as she said, “For right handed folks like us and even in many lefties, our right hands send energies, our left hands receive. We’ll center and then I’ll start by sending energy to you and you will send it back to me and we’ll work our way up the chakras and then send the blended energy into the universe. When we do this we will lift our joined hands together toward the sky and she raised their hands into above her head to a point.”
He looked at her through their raised hands and said, “Ok, I think I understand.”
She moved her hands away from his and said, “I’ll talk us through it just like I do the meditations.”
“I’m beginning to understand why you started working on me and my resistance to magic.”
She smiled. “You are so practical and grounded in the physical. But I know that you have the capacity and this ritual calls for you to try.”
“Ok, Yoda.”
She smiled at him and said, “Mr. Practical, I’m counting on you to get us a piece of balsa wood or cane about as big around as my fennel wand. You’ve used it in circle casting and know it’s light weight. So the sorghum stalk will have to be light weight too. If you can get the balsa wood, I will collect the stand in for sorghum from along the roadways so that we can attach it to the balsa wood and have our mock battle. Remember we’ll have to break the sorghum so you’ll want to make sure that you can actually break it, snap it in half.”
And she joked and felt his bicep and said, “I think you’ll be able to do it, but practice on what you get to be sure.”
“Is that a compliment or an insult?”
She laughed, “Well I can see that it might be construed as a backhanded compliment. But I just want to make sure that the ritual is successful.”
“Woman, I can break a stick of light wood.”
“Ok,” she laughed and put up her hands, “I believe you.”
“You’ll be using my fennel wand and I’ll be using the balsa stick. When good defeats evil you will break the balsa stick. Remember it’s a mock battle but it is supposed to be a battle. There should be some ferocity in the battle if not in the blows.”
“I think I can manage.” And he understood why she was asking for such light wood. It was as much to protect her wand as it was so he could break it. “And I promise we won’t break your wand.”

She smiled at him and said, “Well, I think that about covers what we need to do for the ritual. Any questions?”
He looked at her and said, “I’m sure I’ll have plenty, but none that I can think of right now.”
“Just spend some time with the ritual and think what we talked about and it will be fine.”
“Yes, Yoda.”
She smiled, “I’ll see you on Saturday."
“You are not leaving?”, and the disappointed face started to form.
She shook her head, “Yes, student, I’m leaving. I’ll see you Saturday at 7:30AM and then again on next Wednesday for Full Moon and the following Saturday for Solstice.”
As thought about the list of days he managed to smile.
And she laughed as she saw the change.
“You’re sure it’s not too hard to move the altar downstairs. It’s pretty big. You don’t have to move it by yourself. I can help.”
“Really, you think I need help to move the table?” He was kidding.
She was serious, “Well it’s big and awkward and you’re coming down the stairs and…”
“It was his turn to laugh. “I can handle it.” And he thought silently to himself, my stairs are way easier to manage than the stairs at the antique store.
“Well just be careful and don’t hesitate to wait for me if you change your mind about needing help.”
“Oh that’s sweet, you don’t want anything to happen to me.”
She smiled at him, took the teasing and said, “Walk me out Big Man.”

She had pulled the truck out of the driveway and he was still standing outside. She slips so easily into my life. But then she manages to slip right out again. How does she do that?

Chapter 42 – Next

2011-04-03T00:00:00.007-05:00

Nola wasn't sure what to do next. May had been a very strange month. The May Day Ritual had been successful but the fact that it had coincided with Owen's birthday had blurred the lines some how. Then there was the fun but odd dinner with Owen's family and passing herself off as his girlfriend. She felt like she had done her best to pull back from that aspect of their relationship with Owen. She had done two No Lawnmower Landscaping site assessments with him and Joe the weekend after dinner at Galatoire’s. She had gone out of her way to make sure that Joe came along. It helped that Joe was interested and seemed like a natural at site assessment. There was no reason for Owen to say Joe couldn’t go along. But after these two outings she had done her best to intentionally spend less time with Owen unless it was specifically associated with preparation for dedication or initiation.

Responsibilities as a mom had allowed her to skip one week altogether. She was hoping that her student had taken that time to think about what it meant to be initiated and what he wanted next. Owen had pestered her to come to a pool/client party for OA Enterprises and she had agreed but said she wasn't available unless it was a Thursday since she already had that day blocked out. She did have standing commitments that made it harder on other days, but the real reason she insisted on a Thursday was that she was trying to avoid spending more time with him than was necessary. Her hope was that if she wasn't available that he would get bored and find someone else to keep him occupied. Unfortunately the pool party had the effect of reinforcing the assumption that she and Owen were an item. And it seemed like she was right back where she had started at the beginning of May.

It seemed to Nola that Owen was content with things exactly as they were. He was happy when she was there. He pouted when she left but he didn't cling or call or email in between lessons. He just waited until the next time… well not most of the time and she remembered being tricked into Saturday breakfast. He seemed to enjoy the fact that his crew thought of her as his girlfriend. He had done absolutely nothing to persuade them otherwise. And she thought about the fact that she hadn't either and comforted herself with the rationalization that the truth would be stranger than the fiction they had created. So now what? She had no idea. It seemed the only option was to just charge ahead and keep teaching. She had no excuse to stop.

Tago smiled at the frustration of Bellaria, Meana and Settrano. He knew that the only way out was through and that Nola needed time. As far as he was concerned things were just fine.

Bellaria and Papa Eric had been working on Owen but Meana didn't feel like they were making any progress

The week after the pool party had been a busy one for Owen. The party had been a success. More work was lined up for home repairs and they had requests for a number of landscaping jobs. One of the things that Owen wanted to do was formalize was Nola's participation in landscaping aspect of his business. He felt he needed her to make this work. Gardening was definitely a drug for her. She loved it. And he liked seeing her happy. She had teased about being put on the payroll and he had always assumed he would pay her. But she had never said a word about being paid and he wasn't quite sure how she really felt about being involved in his business. He had 2 new landscaping jobs and wanted to arrange for her to do the assessment. The site assessment questionnaire she had created was very helpful and Joe was learning, but it seemed to him that the clients were more relaxed when Nola was there to do the assessment. There was something in how she talked to them that made them feel like they had control of the outcome and the cost and this made them willing to let his crew have the job. As he thought about it, the questionnaire, training Joe, it always felt like she had one foot out of the door.
"and you want her to have both feet inside your house all the time."
"Hi, pop. Yes I do." He smiled.
"Spoiled."
"Now pop..."
"So what are you going to do about changing the situation?"
As Owen considered his grandfather’s questions he realized that he hadn't thought about changing the situation at all. And then he thought some more.
"Changing the situation…. Now that is a very good question. I don't know...."
Papa Eric and Bellaria smiled to Meana.

And he did think about it. The real question was, what did he want to change? And other than having Nola around more often, he had everything he wanted as well as the capacity to get anything he could dream up. He was satisfied with his home, his work, in his own skin, and he smiled as he thought, the path he was now walking. For the first time in his life he didn’t feel the gnawing need for something unnamable.

Nola was due this afternoon. He was waiting at the fountain feeding and training the fish. While one fish had seemed to understand the connection between humans and food very quickly, the other fish was only now beginning to pick up on the idea. And he smiled as he thought about training fish. Nola pulled into the driveway and she smiled as she saw him walking to meet her.
"You look just like I thought you would when I first though about that pathway. How are the fish?"
"Learning and I never thought I’d say my fish are learning. But the one without the orange dot on its head is beginning to get the idea. Come see."
"OK."
And he hooked her arm and walked her down the pathway. When they got to the fountain he took some pellets from the food container and said, "Watch." and he moved his hand over the pool and the orange spotted fish followed his hand and so he dropped a few pellets in on that end of the pool. Then he moved his hand over the other fish and it followed to the other end of the pool and came gently to the top and Owen was able to drop a pellet right in its mouth. His eyes opened wide and he said softly not to scare the fish, "Wow.... it's never done that before."
She smiled and said, "Perhaps it was just hanging back waiting until it could be perfect in the process."
"It's a fish."
"Yes," she teased, "but you're training the fish. You must think it has some capacity or why would you bother?"
"You really think the fish was just waiting until it somehow figured it all out?"
"I don't know. Maybe. Who knows? Some people are like that. My very earth sign daughter is like that. She is capable of doing much but looks like she isn't trying at all until suddenly she has perfected what ever it is she has been thinking about. Try it again."
And he did and the fish did exactly the same thing. Nola said, "It seems to have surpassed the one with the orange dot."
"I guess now I have to work on the other one."
"Do it one more time."
He did and she said, "Cool. I bet Eric will be surprised to see that."
Owen smiled and said, "Well now that we can feed them one pellet at a time, perhaps it will be less likely that he will over feed the fish. There will definitely be less food in the water."
"It's good that you have those water lilies to filter the waste." And she looked from the pool down the walkway and said, "It's a lovely little ecosystem."
"Yes it is. Thank you for creating it."
"I just dreamed it Owen. You created it."
"Nope, we created it along with Maurice and Joe and a bunch of others to help."
She smiled and nodded in agreement. He held out his hands to her and she got up and he indicated they should go through the French doors to the library. He stored the fish food and walked her back to the kitchen. As he was opening a bottle of wine he said,
"Well now that I am initiated what's next?" And he held out the wine to her.
She took it saying, "You know Owen I have no idea. For all intents and purposes you've been acting as an initiate so I thought it best to initiate you. You are already better as circle casting than some initiates I know." And she closed her eyes and took a sip, "mmm, Brunello... so good. Thank you."
He smiled and then she said, "We have a few more Words of Aradia to talk through. The Summer Solstice is coming up so we should talk about that. You have only 4 more solar rituals before you will have been around the wheel of the year." And she paused and then said, "How is your rapport with the Grigori?"
He had been smiling. But as he thought about the Grigori, he seemed to get serious. And at this she smiled because some how the fact that Owen was serious about the Grigori seemed right and good.
"Well, I'm pretty sure that they are watching, just like they're supposed to. Sometimes I feel their presence more than others."
And she nodded, because everyone's relationship with the Grigori was a bit different. "Do you feel alignment or rapport more with one than the others?"
"Hmmmm, I guess if I had to name a Grigori that I think is working with me I'd say, "Settrano. Some how since I started on this path my life seems more fun, more relaxed, more spontaneous than I've felt free to be in the past."
"Really?"
"Yes, really. Why do you sound surprised?"
"Well..... I guess .... you've always seemed pretty spontaneous to me... asking to buy me coffee, deciding to change flights so you would come back on the same day... dragging me to do a site assessment... and a few other things..."
"Well I am usually a very planned and practical fellow..."
"Yes", she teased, "You are most definitely an earth sign..."
And he smiled and continued, "For a long time I've had a tendency to do what other's expected or needed. Now I do things because I think they are the right things to do."
"And you think that this is Settrano's influence?"
"Well, I can't really explain it... but some times it feels like there is someone telling me, sure OK, go ahead, do it! So I do, when in the past I might have hung back and waited."
Nola nodded, "I understand." She too had felt that influence but had worked hard to resist it. Spontaneity hadn't always been her friend. Some how, Meana and Tago seemed to provide balance for her. Settrano was a background influence. Her alignment with Bellaria was natural and easy. "Any other insights or influences?"
"Well... sometimes it almost feels like Papa Eric and Settrano are working together."
"We are, son."
"Whoa!"
"Whoa?"
He smiled as he said, "Papa Eric just said they are."
"Really?"
"Yes, really...."
She smiled and teased, "Then you're in trouble. It's hard enough to resist Settrano's influence but if he has help....."
"What?"
"Oh I'm teasing. It's interesting that your grandfather just pops in like that."
"I can't control it. But I have gotten used to it."
"Meana's working with me too, son."
"Ok..... Papa Eric says Meana is working with him too."
"Interesting. Grigori aligned with water and fire working on earth. Working with Meana has been very good for me."
Now it was his turn, "Really?"
"Yes. Really."
"Well how?"
"Well, Meana has taught me to be... softer... more accepting... of myself and others.... a little less fire and air, thought and action... and a little bit more feeling... taking care of myself..."
"So Grigori help with personal development?"
"Personal development... soul development... both... They watch and sometimes I think, just like they can let our magic work or stop it, they can influence our thoughts and actions, either encourage us or stop us. But these aren't teachings. These are just personal reflections of mine. I was curious about your experiences. I suppose it's the scientist in me looking for other supporting or contradicting data."

He was thoughtful for a moment and then he said,
"Let's move to the library."
"Ok."
As he started for the library he said, "Oh there is something I wanted to show you." And he stopped at the dining room table. "We have new signs for the trucks."
And she moved to the table and saw that he had a number of magnetic signs. The signs said,

OA Enterprises 504-985-7017
design, repairs, renovations, solar power & insulation
We do it all, including
NO Lawnmower LAndscaping

"What do you think?"
"You.... you... put no lawnmower landscaping on the signs?"
"Sure, business is good. How do you like the way I worked NO LA" and he pointed to the capital letters "into the name?"
"I... It's nice."
He looked at her a little confused, "I hoped you'd be pleased." But then he thought about how he felt that she always had one foot out of the door. He wanted to put his arm around her so she couldn't run away.
"It's nice Owen. It's fun and creative how you split the difference between Nola Landscaping and No lawnmower Landscaping." And she did her best to smile at him and mean it and not feel.... what was she feeling... scared?
He said, "I picked up 2 more jobs for you and I was hoping you could tell me when you are available to do the assessments."
"Jobs for me...." she said quietly. Then she got practical and said, "Where are the houses?"
"One is uptown in the Garden District and the other is in Lakeview."
"The Garden District? That's scary. Where exactly?"
"Second Street between St. Charles and Magazine. Why do you say scary?"
“Oh my god, the heart of the blue bloods... or maybe they are new blood...."
"What makes this scary?"
And she looked at him as if he was speaking another language. "You really don't know?"
"No.... I really don't know. Sure the houses are larger and the people have more money but.... so what?"
"So what? You've obviously lived a lucky life. Only someone who hasn't ever had to worry about money could say that." And he thought about the fact that she had no idea how right she was. "I'm a girl from the 9th Ward Owen. I grew up working class people. Sure I've been in the corporate world and I have skills now that I might not have grown up with, but I'm still blue collar at heart. People in the Garden District have money, power, and position. They don't think like I do or maybe it's more fair to say I don't naturally think like they do. Our base expectations and understandings of the world are so very different. I'm not sure that I'm ready to do the Garden District."
"But they've heard about us from friends and they’re interested...."
"Leblanc."
"What?"
"Did Leblanc recommend these people?"
And he thought about it, "I don't know. I think that they are friends of the lady who did the fountain. She was very impressed with the yard layout. She saw it before and after and asked a lot of questions about it. These folks said they were putting in a fountain."
"Oh..."
"Oh..? is that better somehow?"
"I... I... I don't know. It's just me. I always feel a little out of my element in the Garden District."
"But doesn't your daughter go to private Garden District school?"
"Yes, but sometimes I wonder if it's the right thing to do for her now."
"What?! Then why do you send her there?"
"Because...the early childhood program was, in my opinion, the best in the city… I needed to be able to feel good about going to work and leaving my daughter with someone else. I still remember leaving her at day care when she was only months old. It was the hardest thing I've ever done. That Garden District school made me feel ok about where my daughter was spending so many of the hours in her day. One of the reasons I’ve kept her there is because it provided an excellent education without the religious influence of parochial Catholic schools and PreKatrina most public schools were not an option. But as she has gotten older, I am less enamored of the upper social class overhead and occasional attitude associated with the school. Sometimes it seems like they expect the parents to be so grateful for the wonderful opportunity afforded our daughters and that they forget that I am paying significantly for the education being provided. "And…” she shook her head, "It's complicated."
"Well I can't say I completely understand."
"Have you ever traveled and had to speak another language to get by?"
"What? Where did that come from?"
"I'm trying to use an analogy. Work with me here."
"Oh well....considering the places you’ve been, I’m embarrassed to say not really.” And he thought about it and then said, “Except once I went to Canada, Quebec, and the signs were all in French and the people spoke French. But they could and would speak English too."
"Well do you remember what it felt like to be in Quebec? Wasn't it a little unnerving? Didn't it make you feel just a tad on edge and uncomfortable? Maybe not all the time... but at those critical points where you had to read the French sign to know what turn to take or you had to speak French to get what you needed?"
"Well..." and he looked like he was about to say not really.
So she broke in with, "I remember my first trip to French Canada. We crossed the border between Ontario into Quebec. All of a sudden all the signs were in French. The highway hadn't changed. I could still read the map. The town names were the same or close enough but it was disconcerting. It made me ... I don't know, uncomfortable until I got used to it."
And he had brightened, "Ok, yes. I know what you mean. I have experienced that."
"Well that is what it is still like for me when I interact with Garden District blue bloods. It's still a little disconcerting. I can see some of the undercurrents but I can't see or know them all because I didn't grow up in that world and it makes me uncomfortable."
And he could see she was serious but didn’t understand how she could feel that way. He knew she did just fine with people of, what had she said, money, power, position. "But your daughter has been in that world for more than 10 years right?"
And she nodded a bit dejectedly, "Right."
"I've never seen you look like you were out of your element. You seem to be able to have a natural ease when you interact with people. The guys like you...
"They are practical, hands on, blue collar workers Owen."
"The clients like you. You have a strong presence that is comforting. You listen to them and they can see that and they listen to you. You are the reason why we keep getting landscaping work."
"The landscapes are why you keep getting landscaping work. We did your yard and your yard sold the first clients and so on and so on... It's not me."
And he looked at her like she was crazy, "Come on. You do the site assessments, you talk to the clients, you created the questionnaire, you design the layouts. I just draw them up."
"And then you have your team create them and arrange for the plants to be delivered and ...."
And he put his glass down and scooped her into a hug. "You are the strangest woman. I think you can do anything and yet a few blocks of this city somehow scare you. I don't understand it but I see that it is real. I'll be there with you. It will be Ok. When can you do it?"
"I... I..."
He released her slightly from his hug, "Joe is looking forward to this."
And she sighed because she knew that he was right. Joe would be thrilled to get bragging rights to a Garden District house. "When are they expecting us?"
"How did you know I suggested a time already?"
And she just smiled at him, "I guess I'm used to Settrano's influence on you. It just seemed like you would have leaped because you could. Friday afternoon. You told them I'd be there, we'd be there, tomorrow afternoon."
And he was surprised but smiled, "Yes. See how amazing you are?"
And she sighed deeply again. "Joe will be there too?"
"Yes. You can come here and then we can go to their house together."
She shook her head, "No. I'll meet you there after work. It's close to Jamie's school and I'll have to pick her up at the coffee shop or her friend's house after we've finished. James will be at work."
That was not what he was hoping for but he managed to be light on his feet, "Ok but let me make it up to you by taking you and Jamie out for sushi."
She shook her head at him. He said, "I know that you aren't a sushi nut like your daughter but I figure that getting Jamie on my side it a good thing."
She finally said, "If I turned down sushi my daughter wouldn't forgive me. So .... Ok. Friday. Did you give them the questionnaire?"
"Yep, here it is." And he handed it to and she began looking it over. "I'm going to get the wine. I’ll meet you in the library."

She was still in the dining room when he returned from kitchen.
"Tomorrow is when we do the site assessment, woman.”
"umm hmmm... do you have anything that shows the layout of the yard?"
He put his hand behind her back and moved her toward the library. "Turn over the questionnaire. I did a rough sketch."
And when she didn't start walking he hooked her arm and said, "Come on woman... we can talk about it in the library."
And she followed him and sat in what he thought of as her spot on the sofa. She was still looking at the rough sketch. He just sat and waited. Then she looked up from the sketch and said, "The sketch is helpful... I'll need to see how the light works with the houses next door. I can use mapquest to get the rough compass directions...."
"Yes and you when you see it you the ideas will just happen and I'll have trouble keeping up you and getting them on paper. Tomorrow is soon enough. You don't seem scared anymore."
"Well... I am apprehensive, but it won't kill me." And she smiled and took a sip of wine and breathed deeply. "Besides it is gardening and with someone else's money..... how bad can that be?"
"Much better.” And he smiled and clinked her glass and said, “The Lakefront folks are hoping we can talk to them on Saturday. Are you available on Saturday?”
And she shook her head at him and thought how the fates seemed to conspire so that she spent time with Owen, “Yes. I’m an early bird my family is not. So I’m available Saturday. Saturday AM is the best time...” And she managed to smile as she said, “Did you already schedule this as well?”
“Well, I suggested Saturday morning but I didn’t promise Saturday. They haven’t filled out your questionnaire but they have it and are working on it. I’ll firm up the arrangements tomorrow.”
And she laughed lightly, “OK.”
He grinned, “I think that since we’re going to do a Friday assessment and then go to dinner and then do a Saturday morning assessment that the best thing to do is for you to meet me here. We can go to the Garden District together. I’ll take you and Jamie to dinner and then home. I’ll pick you up Saturday morning and then you can pick your truck up at my house and head back home.”
She looked at him thinking, “Well…”
And he raised his eyebrows at her as she said… “that does sound logical…”
“I thought so.”
“Ok.”
“Thank you for doing these assessments.” He was thinking that now would be a good time to talk about making her an official part of OA Enterprises but she just said,
“You’re welcome.” And then moved on and said, “So, new initiate, what would you like to talk about tonight?”

She watched as he slipped into what seemed deep thought and wondered what kind of question was coming her way. He was suddenly thinking a million things at once… he thought about how much fun it was to work with her… he thought about his grandfather asking what he wanted to change about the situation… he thought about how this was exactly what he wanted every night to be like… sitting and talking with this woman… and he thought about how strong and vulnerable she was all at the same time… he thought about how the Garden District and well heeled people somehow scared her…. He thought about how his grandfather had said that he wasn’t sure if Nola was ready to decide whether she can be in love with her husband or anyone else ever again… he thought about… Aradia’s Words…”
Papa Eric looked to Bellaria as if to say, “Is that your influence?”
Belllaria smiled and said, “He has the capacity. But he usually thinks consciously about only one thing at a time.”
Papa Eric laughed and thought, “Well he better focus or he is might strain something.”
Nola sipped her wine and waited perhaps there was something brewing under his normally happy go lucky façade. She hadn’t really seen him quite like this before. She’d seen him drop off into deep thought but it looked like he was actually not so much in deep thought but swimming in too many thoughts.
And Papa Eric nudged Meana, “How can she be so good at seeing into other people and not see into herself?”
Meana answered, “Nola does see into herself. But her life hasn’t always been easy or safe and she has taught herself to control her thoughts and emotions. When she lets herself feel deeply she feels out of control. So she keeps her feelings surrounded by her mental strength.” Bellaria nodded. Meana continued, “Through this path she has taught herself to be in the moment, but her life experiences have taught her to be almost outside of the moment at same time. She loves life and people and even without Settrano’s influence has a hedonist’s capacity to enjoy many things. But while she is brave and strong and capable she is cautious. After her father died she only allowed herself to be fully and completely in an emotional relationship with James and he has hurt her more than once. The protective layer that helps her move through life can also be the same thing that allows her to pretend she is keeping things from herself. But deep down, she knows. The problem has been getting her to act on this deep knowledge. She needs a catalyst. Owen is her catalyst.”
“My grandson does not know himself that well. He is still figuring it out. He is so comfortable that he doesn’t seem to think that anything needs to change. He needs a catalyst too.”
Tago said, “Nola needs time so let go and Owen needs time to reach out. Meana has been working with Nola. You and Settrano will have to keep nudging Owen along until the right catalyst presents itself. But we must give them time to work through this themselves.

Nola just sat there and looked at the site plan he had drawn up while she waited for him to decide what he wanted her to teach or talk about next.
Owen finally surfaced from under all the things he was thinking. When he became aware of the room again he realized that she was contentedly waiting and thinking about the site plan. He moved in and took the questionnaire from her hands.
"Oh..."
"We can do that tomorrow."
"Well I was just keeping myself busy while you working out what we're going to talk about tonight."
"Nothing."
"Oh... Well… then I guess that I can...
"No."
"No?"
"No, you can't leave. I don't want you to leave."
"Oh.", then she teased, "Should I click my heels and salute or just say ‘yes, master’?"
He smiled at her, "I prefer ‘yes, dear’ to ‘yes, master’."
"I'll have to work on that."
And they just smiled at each other not knowing what to do next. Nola finally said, "OK, I can see I'm going to have to do the heavy lifting. Next week we'll talk about the Summer Solstice. We still have Aradia's Words on Death and Rebirth to work through, as well as ..."
"Can it be movie night?"
And she thought about her teaching movies and said, "Well…”
And he said, “I think I want to watch ‘Sirens’ again.”
“I don’t think….” and she thought but didn’t say out loud that watching ‘Sirens’ wasn’t necessary for him. He didn’t need any help to be willing ready and able to experience the transformative power of sexuality.
“ …No… considering the Summer Solstice is a ritual where we Streghe are charged to do magic to heal or reestablish or ensure balance in the world… I think perhaps that watching ‘What the Bleep do we know, Down the Rabbit Hole..’ is a better choice.”
“OK, What the Bleep. I have wanted to watch that movie again.”
And he got up, found the movie and put it into the DVD.

When he returned to the sofa he patted the spot next to him and she conceded and sat where he indicated. He happily settled into the sofa and threw his arm over the back of the sofa. Nola smiled to herself as she thought how much he was like a harmless puppy wanting to snuggle next to someone.
Nola said, “You know there is an expanded version of this, a DVD set with I think 5 hours of information.”
“5 hours. Maybe we should get it.” He smiled thinking he could probably order it on line.”

Owen started the movie and held on to the remote control and this time he paused so they could talk through some of the concepts. It was midnight before they finished.
Owen was smiling thoughtfully as the credits rolled when Nola picked up the questionnaire and said, “I can meet you here for 3:30PM tomorrow.” Owen was lost in thought.
“Jamie will have to go to the bookstore and wait for me. I’m sure she won’t mind. Especially not with the promise of sushi.” And she stood up.
Owen looked up and realized that she was leaving. Nola shook her head at his spoiled 10 year old face and said, “That face is pitiful Owen.” And she leaned into him and gave him a kiss on his forehead. “I’ll see you tomorrow. Don’t get up.”
He got up, hooked her arm and walked her out the side kitchen door to her spot under the grape arbor.
He gave her a hug and said, “3:30PM tomorrow. I’ll call and confirm with the clients. Is 9AM on Saturday OK for the assessment?”
“9AM is fine. The earlier, the better.”
“Ok, I’ll pick you up at 8AM on Saturday and we can get coffee and then head to the site. I’ll see you tomorrow, right here at 3:30PM.”
She smiled at him and said, “Ok, Chief.”

A description of the Estrucans

2011-03-27T20:08:00.002-05:00

I found The Etruscan Chimera - an archeology mystery by Lyn Hamilton in a coffee shop where I regulary leave my magazines and unwanted paperbacks. It was free for the taking.

The following excerpt is from p. 27 - 30 (paperback version)

"What I found interesting was how much, yet how little, we know about the Etruscans, or the people we have come to know as Etruscans. It is unlikely they ever referred to themselves that way. That name came from the Romans, who referred to their neighbors, occasional allies, and in the end, intractable enemies, as Tusci or Etrusci. The Greeks called them Tyrrhenoi, after which the Tyrrhenian Sea is named. The Etruscans called themselves Rasenna or Rasna.

Their language, a rather unusually one that, unlike almost all other European languages, did not have Indo-European roots, has been deciphered to a large extent, but when it comes right down to it, there is very little to read, other than inscriptions on tombs and such. They may have had, indeed must surely have had, a rich body of literature, but it is lost to us, so what we know about them comes from archaeology or the writings of others: Greeks and Romans for example, whose own particular biases are reflected in their accounts. They also must have had a complex ritual and religious life, because we know that long after the Etruscan cities came under the domination of Rome, Roman citizens were still calling upon Etruscan haruspices, diviners, to aid them in important deliberations and decisions. The number and elaborate nature of their tombs indicate that there was a social structure, including a wealthy elite, but that also they believed in an afterlife. What exactly they believed, however, is, to a large extent shrouded in the mists of time.

What we do know is that people who shared a common language, customs and beliefs, dominated a large part of central Italy, what is now Tuscany - the word itself speaks to its Etruscan roots - part of Umbria and northern Lazio near Rome between about 700 B.C.E. until their defeat and assimilation by the Romans in the third century B.C.E. Their territory was essentially bounded by the Tiber River on the south and east, and the Arno to the north. To the west was the Tyrrhenian Sea. They lived in cities and used rich metal deposits along the Tyrrhenian shore to develop extensive trade by land and sea. In time, a loose federation of twelve cities, the Dodecapolis, grew up. The ruling elite of these cities, city states, really met annually at a place called Volsinii, to elect a leader.

During their heyday, before the birth of the Roman republic, there were Etruscan kings of Rome - the Taquins - who, between 616 and 509 B.C.E, were instrumental in building the city that would ultimately defeat them. The last king of Rome was Tarquinus the Proud, who was explected from Rome in 509 B.C.E. From that time on, Rome and the Etruscans were enemies, fighting over every inch of ground.

In the end, the Etruscan federation could not hold against the might of Rome. For whatever, reason the cities did not band together to protect themselves, and one by one, they fell. Their cities were abandoned, or fell into ruin, or were simply replaced by others, until they were reborn, in a different form, as medieval cities, some of the loveliest in Italy: Orvieto, Chiusi, Cortona, Volterra, Arezzo, and Perugia amoung them.

As mysterious as these people may have been, I noticed that many had opinions on them. Indeed, I would say that the Etruscans presented a blank slate, in a way, on which later people found a convenient resting place for their own hopes, beliefs, and desires. Cosimo de Medici was hardly the first to use the people's rather vague notions about the Etrucans for his own purposes. A Dominican friar who when by the name of Annuis of Viterbo, determined, in the fifteenth century, that the Etruscans, a noble and peace-loving people, according to him, had helped repopulate the earth after the Flood. To prove his point, he argued that their language was a version of Aramaic Despite his rather outlandish views, Annius's theories may have helped save some Etruscan antiquities from destruction by the church as pagan symbols. The Etruscans could have used Annius a century later, when something like six tons of Etruscan bronzes were melted down to adorn a church in Rome.

Lawerence, of Lady Chatterley's Lover fame, also thought the Etruscans were his kind of people, in touch with nature and their natural selves. He saw phallic symbols everywhere on his visits to Etruscan sites and wrote glowingly of what he saw to be their refreshingly natural philosophy. On the other hand, the philosopher Nietzsche, who arguably kewn something about angst, called them gloomy - schwermutigen - although what made him think that was not clear. The art critic Berensen dismissed all Etruscan art as being non-Greek and therefore unworthy, even though, if I'd interpreted what I'd read correctly, the Greeks living in Italy had been responsible for some of it, and some of the art prized as Greek and Roman had later been revealed to be Etruscan. By the end of my reading, it was pretty clear to me that views expressed about the Etruscans said more about the holder of those opinions than about the Etruscans themselves."

Information in Bb - YouTube Poetry

2011-03-23T20:10:00.002-05:00

Information
By Daniel Donahoo (2009)

YouTube Poetry by essforgee

She closes the lid.
And unplugs a device no bigger than her thumb from the computer.
"My life's work" she says.
But it isn't her life's work.

You see we store information like an Escher Painting.
It shouldn't all fit in there. But it does.
And every day we manage to fit more and more into smaller and smaller spaces.
"Until one day, she says, "we'll be able to fit all the information that the world has. Everything that everyone knows and believes and dreams into nothing."

It will all be in there;
stored and filed, tagged with any key words you might imagine.
Our hard drives will be thin air.
It will make nanobots look like elephants.
And elephants will be in there too.
Tagged.
Accessible by search terms like
grey, ivory and the largest land dwelling mammal.
We'll process away at nothing and understand everything.

We'll think of of word and the information will slip in,
not through our ears or eyes but straight through out skin.
Information will breathe in and out of us, permeate our skin.
Our knowing will be as deep as it is wide.

You see our work here is to learn so much, to be so full of knowing,
that there is left is to do is unlearn.
Humanity must get to a point where we let go.
We leave the useless ideas and the spent ideologies in recycle bin:
like an adolescent brain shedding neurons,
like a snake slithering from its old skin,
like an old man who's come to understand so well
the point where reality meets the intangible
that he's able to decide which breath will be his last.
And he will enjoy that breath more than any that he has taken in his entire life.

And Her life's work is more than a 4 meg flash drive
"My life's work", she says, "is the impact that this has.
"This is not about what I produce.
It is all about what others receive."

Saints Joseph, Partick, Big Chief & Spy Boy

2011-03-20T10:18:00.005-05:00

New Orleans is such a mash up of cultures that we have

Irish-Italian Parades in 3 parishes (for everyone else in the USA this is the equivalet of 3 counties)

AND

The Indians (Mardi Gras Indians) hold their Super Sunday around the same time, which is intrestingly enough....

The Spring Equinox

Chapter 41 - Pool Party

2011-03-20T00:00:00.000-05:00

Owen had adjusted his pool party to Thursday evening. It was a combination work gathering and client gathering. Nola said she would come, as the landscape specialist, if it was a Thursday. Folks had been busy or out of town with the Memorial Day holiday the weekend before so Thursday actually worked well for a not quite work gathering. Nola, Joe, Maurice, Roger and Louis would be there early, 5 PM, for the client and potential client visits. The rest of the staff and their family and friends would be showing up later around 7PM.

Since it was a pool party they were to come dressed to swim. When she got there Maurice met her in the driveway. Owen was inside with the caterers. "Hello Goddess."
She smiled, "Hello Maurice. Ready to float in the pool?
"Yes, but I have to work the clients first."
"I know. Me too."
Roger came from the back yard. He was opening the gate so that people could literally circle Owen's entire house. He whistled at her.
"Hello Roger, how are you?"
"Fine but not as fine as you. I'm sure we'll get some new clients just because of that get up."
"Stop it. I have on a conservative one piece suit and am completely covered from my waist to my toes."
And Joe over heard as he came around from the front yard. He had been opening the side gate. He whistled. "Yeah but it makes us crazy when your leg peaks out."
"Hey Joe. Not you too?"
"You're Owen's secret weapon."
Owen came out of the kitchen door. "Perfect. You came dressed exactly like I expected."
"Jezzz, I had no idea that I was part of some show. I think I need to get paid extra!"
And Owen said, "OK."
And she rolled her eyes at him. "You guys need to stop it. I'm conservative enough."
And Maurice said, "Yep, just conservative enough not to piss off the females and just curvaceous enough to draw the males. Absolutely a secret weapon."
"Ok, that's it. I'm going inside."
Joe said, "What do you have there?" and he pointed to the papers in her hands.
"Oh it's a client questionnaire. I'm hoping that it can be used before we do site assessment so that we can recommend fruit tree types and know ahead of time if they are interested in a vegetable garden. I think it will make the site plans Owen draws up better on the first pass. Less recycle time. Here take a look." And she handed out the questionnaires.
Owen and Roger looked over the questionnaire. Maurice took one and looked at the section on hardscaping.
Owen said, "This is good. I think it will help."
Maurice said, "I like that you're asking upfront about their preferences for pathways. This question about garbage can and recycle space it good. Before you those were always after thoughts and a second round of form building."
Nola asked Joe, who wanted to learn to do site assessments, "What do you think?" and they put their heads together and started talking and walking to the fountain.
Roger nudged Owen. "Smart, nice to look at, low maintenance."
Owen just smiled. And the first client came to the gate. They took their places and Owen started working. Nola and Maurice waited to be introduced at the fountain. Nola could talk about the no lawnmower approach. Maurice could talk about the pathways. Joe was supposed to be on the back patio. Roger was to work the driveway and make sure that folks could get in or out of the gate. Owen's house was open and sample plans were laid out on the dining room table. There was a bar on the back patio.

There were hugs from folks whose houses they had worked on already. This made chatting up the new clients easier. And Nola realized that Owen had been smart to include both old and new. There were a number of clients who only had their homes worked on and who didn't know about the landscaping. Owen had before and after pictures of his yard set up by the fountain. Nola could see the light bulb come on for folks and figured that they would definitely get new clients for No Lawnmower Landscaping. It was almost June so the seeds she had planted in March were not quite in full flower but close. Folks were consistently amazed that so much of the landscaping was from seed. When they realized how inexpensive this was they were even more interested. Most folks were really nice but there was one guy, Mr. Leblanc, who had a number of houses around town that Owen's crew had worked on who made Nola uncomfortable. She couldn't quite put her finger on it. But he was a large client so she was doing her best to be nice. It was his third time around and his third time to the bar. He came up to Nola and Maurice and said, "Hello Maurice."
"Hello Mr. LeBlanc, enjoying yourself?"
"Yes, I am. I was wondering if Nola here could give me a tour of Owen's yard."

Maurice looked at Nola who said, "I'd be happy to. Do you have any specific questions?"
"Well I really like the idea of not having to pay for grass cutting. It seems that if I landscape I could almost eliminate lawn care."
Nola said, "Almost is right. You'll still have to do weeding and watering and check up on the landscaping to keep it healthy but once the landscaping is established the weekly maintenance is eliminated."
"So if I get Nola Landscaping, then I effectively reduce my overhead."
"Well we don't call it No Lawnmower Landscaping for nothing." She laughed. "Maurice's pathway work is critical. It's the bones of the design."
He took her by the arm and said, "Well most of my properties already have pathways. I think I'd like you to talk me through the plant layouts."
"Oh" and she looked at Maurice who shrugged and sat down on the fountain edge. "Ok. Are you interested in flowers?" And she started to walk toward the driveway.
He said, "No not really. I want the landscaping to be as easy to maintain as possible."
"Ok, well then the gardenias and sweet olives can work in most places. Mulch is key to keeping the maintenance down...."
And he turned her around and said, "You know I think I'd like to have you to tell me about the side yard."
Nola said, "Ok, sure. That area is a good example of what can be done with areas that get heavier shade."
"Ah, good, I have properties with heavy shade" and they headed past Maurice who watched as they went through the open gate and how Leblanc put his arm around Nola's waist after they got through. Maurice perked up and watched carefully but more closely than he was before. Nola handled herself and said, "As you can see we've used redbuds, which are native understory trees that change with the seasons" and she stepped forward slipped from his grasp and turned back toward Maurice as she said, "And over here a variety of ferns for textural interest." She walked ahead and said. "We've also have a walkway but it allows for drainage. It's important for the planting and the property to allow for natural drainage."
She kept moving toward the back pool area. But LeBlanc caught up to her and put his hands back on her waist again and said, "What is this under our feet?"
"Oh that's a combination of creeping fig closer to the walkway and jasmine off the walkway."
And he said as he held her there, "Why 2 different types?"
"Well the fig is better in the sun and sturdy to walk on. The jasmine does a bit better in the shade and creates a more lush carpet."
"Lush. I like that."
And Nola didn't like the way that sounded or felt. So she kept walking and
LeBlanc took his hands off of her as they came around into the back patio area. Nola thought as she looked across the pool. Where is Joe? What she said, "Back here we have an area that I planned to look as much as possible like a forested area. It's heavily mulched and there are lots of understory trees and closer to the center of the yard a fig and a peach, because Owen likes peaches. Do you think that you would be interested in any fruit trees for you property?"
"No probably not."
"Oh well, they can be fun and appealing to tenants and many are fairly easy to maintain. It's of course your option."
Leblanc looked over to the far side of the pool and saw there was no one else over there right now and said, "Why don't we walk over there and you can tell me about the tree choices."
"Ok." And she walked between the pool and the garage and commented that one of the ways to make some of the small yards in typical shotguns and shotgun doubles more appealing was to use vines on the fences and she pointed to the passion vine and clematis on the garage.
Leblanc asked, "What kind of vine is this?"
Nola said, "Passion Vine."
And Leblanc said, "I could probably like Passion Vine."
Nola kept walking until she got to the far back corner. She was hoping Joe would show up soon.

Maurice watched Nola until she stepped out of view onto the back patio then he made his way into the house. He saw Owen talking to some perspective client over plans on the dining room table. He thought better of saying anything to Owen just yet and moved toward the kitchen where he bumped into Joe coming out of the bathroom. "Joe."
"What's up?
"You're not in the back yard?"
"I just took a bathroom break man. What's the matter?"
"I don't like the way LeBlanc is putting his hands on Nola. I'm pretty sure she doesn't like it either but she's being a good sport."
Joe's eyebrows went up and he said. "Where are they?"
"In the backyard I think."
"Let's go see from the back porch. I think that Nola can handle herself."
"Yeah I'd rather not get Owen involved."
"Right."
They went out to the back porch. They could see that Nola was doing her best to show LeBlanc the plantings and stay away from him at the same time and that LeBlanc kept getting closer than he needed to and putting his hands on her to stop her and ask her questions. He had just put his hand around her waist again and was moving her under the oak tree and she was smiling and pointing toward the driveway.
Joe said, "Shit. He's got more than 20 properties and we've already done work on 10." Maurice said, "I'm going to get Roger. I think that you should find Owen and let him know that he needs to be cool and professional but that Leblanc has probably had too much to drink."
Joe nodded and Maurice said, "But stick with Owen in case he get's all protective over his woman." Joe nodded again.
"This is large shady area under the oak is nice." he said.
"Yes, it is especially in the summer heat. Owen was very careful to ensure that the root system wasn't harmed when the pool went in." She hoped that if she kept mentioning Owen's name that maybe LeBlanc would back off.
"What's in the corner?"
"Oh just a basketball court. There are really no plantings back there. Let's go take a look at the side yard. Shall we?"
"Ok," but he didn't take his hand off of her waist and he didn’t let her move. "What will it take to get you to come and do a site assessment at my properties?"
"Well if you give Owen a list, I'll be able to let you know. I'm training Joe, You've met Joe?, to do site assessments so since you have multiple properties he'll be able to do some site assessments as well."
"Ok. When are you available to do site assessments?" and now he had both his hands on her waist and was moving her deeper into the shadows.
"Mr. LeBlanc. I think..."
"Jeff."
"Jeff, Mr. Leblanc, perhaps I've given you the wrong impression." And he moved his hand up to her breast and moved in a little closer.

Joe was waiting anxiously for Owen to finish with his clients. Maurice had moved to the side yard and found Roger and they were moving to the back yard. But there was a crowd of folks at the bar near the gate and they were having trouble getting through. Joe had managed to get to Owen in the dining room.
"Hmm Owen, I think that LeBlanc has had too much to drink."
"Well, he does like his cocktails."
"Hmmm, Owen... he's got Nola in the backyard and we think..."
And that was all Joe was able to get out before Owen started moving toward the kitchen past the stairs and Joe moved through the other passage way toward the back kitchen door. Roger and Maurice had finally decided that going through the kitchen was probably faster and ran right into Owen.
"Damn, Why aren't you all with Nola!"
Maurice said, "I got this" and stepped in front of Owen and said. "Roger, Joe, get outside!" and they moved.
"Now, Owen calm down. You know Leblanc likes women and alcohol and it seems he's had plenty of alcohol and Nola is definitely all woman." And Maurice looked around as some clients came in through the kitchen. He smiled at them.
Maurice moved Owen toward the porch. Owen managed to keep it together and said quietly "So why are you keeping me in here?"
"Because I think that Nola can handle herself and Roger and Joe can handle Leblanc. Let's just move here to the porch and see. Ok boss?"
"I can't see her. Where is she?"
"Under the tree. Look Roger and Joe are right there."
"Damn it Maurice!"
"Look here she comes. She's ok. Settle down."

It was all Roger and Joe could do not to laugh. LeBlanc had managed to put his hand on Nola's breast and was trying to kiss her. She grabbed the index finger of the hand on her breast and bent it back. LeBlanc had backed off in pain. "Owww, what are you doing?"
"What I have to Mr. LeBlanc. I'm sorry but I'd rather you didn't touch me like that. I'm the landscaper. I don't provide the kind of services you seem to be looking for." And she saw Roger and Joe. Who tried to pretend they hadn't seen anything and she walked past them toward the house.

LeBlanc sat down in the chair under the oak tree. Roger headed back to the house and Joe turned his back and pretended not to see LeBlanc. Then when he walked toward the chair and acted surprised to see him and asked if he could get him another drink.

Nola went straight to the kitchen door, in and through the kitchen toward the downstairs bathroom but the door was closed so she stepped into the dining room. There were clients around the table looking at plans so she moved slowly up the stairs. She needed some space to calm down. Roger came in right behind her and closed the door and looked questioningly at Maurice and Owen who had just come in from the porch.
"Where did she go?"
Roger just pointed.
Owen was pissed. "Roger move. I'm going out to give LeBlanc a piece of my mind.
Knowing that was a bad idea, Maurice said: "Oh no. No, you're not. You're going upstairs to take care of Nola."
Roger said, "What's wrong? She looked Ok."
Owen pulled it together and asked, "What happened?"
"She practically bent Leblanc's finger off his hand and told him not to treat her like a hooker. She's fine."
Maurice said, "Owen go talk to her." Roger was still standing in front of the door. Maurice said again, "Go talk to her. Roger and Joe will take care of LeBlanc. I'll stay down here to manage the clients."

Owen was torn. But Nola won. He went into the dining room and saw Nola at the top of the stairs. He went straight up the stairs and she could see he was upset so she stepped into his bedroom. He followed.
"Are you ok?"
"Yes, I'm fine. Don't shout. You'll scare your nice clients. Close the door."
He closed the door and went to her and closed her up in a hug. "I'm sorry."
"You should be."
He didn't expect that so he released her slightly.
"Why didn't you tell me you had an octopus for a client?" And she walked toward the French doors. "It would have been nice to know a head of time. I would have never put myself in a position for that to happen."
He smiled, "I hear you did ok."
"Yes and bless Maurice for getting Joe and Roger. What that man thought he was going to do me under that oak tree with so many other people around... I just don't know. But I'd really rather not be pawed like that. It's embarrassing."
"Pawed? What the hell! I'm going to..."
"No." and she grabbed his arm.
Roger knocked on the door. "Owen?"
Nola said, "Come in Roger."
Roger looked at Owen and then at Nola. She said, "Tell him it's OK, Roger."
"Owen, I already told you Nola handled herself just fine. Leblanc was bragging to Joe that she was a fine woman and that he was going to get her out to do some site assessments real soon." And the way Roger said site assessments made LeBlanc’s intensions perfectly clear.
"Gott Dammit. I'm going to throw him into the pool!"
Roger laughed. Nola smiled and said, "No, you're not. When he calls and asks for site assessments, and I'm pretty sure he will, you will pretend like you have no idea what happened. You'll say sure Nola will be glad to come and do the assessments. Then you and Joe come with me. We are never going to say another word about what just happened and you are going to take his money."

Roger raised his eyebrows. Owen looked at her like she was crazy.
"Don't you two look at me like that. He is obviously a man who has a lot of money and who isn't used to being told no. The last thing you want to do in this town is upset someone with money and power. Don't embarrass him and he owes you. He'll owe me. It's the best revenge."
Roger said, "Damn Owen, You sure have some woman!"
"What?!"
"Well she's right. That is the way rich folk in this town work."
"I'm still going to throw him in the pool." he said forcefully.
Nola said, "Excuse me Roger." And she moved to Owen and he automatically put his arms around her and she moved closer and gave him an impressive kiss. A kiss Roger didn't even try to not see.
Then she said, "You will not throw him in the pool. Right?"
"I don't know."
And she gently kissed him again. "You will not throw him in the pool. Right?"
"Right." And she slipped from his arms and put her hand on Roger's arm.
"Roger I'm going to freshen up in Owen's bathroom. Please take him downstairs and make sure he mingles with clients who aren't Leblanc until Leblanc leaves. Please?"
"Anything you say boss." And he winked at her. She smiled and slipped into the bathroom and they heard the water start running as she did her best to calm down.

"Damn. That is a one of a kind woman. Where did you find her?"
"On a plane to Pennsylvania."
"What? She's a native right? Sometimes when she talks it sounds like she is from the 9th Ward."
"She is."
"On a plane?"
"Yes, on a plane to Pennsylvania, last November."
Roger just shook his head. "Some guys have all the luck. Come on you have to mingle." And he moved Owen toward the door and the stairs. "I have to make sure that you don't mingle with LeBlanc. Maurice and Joe will get him out of here. Don't do anything that will upset your woman. I don't want her mad at me."

Nola calmed herself down. Then she called the Grigori and the elementals and the Gods and wove a spell that would get Leblanc to leave quickly. He was hungry. He wanted to be where he could pay women would let him put his hands on them. He was going to call.... call his driver or a cab and he would be gone in less than 15 minutes. He would also be left with an overwhelming desire to have No Lawnmower Landscaping work on his properties. She worked the spell for 5 minutes and then let it go. 10 minutes later she was watching from the French doors in Owen's bedroom as he left. As soon as he did she smiled and turned to go back downstairs. Owen met her at the bedroom door and pushed her back in.
"He's gone."
"I know."
"How do you know?"
"I wished him gone. I watched him leave."
"You wished him gone?"
"Yes."
"You twitched your nose?
"Yes."
"Remind me not to make you mad."
"I don't usually do things like that but I believe I was protecting myself and you and your business. We're allowed under those circumstances."
"I see. Maybe I do need to consider doing magic."
"Yes. You should practice on small things so it is there for you when you need it. I keep telling you it's a tool."
And he kissed her. And she kissed him back releasing the pent up fear and tension. Owen thought, Roger was absolutely right. Nola was some woman. He was still kissing her and moved her on to the bed. When she realized where they were she said, "No, Owen. You have clients downstairs."
"They are leaving." And he kissed her neck. "I have missed you. It's been weeks since you've been here."
"I have been here every week."
"Yes, But not long enough."
"You have clients and guests downstairs. Just what do you think you and I are going to do up here?"
And he flopped back onto the bed. "Argh. You probably don't want to know. I need all my fingers."
And she laughed. "Get up Big Man. You need to go downstairs. It's your party. It's bad enough Roger saw me kiss you. I don't want the rest of them wondering what we're doing up here." And she got up and he watched as she retied her sarong.
"Voyeur."
"Well since that's all you leave me."
"You are incorrigible. Come on let's go."

When they went downstairs and out back, Maurice was in the pool in the inner tube.
"Maurice, now everything is as it should be. You definitely belong in a pool. Where is your lovely wife?"
He smiled at her and waved to his wife who waved back to them.
Joe came up to her. "I'm sorry."
"For what Joe? LeBlanc? Don't worry about it. We're going to make a fortune off of handling his properties. You watch."
Joe raised his eyebrows. Roger came up to her.
"Owen seems very relaxed. What did you do to him?"
"Nothing," Which was true. "Tell Joe how we're going to take LeBlanc's money." And she slipped away to talk to Maurice’s wife knowing that she need to say hello to everyone before she could leave.

She was sitting with Owen on the far side of the pool. He was content and had his arm draped around her on the back of the chair."
Maurice was getting a drink and so was Roger.
"Look at them, Maurice."
"I know. Do you think he knows just how hooked he is?"
"It's hard to tell. Owen's never had any trouble getting women."
"No, that's true. But I don't think I've ever seen him like this with another woman."
Roger laughed. "He was going to throw LeBlanc in the pool."
Maurice laughed. "I would have liked to see that."
"She talked him out of it with a kiss. Well two actually. If she does the rest like she kisses...."

And Nola whispered in Owen's ear. "It's been interesting and fun. But I'm leaving now."
Owen turned to her, "No. Stay until everyone else goes."
"No, I'm leaving. Your crew knows they can start later tomorrow. I have to go to work tomorrow." And he kissed her lightly and hugged her and whispered in her ear. "Stay."
"Owen please, everyone is probably looking at us."
"So what? It's my house. As far as most of them are concerned you're my girlfriend."
She shook her head and laughed and said, "Incorrigible. But charming. And I'm still leaving." And she stood up, held her hand out and said. "Walk me out, please."
He reluctantly stood up and walked her to the gate as they went past Roger and Maurice, Nola said, "Take care of Owen fellas."
"Sure Nola. You're leaving?"
"Yep, I have to be at work for 7:30AM." And she headed for her truck in the driveway.
Roger told Maurice, "Watch this." and they watched as discretely as they could from the gate between the pool and the driveway.
When Owen and Nola were finished, Maurice said, "I see what you mean."

Biggest Full Moon in Decades

2011-03-18T05:21:00.000-05:00

Moon gazers are in for a treat this weekend when the full moon will appear 14 percent bigger.
Article taken from DiscoveryNews

We are Winning

2011-03-07T06:15:00.000-06:00

Listen and watch the lyrics of the Flobots Video on YouTube

Chapter 40– Insights

2011-03-04T00:00:00.000-06:00

Owen was soaking in the hot tub. He had worked out in his weight room and then had swum laps for 30 minutes. He was trying to keep himself busy and wear himself out. It wasn’t working. Nola should be here. But she had called on Wednesday to apologize because she would not be at his house this week. She had just found out that Thursday was Jamie’s last performance of the school year. His mind kept jumping from one Nola thought to another. He knew that she was a good mom and that her daughter had to come first. But this felt worse than when she had gone to Houston for a week. It would still be only a total of 10 days. He had just seen her on Monday. But she had come, done the initiation and then left immediately afterward. Damn the woman. Her visit pre-initiation had been short. The initiation ritual had been short and intense and no visit this week. He was missing her even more.
“Why do you think that is son?”
“I don’t know, because I know her better now?”
“Why would that matter?”
“I don’t know, because I have more to miss? Her flirting with me like she did before dinner at Galatoire's. How totally absorbed she is when she is planning or planting a garden. How thoughtfully and honestly she answers questions. How she makes me think and teaches things, like learning how to be still and listen to you. How she is pleased with the smallest things: wine, a fire in the fireplace, moonlight on the pool, trees in pots waiting to be planted, the koi. How she smiles when she dances. How she says thank you with kisses. And the sex. Oh god, I miss the sex.”
“Well that is quite a list son. You could get sex from other women.”
“Why would I want to do that?”
“Why wouldn’t you want to do that?”
Owen hesitated. “Fair question. Why wouldn’t I want to do that? …. What is it about women that does this to us?”
“Does what son?”
“Makes us… makes us…. Makes us like I am right now?”
“And exactly what are you right now?”
“I don’t know happy, anxious? I feel like I’m on the brink of something new. I don’t know how to describe it.”
“Why not?”
“Because I’ve never felt like this before.”
“You don’t say.”
"Why is she so.... so close and yet so distant?"
"She answered that question once before, the same day we talked her into dinner with Jack and Abby."
"Oh. But that was a complicated answer."
"Well son, maybe it is more complicated for her. She is the main provider for her family. They depend on her. She is a mom. She is a wife. She doesn't strike me as someone who takes any of her commitments or responsibilities lightly."
"No, she doesn't.
"Not even the one she's made to teach you."
"You're right. She's is fully committed to that."
"Think about the commitment she made to work with you on the landscaping business. She cares about and now feels she has responsibilities to Joe and Louis and Maurice and your business reputation. You toss her in the truck. You drag her out to a job site with no warning at all. And she immediately understands how important the work could be for your crews and why they would want this as well and she's all in and committed."
"It was pretty damn impressive."
"Now think about the commitment she made to her husband."
"Oh."
"Yeah, Oh. You've never been in love. She has been in love."
"Been in love? Past tense?"
"Maybe Owen. Maybe. I'm not sure she's ready to decide whether she can be in love with her husband, or anyone else, ever again."
"I remember her saying, 'I am only so strong'."
"Right. You have to give her time to figure it out. She doesn't want to see this issue as one she has to deal with. She is a problem solver by nature. You can see that right?"
"Right, that's what she does when she landscapes, that's what she did when she taught me how to listen to you."
"This is a problem she's refusing to see. Give her time to see it. Only then can she solve it."
"Ok. Ok."

And Owen got up out of the Jacuzzi wrapped a towel around him and spent the next 20 minutes letting the shower beat on him and then he tried to read himself to sleep. It wasn’t working so he shut off the light and leaned into the pillows and imagined himself in at the trailhead to the ridgeline. He worked his way up the trail and found the flat rock and opened his mind …

He was sitting on the flat rock talking to Papa Eric.
“A friend of mine has something she wants to say about you and Nola.”
“I’m listening.”
And a voice that wasn’t his grandfather’s said, “You are good for Nola. Very good for her. She is good for you. She is serious about her commitment to teach the ways. You have been an exceptional student. We are glad that you were able to find each other. This does not always happen in your short physical lives. There is much that you can teach each other. Right now Nola is resisting the lessons she needs to learn. You are helping her confront her issues and drag them out into the open so she is forced to deal with them. But these lessons will be painful for her. She will try to run from them and from you if you are not gentle with her.”
“What are these lessons?”
“She has to determine where her responsibilities to care for others stops and her responsibility to care for herself starts. She has to learn that her heart can be safe. She has to learn to let another care for her. Do not rush her. She is committed to teaching you for one year. She will not leave you before the year is up unless you change your mind and choose not to walk this path. But in addition to all the lessons you are learning as a stregone, there is one other thing you too must grasp in this lifetime and Nola can help you there as well. You must be still and listen. Listen with your heart.” And it felt like a warm kitten had curled up in his hands and Owen fell deeply asleep.

As Meana sent Owen off to sleep, Bellaria looked at Papa Eric. He said, “The signs are clear. I’ve seen this in his father and uncles and brothers. I’ve experienced it myself. If I were corporeal I would be drawn to Nola like a moth to a flame. You can see he is. He can tell he is. He just hasn’t named it yet. He is an easy going boy. He loves his pleasures. Nola is exactly right to leave him to his own devices. Even though when she does she is running from her heart. Only when he misses her does he begin to realize how much he needs her. And Tago nodded. Patience. He is not the only one who needs time.

Owen woke refreshed. He had plans to complete for new jobs and meetings with the owners next week Monday and Tuesday so he would be busy enough today. He grabbed some coffee and settled into his office to work. He had been at it for about 2 hours when he stretched and looked out of the window and noticed the redbud trees. And thought about hanging and planting the pouches. And the conversation with Papa Eric recrystallized in head. Nola needs to figure out whether she can ever be in love with her husband… or anyone else… ever again! And Tago gave Settrano a very intense 'Pipe Down!' look. And Papa Eric stepped in with "And you need to figure out what being in love really means before you interfere, son."

And Owen thought 7 more days. That woman!
Then he got an idea. He tried calling her at work but she didn't answer and he knew better than to leave her a message. He tried calling her on her cell phone but she had said her cell didn't work all that well in the refinery and that she wasn't good at having it with her or if it was with her it wasn't always charged. He finally decided to send her an eMail saying that he had worked up the plan options for the owners on 2 of their recent landscaping proposals and he'd like her to come and take a look if she had some time. He really wasn't meeting with the owners for 2 weeks. But he had drawn up her suggestions as soon as they'd finished the site assessment and if it got her back sooner maybe this ridiculous feeling of withdrawal like anxiety would go away. Tago nodded to Settrano indicating that was better and Bellaria did her best to provide clear, clean energy so Owen could focus on his work.

He checked his eMail the rest of the day on Friday. Nothing.
He checked his eMail Saturday. Nothing. Until 6PM:
"Owen,
I can swing by either on Sunday morning (earlier is better) or Monday after work. Let me know which works best for your schedule."
Nola"
And Owen thought "Both." But wrote: "Sunday anytime you want."
At 8PM Nola posted back: "See you 8:30AM tomorrow. I need to be home by Noon to make sure my daughter doesn't sleep all day."
And Owen relaxed more completely than he had in almost a week.
And he heard Papa Eric chuckle.
"What?"
"That woman is like a drug to you, son. You can only go so long before you need a fix."
"Hmmmmpf."

Owen had been up since 7AM. He'd done 30 minutes weight work, then showered and was dressed and waiting on the front porch with a cup of coffee when Nola pulled into his driveway. He met her at the truck door and swept her into a hug. "I hate it when I don't get to see you every week."
She laughed. "Owen you really need to find more toys to play with. I can't be the only one. I did see you last week."
"Yes, on Monday and then only for the initiation ritual and then you left."
"Well, I thought it..."
"Yeah, I know you thought it was best. Why is it that you think it best to leave me alone for extended periods of time?"
"Because I can show you the path Owen, but YOU have to walk it."
He shook his head and managed a smile, "Yes, Yoda."
And she smiled at him.

Owen made her a cup of coffee while she looked over the plans.
When he handed her the cup she said, "These are good representations of the options we talked about when I visited the site with you. But the design can only be finalized after we talk to the owners. We need to know what they think they want, other than a no lawnmower yard. Do they have kids? Do they want an outdoor entertainment area? Are they planning a pool?"
He smiled and said. "I'm working on getting that kind of information."
"It's great that you've laid out areas for Maurice's pathways and where we can get the trees and larger bushes in right away. But we need to work with their budget on how they use seeds as in fill or whether they can afford the vision all at once. I don't even know what kind of fruit trees they like."
"Well these are just the first pass." And he was still grinning.
"You know, maybe I should work up a questionnaire for you to give perspective landscape clients and then these preliminary plans would be closer to something they would like without so much rework." And she paused to take a sip of her coffee and said, "Owen what are you grinning about?"
"I have a confession."
And she looked at him and waited.
"I really didn't need you to look at the plans. It is too soon and I'm hoping you can meet with them next weekend to get the answers to your questions. I just didn't want to wait until Thursday to see you."
And she was surprised but managed to joke with him, "We really do need to get you another toy."
"You woman are not a toy. Let's go to breakfast at Elizabeth's."
"But I just got here."
"Yes and there isn't a damn thing you can do with those plans right now and I'm hungry."
And she sighed and smiled and thought for a few seconds before she said. "OK, I really don't have anything else I have to do."

They had returned from breakfast and she insisted that she had to get home to Jamie. Owen gave her a hug before she climbed into the truck and drove off. He wandered back into the house and picked up the plans and organized his thoughts and his paperwork for next week's work. A number of jobs were midway to completion. He had 4 new jobs he was lining up behind them so things were looking good. He decided to go get groceries. He had gone out to breakfast because there was too little in the fridge. It was now early afternoon and he didn't have a think to do. So he was soaking in the hot tub when something Nola said popped in his head. It wasn't the first time that she had referred to herself as his toy and indicated that he needed more toys, things to keep him occupied. Was she teasing or did she really feel like he treated her as a toy?
"Well think about it, son. Don't you just a little bit?"
"No."
"No? You decide you want her to come here. You actually trick her into coming here. For what? Because it made you happy. Right?"
"Well, yes... but it's because I like spending time with her. She makes me happy. She's interesting. She's fun to be around."
"Like a toy. You needed something to play with and you thought of Nola. "
"Now that's not fair."
"Isn't it?"
"You know I care about Nola."
"I know you aren't a cad. I know that you have a kind heart. I think you care about Nola when Nola is making you happy. But do you care about Nola as Nola?"
"Well sure."
....
"Papa Eric?"
...
"Papa Eric?"
"I know it will come to you if you just open you mind. Think about it."

“Papa Eric?”
Nothing.
Think about what? I like her. I’m not the only one. The crew likes her too. They would probably do anything she suggested just because she suggested it. What’s not to like? She’s one of the lowest maintenance women I’ve ever known. It doesn’t seem like she expects much, she works like one of the guys and she is pleased with the smallest things. She’s independent and capable of taking care of herself and providing for her family. Why wouldn’t I want to be around someone like that? She’s not a toy she’s my friend. And he smiled thinking, she is my girl friend in practice and as far as the guys and my family are concerned. His ridge experience from last night came back to him in a hazy memory and he cupped his hands in the shape used to call Meana and thought about a kitten. And then a question formed in his head. What in the world could he possibly teach Nola?

And the phone rang. It was Roger asking if him to come to a crawfish boil. He said sure and spent the rest of the day hanging with guys who were his crew and his friends.

If we're dying, it's a celebration: A letter to the editor

2011-02-28T10:46:00.002-06:00

This letter to the editor was published in the Times Picayune.
"Once again our mouths are foaming because we can't take it when some "outsider" (at Newsweek, no less) recites facts about New Orleans.

The Newsweek article didn't slam New Orleans for its lack of new industry, an inability to attract Fortune 500 companies, or a lack of professional opportunities. The survey cited facts about population decline and a lack of young people.

Ranting and raving about this just reinforces stereotypes: We are 20 years behind the times; we can't face our own problems; we are a city full of incompetent characters, our best days are behind us.

Perhaps the key is to accept the facts and embrace them. Truth is, the rest of America isn't exactly prospering.

To be a dying city in a dying country actually makes us a loss leader for once. And nobody lives while dying as well as we do. Our food, our family, our joy of life have made us one of the happiest people in America -- even in the face of disaster.

I live in a place where my family and friends know how to live. Perhaps America should come here to see how to enjoy dying. We'll show them a jazz funeral.

Morgan Molthrop
New Orleans

Thank you Morgan.

Also see this article "City gets a mixed bag of publicity"
Saturday February 19, 2011 By Michelle Krupa Staff writer

Chapter 39 - Teachers and Initiation

2011-02-20T00:00:00.001-06:00

It was the middle of May and Nola was struggling. Owen... Her student Owen... her friend Owen... her boyfriend as far as Owen's crew and family were concerned... and because he kept asking her to stay she had slept in his bed after the May Day Ritual... Owen, was messing with her head.

It was too much fun being with him. It was too easy, too relaxed, too natural. And then she smiled at herself because very few people would think the reason for their relationship was natural. She was writing an email to her teacher as a mind dump to help her sort out what was going on in her head and to provide enough background to get some help on what to do next. Owen was effectively acting as High Priest to her 3rd Degree Priestess. It was high time he was initiated. He hadn't even thought to ask about initiation. He was just learning and practicing and very happy about all of it. But considering the level to which they were taking the rituals it only seemed right to initiate him. The sooner, the better. One of the problems was that he was far too comfortable with her. Part of the initiation ritual was about using fear to open up the initiate. She was having a hard time imagining herself making Owen nervous or uncomfortable. The ritual might have to be modified. As she thought about it, she mentally asked the Grigori for help unsettling him just enough to open him up for the initiation. They heard her. She pressed send on the email and waited for a reply.

But she kept thinking about her student. She had asked for someone who she could fully practice the rituals and the universe had given her Owen. She should just be grateful and not complain. But Owen... Owen would creep into her thoughts at the oddest moments. She had been married for 17 years. She had been in love with her husband for at least 7 of those years, 10 if you counted the 3 before they got married. Even when he had broken her heart and made her miserable she had been in love with him. But for the last 10 years she had been in and out of love with him. She loved him. But in love? In love had been harder. Sometimes much harder. And now... It's hard to be in love with someone you can't fully trust with your heart. She had passed through a stage of being angry with James. She had passed through a stage of just not caring what he did or thought. She had moved to a state of numb acceptance with no real expectations for their relationship. What would be, would be. For awhile he had moved in and out of OK with the status quo of their marriage to upset with her for the status of their relationship. Then it was as if some light bulb had come on and he decided to be in love with her again. This Nola, who had held on to being in love and loving James for so long, found more than a little ironic because it was so out of sync with where she was. It was as if the universe had turned the tables. James wanted more from their relationship but was too content, too reluctant, too lazy, that might not be fair, too much in his own head, to take it to the next level and at every turn Owen seemed like he was upping the ante beyond the student teacher relationship. She sighed and asked herself who she was kidding. Owen was just being as thorough with and committed to his studies as he was with ever other aspect of his life. There was nothing special going on here. The fact that her marriage was good but less than perfect was, well, it was what it was. And Meana looked at Bellaria as if "What the..!!!' Nola had been doing so well. Bellaria shrugged as if to say, 'What more do you want me to do? I can help lead her to water. You have to make her drink.' And if Grigori could stamp their foot Meana did.

The answering eMail came back from her teacher. Her teacher was impressed with the fact that they were so consistently and completely doing the rituals and agreed that, given his level of participation and development and the fact that he wasn't a kid, taking him to 1st degree was OK. Stregheria didn't have the standard requirement of a year and a day. Most students took much longer than a year to get to first. Some never made it. Adjusting the 1st degree initiation was an option as long as key elements were maintained. Doing the initiation with more than one person was always best but her teacher was in the middle of a big move and couldn't come to New Orleans. Owen going to her teacher wasn't an option either because she was in the middle of a big move from one state to another and into a house that needed significant renovations. Too bad Owen wasn't working in Minnesota.

Her teacher was glad that Nola finally had someone to share the rituals. She knew how hard it was when there were no other Streghe around and she knew how Nola, how they both, cherished the chances she had to be in ritual with other Streghe. So initiating Owen made sense and she supported it.

And Nola thought, Good. Perhaps initiation was the way to get the teaching back on track. Not that it was really off track. It was just too… too… personal. But No, that wasn’t right. It was too… interwoven with how they were living their lives. And she heard Bellaria say, “And why is this bad?” Because I have a life I’m trying to maintain. Maintaining my actual life and Owen’s pretend life is too difficult. It’s not being his teacher. It's the rest of it. And she heard Meana say, "There are other options."
And she thought, "Yes, I can finish his training and stop pretending."
And Bellaria and Meana both shook their heads. And Tago counseled "Patience" again.

She would have to find out if initiation was what Owen wanted. This week was the time to ask.

Settrano couldn't be happier. Owen was on cloud nine and planning a pool party. He wanted to have all the guys and their dates over to celebrate the new pool and the addition of landscaping to their business. He had a few key clients he was inviting as well. No Lawnmower Landscaping had picked up 2 new jobs this week. His life was good. His business was good. Having Nola in his life was too much fun. And it was time to celebrate. He had picked the date for the party and just needed to confirm that Nola could be there. He could do that tomorrow when he saw her.

Nola pulled into the driveway and shut off the truck. Owen was on the phone inside making plans for his party and didn’t realize she was there. She got out and wondered around the garden looking at the plants and making sure there were no issues. Everything looked good. She ended up by the fountain. It was the soothing place she had envisioned it being. It tended to shade in the evening because of how the sun set. It felt like it had been there forever. It fit with the house. She was glad Owen had gone with a simple edged approach. It fit better with the working class neighborhood and the age of the house. She was sitting on the broad bench edge looking in the fountain. Was that a fish? No 2 fish! He had gotten 2 koi. Fun.

Owen had seen her truck and came out to find her, knowing that the garden always called. She was so wrapped up in the new fish he was able to sneak up on her.
“Like them?”
“Oh!” and because he had surprised her she was a bit breathless. “Yes.”
And he put his arms around her. “Your heart is beating fast.”
“You startled me just a bit.”
“Oh I thought it was me.”
And she smiled at him wryly. “You are charming, but…”
“Oh” and he grabbed his heart in mock dismay, “after such a successful dinner.”
She laughed, “I’m assuming that your family had a good time and that all is well with mom.”
“Oh yes. Stella and Ryan get it and are considering letting Eric come and work with me. Probably not this summer. He has basketball camp. He wants to make the varsity team as a freshman. But I’m hopeful about next summer.”
“I’m glad.”
“And my mom has relaxed significantly. She’s convinced I’m happy and since I have a female in my life, she’s content to let me stay here without undue grief.”
Nola laughed, “Happy to help.” And then changed the subject, “When
did you get the koi?”
“We got them last Friday. Eric picked them out and was responsible for the official release. It’s a good thing he’s gone home. I thought they were going to be fed to death.”
She laughed again, “They are fun to watch. And I hear they can be trained to come and take food from your hands. They can have unique personalities.”
“We’re talking about fish.”
“Yes, I know.”
“Training fish?”
“Well you’re trainable, student. Why wouldn’t nature’s other creatures be trainable? You should try it.”
“You are comparing me to a fish?”
She laughed again, “I reminding you that you are only a part of the Web of Life.”
And he laughed, “Yes, Yoda.”
And she laughed because it was not the first time someone had called her Yoda.

She smiled and thought this is as good a time as any to talk about initiation. “Owen, have you thought about being initiated?”
“Oh you’re changing the subject?”
“Well not really. I’m talking about your training. Have you thought about being initiated?”
“Sure. But I figured I needed a year and a day.”
“Stregheria doesn’t have the year and a day rule.”
“Really?” And he did sound very interested.
“Initiation can be done if the student wants it and the teacher thinks the student is ready.”
“Well, if I need to go on the record officially, I want it.”
“Well, as your teacher and, considering your level of participation, I think that you are ready.”
“Really?”
“Yes. If you agree I was planning on initiating you to first the next full moon.”
“Monday!?”
“Yes if it is ok with you.”
“Absolutely!” and he pulled her into a hug and said, “Come on let’s go inside and celebrate with a toast.”
“Owen….” but his enthusiasm was impossible. He took her by the hand and headed down the path, into the kitchen and opened the Prosecco.
She prepared herself as he poured.
He handed her a glass and said, “To first degree initiation!” and then clinked her glass and they took sips. He completely forgot about the kiss and she smiled at him as he said, “So what do I have to do?”
“Have you read the dedication rite in the manual?”
“Yes.”
“Well you need to find some rue, which can be difficult as it is hard to grow down here. And then you should do the dedication rite on the Sunday before the Full Moon. I really should have had you do it earlier.”
“OK.”
“I did my dedication in my backyard in August. The mosquitoes were impossible. We had a small wading pool for Jamie and after the rite I slipped into the pool to stop the mosquitoes from eating my bare flesh right off my bones. Getting into the pool caused ripples in the water but I stayed still for a while and the surface calmed. There was this incredibly bright white light reflecting in the pool. At first I thought it was a street or house light. I tried moving around to the adjust the brightness of the light. Then because I was listening for the universe’s response to my dedication, I was still again, which isn’t always easy for me. I realized the bright light was the moon reflecting in the pool. What I realized then was that I needed to learn to be still and listen. In the process of trying to get rid of the interference of the world, the non-existent street light, I had disturbed the water and had to be still again so that I could listen and hear the answer in the reflection of the moon. It’s been a theme for me through out my experience as a Strega.”
And he was entranced and intrigued by the story and wondered what his would be like. Then he realized that he had Prosecco and that he had broken tradition and kissed her. She was still remembering her own dedication and unprepared.
“Whew. You really shouldn’t do that when I’m not ready. I thought you had forgotten.”
He smiled "I had for a minute. But you were so … I don’t even know… I hope my dedication is a good as yours seemed to be.”
And what could she do but smile at that, “Me too.”
He beamed back, “Just how hard is it to get rue?”
“Hard. But you should spend some time trying to track it down. Perhaps there is somewhere in your yard it can be successfully grown. I’ve only had luck with it once. It does not like our summer heat.”
“Oh. Can I do it without the rue?”
“I don’t recommend it.”
“Oh, so it’s like a test.”
“Well I don’t think it was intended to be, but it can be. It has been for others.”
“Well, what if I can’t get the rue?”
“Do you want to be initiated?”
"Yes."
“Get the rue.” And she smiled at him because she had already requested that her teacher send some from her upper MidWest garden where rue grew like a weed. It was literally in the mail. She could drop it at his house sometime on Sunday. A little bit of fear would be good for the process.

“But what….” and she put her finger on his lips. “You’ll figure it out.”
“But that’s….” and she put her finger back on his lips. “I know this isn’t a typically pagan saying but, have a little faith.”
“You’re serious.”
“Yes. Yes I am.”
“Ok.” And his brain started buzzing with all the people he now knew that provided landscaping and he began to make a mental list of who he needed to talk to. She just smiled and sipped her Prosecco and then she said. “You want to make a list or some phone calls?”
And he looked at her as if she had read his mind. “How did?... Yes.”
“Go ahead. I’m going to wander around and look at your library shelves.”
He smiled walked with her to the library and then bee lined it for his office. He came out to find her not in the library but out by the koi.

She smiled at him. “I found the fish food. I thought I’d give training a try. The one with only the orange spot on its head seems to be getting the hang of it. Watch.” And she moved her hand over the pond and the one fish followed it. When she dropped the pellet into the fountain the fish gobbled it up.”
“Fish training.” And he shook his head because it did seem like the fish understood the reward process.
“Well is your rue secured?”
“No, but I have options in play. We’ll see.”
She nodded. “You also have to figure out what your initiate circle name will be.”
“But I like Owen and its link to the tradition.”
She smiled, “Well, I do too, but it is traditional to have a circle name. Is there some animal or herb or concept or stone or even color that has always seemed aligned with you?”
“A color?”
“Well sometimes the color is a color and a stone name like Jet or Amber or Carnelian. Sometimes the names of animals are combined with herbs or stone names. People get creative. Often Latinized names of animals are used. Italian names have been used as well. You’ll have to think about it.”
“Another test?”
“Well not for most pagans. Lot’s of folks have names that they have used in the past. But I admit it was a bit of a test for me.”
“Really why?”
“Because I had always been happy with my name and being me. I never wanted to be anyone else. It was hard to say that I was committing myself to something and then to do it under a different name. But the name I chose was right for me. My 3rd degree initiation proved that.”
“Really?” and he looked at her expectantly.
And she smiled at him as she said, “No, I am not going to tell you the story. But I will tell you that if you choose something to which you have always had a natural alignment it will be fine. And if you decide you want to change your circle name you can. But don’t choose arbitrarily. Spend some time thinking about it.”
“Ok.” And he sat there before he said, “You are sure loading me up with things to do aren’t you?”
And she nodded. “It is your initiation. I think that’s fair. You’ll need the other items as well: Ivy, salt, water, wine.”
“Well salt and water and wine shouldn’t be too hard. But I don’t know about ivy.”
And she smiled. “You’ll figure that out too. I was in Wisconsin when I was initiated and was sent out to find ivy in a place I'd never been before in my life. I ended up driving around and pulling it off a brick fence in front of some stranger's house. It works out.”
“Ok, so rue, a circle name, ivy. Anything else?”
“No, I can take care of the rest. I’ll see you on Monday.” And she brushed off her hands and got ready to leave.
“Wait, you just got here!”
“You have things to do and think about. I will be back on Monday.” And he saw that she had her purse in her hand and that she was determined but, damn it, she wasn’t supposed to be leaving. He took her arm, “Nola, please stay a little longer.”
“No, Owen. I am leaving. You’ll be fine. Think about what we’ve talked about. Prepare. I’ll be back on Monday.” and she looked down at his hand and he released her arm. She ran her hand on his cheek because his face looked more like big disappointed man face rather than a 10 year old. And she kissed his cheek and said, “I promise.” And turned and walked quickly to her truck leaving him standing at the fountain.

“She promised, son.”
“Yes I heard her.”
“You have things to do and think about to get ready. You’re being initiated.”
“Yes.” And he perked up a bit. “Yes I am.” Then his shoulders slumped again. “But she wasn’t supposed to leave so soon.” And he got up and went back into the library.
“Why not? Do you have her on some kind of timer? Did she agree to spend all evening with you once a week or to teach you? Are you sure you aren’t thinking of her like a toy?”
“Now Pop, that’s not right! And you know it. Nola is not a toy. She’s a warm, loving, wonderful woman. I know she’s not a toy.”
“I see. And she has free will too. Just like you. And if she isn’t a toy she can come and she can go. She didn’t ask you for anything. She is preparing to give you initiation. Yet you mope. What is the problem?”
“Damn it! I don’t know.” And he stomped back through the kitchen out the back door. Pulled his clothes off and dove into the pool. 30 minutes of laps later he was trudging up the stairs to shower. As he stepped and grabbed the soap he remembered his birthday and there she was back in his head again.
“Why do you think that it, son?”
“Because the sex is great and I’d be an idiot not to think about it.”
“Well that’s one reason.” And Papa Eric looked with dismay at Bellaria.
He quickly soaped up and rinsed off. He went back downstairs to make dinner and ate it in silence. As he sat he thought about a circle name and found himself thinking about Nola’s circle name. And the perfect circle name came to him. He went to his office and used Google to look up the Italian form and he smiled at its similarity to his own. Bellaria smiled knowing it would give Nola more than a little bit to think about. She nodded to Tago who nodded and smiled to Papa Eric. Patience.

It was Sunday and he couldn’t find the damn rue. He had one last chance and was taking a ride to a nursery on the West Bank. The rue had arrived from her teacher late Friday afternoon in the mail. Nola had opened it and made sure that there were snips of rue for Owen’s dedication. She had also potted the root balls in the hope that she could get some started in Owen’s yard. It just felt like the right time to drop it off at Owen’s so she told Jamie where she was going and drove to Owen’s and was relieved to see his truck wasn’t there. She left the rue on the doorknob of the kitchen door and just to be on the safe side she put the potted plants next to the front door near some other potted plants. She figured that he would panic and call if he couldn’t find any. So far, no call. Perhaps he had already found the rue. But she also knew that he was taking this as a test and wouldn’t want to give up until he had no other choice.

She drove off before Owen started crossing the bridge back from the West Bank. He had failed. He was going to have to call her and say he couldn’t find the rue. He pulled into his driveway and moped to the kitchen door. What was that on the door knob? He opened the package it had a Wisconsin return address. Rue. He looked around and said out loud, “That woman." How did she do that? She sent me on a wild goose chase when she had the damn stuff on its way all along. Then he smiled as he realized that she had made certain he had what he needed to complete the dedication ritual.

It was after 11PM. The moon was up high in the sky. Owen was in his backyard naked and he had the book with the ritual and the things he needed including the rue. He was now worried that he wouldn't hear the appropriate response. Dogs barking happened often enough and he figured he could sit outside in the pool or jacuzzi all night if he needed. He completed the dedication and slipped into the pool. He looked for the moon's reflection, found it and waited. The night was quiet, he had been sitting for about 15 minutes it was quiet when he heard a strange clop, clop, clop from the street. What was that noise? It sounded like a French Quarter carriage. They usually weren't in the Marigny or the ByWater. Clop, Clop, Clop. "'Yup!" and a bit faster clop, clop, clop and then a horse neighed.
"Well there you go, son. You got your answer."
And a dog barked at the horse. "2 for one, pop." And he smiled and relaxed.

Nola was planning on doing the initiation outside. She thought that changing up the location would help shake him up a little bit. There was a round table on the back porch that she could move outside. And she thought being near the pool could also add a bit of fear to the process. Her plan was to have him wait in the downstairs bathroom until she was ready. She figured that changing into her robe and setting up and casting the circle would take no more than 30 minutes. By this time he should be good and impatient which she hoped would also increase his anxiety. The fact that he was so comfortable with her was something she was trying to work around. She arrived in his driveway on Monday a little after 9PM.

As soon as she pulled in he opened the backdoor. He was smiling.
As she got out she said, "I take that smile as an indication that the dedication ritual went well."
"Yes, it did. Thank you for the rue. How did you know when I wouldn't be here?"
"Intuition."
"Witchy wiles." And he gave her a hug. "That was sneaky."
"Well I wanted to make sure that you had what you needed. There are also some potted plants on your front porch that I need you to keep watered until I figure out where to try them in your garden. I'm thinking that since rue is a God plant that they might grow better here at your house."
"On the front porch? I didn't see that."
"I dropped them there yesterday. Can you keep them watered for me?"
"How did I miss them?"
"Well they are tucked behind the other large pots."
"Definitely sneaky."
She smiled, "They were well watered, as long as they are watered with the other pot plants until I can get them in the ground they'll be OK."
"OK." And he waved toward the kitchen door.
"So tell me about your dedication, what did you hear? A dog bark?"
"Yes" and he smiled again "after the horse neighed a dog barked at it."
"A horse?"
And he laughed, "Cool, huh? A French Quarter carriage must have been going down my street. I heard the clop of his hooves. The driver was urging the horse along and the horse neighed and the dog barked at it."
"Well... I guess we can count that. But technically those are mules."
"Aw! Come on. What's the chance that anything would neigh in a city neighborhood in this century?"
And she laughed because she was kidding, "Slim I admit. You can definitely count both."
"So I'm cleared for initiation?"
"Yes."
"Well what do I do?"
"You go into your downstairs bathroom, get undressed, dim the lights and wait for me until come and get you."
"You're locking me in the bathroom."
"Is that possible? Can I lock you in the bathroom?" she said teasingly.
"From the outside? No."
"So I'm not locking you in the bathroom. But if you come out before I come in to get you.... No initiation."
"What?"
"Well unless the house is on fire. You can come out if the house is on fire."
"What?!"
"Owen I have things to do to set up the circle and prepare for your initiation. Typically this is not done at the initiate's home. So it makes set up a bit easier. There are also typically other initiates around to help. I'm doing the best I can under the circumstances and what I really need is for you to cooperate."
"Ok." And he sighed, "That sounds reasonable. But why can't I wait in the upstairs bathroom. That is where we have the altar and your Harry Potter box?"
"You can't because I say you can't. You're going to stay in the downstairs bathroom until I come and get you. Ok?"
"Ok."
"Ok. Here." And she dug a small bag out of her purse and 4 small ritual items. You'll need these."
"What are these for?"
"I'll tell you after initiation. Now get in there, get undressed, dim the lights and wait. OK?"
"Ok."
"But first I need to get my robe from the closet."
"Wait, you get to wear a robe and I don't?"
"Right."
"Well...." And she waited and watched as he tried to figure out what to say then decided to say nothing. She smiled, grabbed her robe and then he stepped into the bathroom and she started to close the door.
"How long will I be in here?"
"Until I come and get you." And she closed the door.

She went outside to the porch and moved the table to the patio. The moon was perfect. Then she slipped upstairs as quietly as possible and brought down the ritual box. She changed into her robe in the kitchen, then did the Rite of Union to settle down before she set the altar. She was glad that Owen was keeping his ritual blade in the ritual box. She would need the extra blade it to open the circle to get out and let him in. She set up the altar and made sure she had what she needed inside the circle and then slipped back to the kitchen to make sure the path was clear to the back patio. She cast the circle and then cut it open and closed it behind her and went to get Owen.

When she got him out of the bathroom he was definitely appropriately anxious. Doing the ritual outside helped a great deal. She could tell that he had not expected this. The initiation went well. She knew from previous rituals and his experience casting the circle that the Grigori had already accepted him. His circle name was a surprise. She'd have to ask him why he chose it and if he had intentionally aligned it with hers.

He was in the bathroom getting dressed and she was slipping into her street clothes in the kitchen. She would let him pick the circle items up after she left. He was coming out of the bathroom as she was folding her robe. "Well how do you feel?"
"Glad that it's over. I had no idea what to expect."
"Well it's kind of designed that way."
"I thought you were going to toss me in the pool."
"Well... it was an option, but I thought better of it. I didn't see any reason to risk drowning you." she teased again.
"Thanks." And he smiled knowing she was kidding.

"What made you choose that particular circle name?"
"You like it?"
"Well… yes, but what drove you to choose it?"
"Well you said to choose something that I've always had a natural alignment with and I thought about the number of times folks had commented on my animal like form," and he smiled and she smiled because she liked his burliness "and then I thought about your circle name and I liked the way they fit together."
And she nodded. "It suits you."
"Thanks."
"Can you pick up the ritual items outside for me?"
"Sure.... Wait... you're leaving?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because, I came to initiate you. You are definitely initiated. My work here is done."
"But it's early."
And she laughed "It's after 11PM and I have to go to work tomorrow. You are just spoiled because most of the time I end up staying until 1AM. "
"But...." and he couldn't think of anything to say.
"You'll figure it out eventually, son."
And he thought, "You are not helping, pop!"
"Congratulations." And she kissed him on the cheek and he hugged her and said, "I don't want you to leave yet."
"You'll survive until next time. See you soon."
"She has to leave, son."
And knowing that she would be back on Thursday he said the only thing he could, "Ok, see you Thursday."

Spells, Saints, and Streghe: Witchcraft, Folk Magic, and Healing in Italy

2011-02-16T18:57:00.000-06:00

A link to the work of Sabina Magliocco

Lip Service

2011-02-14T00:00:00.001-06:00

New Orleans Cred
by Chris Rose

What's in a kiss? History tells us it is the mark of love, faith, friendship, respect — even betrayal.

So: What's that got to do with anything?

This: I think I speak for many non-natives of New Orleans when I suggest the longer we stay here, the more we look for affirmation that this is where we fit in, this is where we belong, this is where ... we are from.

Yes, even after 25 years here. And that alone is one of the great things about this town: how she continues, over the decades, to reveal herself to you, how she continues to amaze and delight. (OK, frustrate and madden at times, too — but that's not today's story.)

New Orleans cred manifests itself in many ways, from the obvious to the sublime: When you hang your first Mardi Gras beads over your rear view mirror; when you finally grow comfortable ordering a sandwich "dressed"; for that matter, when you stop calling it a sandwich.

You think purple, green and gold actually look good together. In fact, due to the unyielding force of cultural brainwashing, you begin to identify the color yellow as gold. And purple comes in two shades: K&B purple ... and not.

Other ways: You learn how to pronounce Natchitoches, Picayune, Soileau and Oubre. You stop using your automobile turn signals. Your male cab driver calls you "babe." You think Angus Lind is funny. (OK, this one takes a long time, but it happens. Eventually.)

The longer you're here, the more subtle the indications become. I had one of those the other day. It was a kiss that gave me a touch of reaffirmation, a notion that I am not only "from" New Orleans, but "of" New Orleans.

Yes, after 25 years, it still matters.

I had an encounter that began with a buss on the cheek and, when it was over, as I drove away from the incident, I laughed out loud about it, all alone in my car. ("Another sign of New Orleans-ness?").

Maybe I make this out to be more than it was. In fact, as I tell you the story, it seems very anticlimactic; it was such a small, teeny-tiny thing, a non-event, unspectacular, lacking drama and mystery. I kissed my mail carrier.

Well, she's not actually my mail carrier anymore. Michelle is my former mail carrier, from many, many years ago, pre-storm and all that.

I hadn't seen her in ages. She was always so kind, always filled with cheer, always asking about my kids, always delivering not just mail, but a pleasant interlude no matter the weather or anything else.

So, when I saw her walking down a street a few neighborhoods over from mine, I hit the brake, rolled down the window and called her name. I got out of the car and we walked up to each other and kissed each other on the cheek and proceeded to make small fusses over each other.

Like I said, not a lot to it, really. Other than this:

I have lived in two other places, Wisconsin and Maryland, and I cannot for the life of me ever imagine walking up to a mail carrier and planting a wet one on her (or his!) cheek. The act seems to violate so many tenets of personal space, propriety and all the other social restrictions folks in other places burden themselves with but which we tend to casually disregard in these parts.

In review, perhaps I am wont to read too much into things. But, in many ways, it is my job.

For the past quarter century, one of my primary means of employment has been to write love letters to New Orleans. The primary means to do this, is to overstate the implications of almost everything — the slightest of local gestures, colloquialisms and traditions — and blow them into metaphors that speak to the wondrous, peerless, unparalleled uniqueness of this town.

I'll be the first to admit: It can be toxically overwrought, cloying to the point of ennui. Does everything — everything — that happens around here have to speak to cultural significance? More to the point: Can't a kiss just be a kiss?

Well ... no, in fact, it can't. And maybe I'm blowing this brief incident completely out of proportion, once again getting myself all caught up in the New Orleans self-love thing. Maybe I am reading too much into a kiss.

History tells me I wouldn't be the first to do such a thing.

Link - February in Ancient Rome

2011-02-06T11:03:00.001-06:00

See La Vecchia Credenza On Line Feburary in Ancient Rome

FEBRUARY IS UPON US, birth month of great presidents and martyrs, and for lovers around the world, the month of Saint Valentine’s Day. While births of martyrs and presidents may be mere coincidence of time, not so the celebration of love. To explicate the matter, one must search to the very foundations of ancient Rome. When Rome was first founded, wild and bloodthirsty wolves roamed the woods around the city. They often attacked and mauled and even devoured Roman citizens. With characteristic ingenuity, the Romans begged the god Lupercus to keep the wolves away. Lupercus was the god of the wolves, so he was expected to have some influence on their behavior.

This tale begins when Numitor, king of the city of Alba Longa, was ousted by his brother, Amulius. Numitor had a daughter, Rhea Silvia. His wicked brother had her made a vestal virgin to prevent her bearing any offspring with a right to the throne. Mars, the god of war, had his way with her anyway, and she bore twin sons, Romulus and Remus. Afraid of these half-god twins, Amulius cast them into the flooded Tiber River in a basket and set them adrift. They were found by a mother wolf who suckled and nurtured them as her own pups. Later they were found and raised by shepherds, who were grateful for the seeming immunity to wolf attacks on their flocks and the resulting fecundity of the sheep. The shepherds rightly gave thanks to the god Lupercus, protctor of flocks against wolves.

Still later, Romulus and Remus led a shepherd revolt against Amulius and slew him, restoring the throne to their grandfather. They then decided to build their own city, but Romulus quarreled with his brother over petty issues regarding the size of the walls, and killed him in the resulting fight. Thus the city was named Rome over the remaining twin.

As a rite of spring and the oncoming fertility brought to all of nature, the early Romans chose February 15th as a proper day to honor Lupercus, Faunus, and other gods and goddesses of fertility and protection. The ritual was named Lupercalia and involved two naked young men slaughtering a dog (symbolic wolf?) and a goat.

In addition to the blood sacrifice, vestal virgins affixed cakes of grain from the previous year’s harvest to the very fig tree believed to be the spot where Romulus and Remus were suckled by the she-wolf. The naked young men were ritually smeared with the blood of sacrifice, then wiped clean with milk-drenched wool. Our symbolic Romulus and Remus then donned loincloths made from the skins and ran about the altar and into the city. The young women of the city proffered their flesh to the young men as they passed, for which they were lightly lashed with goatskin flails made from the sacrificial goat. These whips were named “februa”, and give us the name of our current month. The lashing ostensibly promoted great fertility among the women and it was a joyous moment when the goatskin struck their flesh.

As the years passed and The Roman Empire adopted Christianity, the Pope, in 494 AD transformed Lupercalia into the feast of the Purification of The Virgin Mary, trying to water down the still immensely popular holiday with Christian virtue.

In another of early Christianity’s veiled attempts to embrace the flesh, a certain Saint Valentine was lionized, having his day tied to the former Lupercalia by establishing it the day before, on February 14th. There are three equally likely candidates for the honor of being the original saint, who was either deeply in love with one of his female converts, or very compassionate towards young lovers at a time when such latitude for anything sexual was vehemently forbidden by the church.

In any event, the supernatural fertility of The Virgin Mary and the terrestrial fertility of young lovers around the Christian world are now inextricably linked by having their feast days so joined. So, share some goat’s milk along with the chocolate as you woo your lover on Valentine’s Day.

…and maybe howl like a wolf and give them a few lashes while you’re at it.

Link - An Ancient Etruscan Love Spell

2011-02-04T00:58:00.001-06:00

See La Vecchia Credenza On Line An Ancient Etruscan Love Spell

Some people will do anything for love. Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’ died for it. Wars have been fought in its name, kingdoms have been won or lost on its account, and many a family has been either blessed or cursed because of a union of love. The ancient Etruscans certainly went through a lot of trouble to find that perfect mate. Last night, I had dinner with a couple who have been unbelievably happy together for as long as I’ve known them. After almost thirty years, they still behave like newlyweds and have shown a bond of trust and caring that is seldom seen these days. When I had the opportunity, I asked if they had a secret.

The happy gentleman said the secret was to be lucky enough to find a woman as kind, loving and courageous as his wife, which he simply attributed to chance. His wife remained silent (at least until I got her alone while her husband was hailing a taxi).

I repeated my question to her alone this time, hoping to hear something really juicy – perhaps a tale of a wild and twisted affair with an exotic bohemian paramour, much like Harold Pinter wrote about in his extraordinary play, “The Lover”. Instead, she said she would email me in the morning with her secret which she has been silent about since she discovered it.

Early this morning, the email arrived. “The secret” was an ancient Etruscan spell designed to attract the perfect mate, which had been updated first in the 18th century and later in the early 20th by her own grandmother. She swears that this ‘love spell’ really worked, and has never shared it with anyone, including her husband. Today, I share it with you.

The origins of this love spell are obscure, but there is a litany in archaic Italian of which I have provided an English translation. It is a ritual that requires a bit of effort and a lot of herbal materials as well as a profound belief in its success. Otherwise (according to my friend), its nothing more than empty words. The materials can be obtained readily in any food store, herb market or metaphysical supply store.

The courage to actually do this? Thats up to you….

Materials:

Frankincense incense (stick or resin)

Herbal Mixture:

3 parts lavender

3 parts damiana

3 parts patchouly

1 part Dragon’s blood resin

13 gardenia petals

4 parts red clover

3 Saw Palmetto Berries

3 parts peppermint

3 parts Rue

13 drops of your favorite perfume

Mortar and Pestle (for grinding herbs)

Small red drawstring bag or square of red fabric with red thread or cord

THE SPELL

Prepare space to work in by making sure the area is clean and the floors swept. Meditate on power, success and love, and begin by slowly grinding the herbs in a clockwise movement in the mortar and pestle. Do not add the oils at this time. Stirring the herbs in a clockwise direction with your finger, slowly add the oil mixture until it is well blended. Hold the bowl in your hand and enchant with the words:

Diana, bella Diana!

Che tanto bella e buona siei,

E tanto ti e piacere

Ti ho fatto,

Anche a te di fare al amore,

Dunque spero che anche in questa cosa

Tu mi voglia aiutare,

E se tu vorrai

Tutto tu portrai,

Se questa grazia mi vorrai fare:

Chiamerai tua figlia Aradia,

Al letto della bella fanciulla

La mandera Aradia,

La fanciulla in una canina cinertira,

Alla camera mia la mandera,

Ma entrate in camera mia,

Non sara piu una canina,

Ma tornera una bella fanciulla,

Bella cane era prima,

E cosi potro fare al amore

A mio piacimento,

Come a me piacera.

Quando mi saro divertito

A mi piacere diro.

“Per volere della Fata Diana,

E di sua figlia Aradia,

Torna una canina

Come tu ere prima!”

TRANSLATION:

Diana, beautiful Diana

Who art indeed as good as beautiful

By all the worship I have given thee

and all the joy of love which thou hast known

I do implore thee aid me in my love!

What thou wilt is true

Thou canst ever do

And if the grace I seek thou’ll grant to me,

Then call, I pray, thy daughter Aradia,

and send her to the bedside of the man/woman

And give that man/woman the likeness of a dog

and make him/her then come to me in my room

but when he/she once has entered it, I pray

that he/she may re-assume her human form

as beautiful as ever he/she was before

and may I then make love to him/her until

our souls with joy are fully satisfied

Then by the aid of the great Faery Queen

and of her daughter, fair Aradia

may he/she be turned into a dog again

and then to human form as once before

Draw a bath, and light fresh incense. Place the herbal/oil mixture into the red bag, or tie it up in the red cloth spuare. Submerge it into the bath water, and let it steep while you inhale the incense and focus on your desire. Enter the bath slowly, feeling the tingling of the bath on your entire body as you do. Take a deep breath, filling your lungs to capacity, and submerge yourself completely under the water. While underwater, exhale all of the air completely out of your lungs, and visualize any obstacles in the way of your success with this spell leaving your body with the air. Do this three times. Let the water run out of the tub while you are lying in it, and do not get out until all of the water has drained. Let your body dry naturally; do not use a towel. When your body is completely dry, dress yourself and apply your favorite fragrance that was used in the herbal mixture. Leave your home and go out for the evening. Within 28 days, you will have attracted attract the perfect lover.

Chapter 38 – Passing

2011-02-02T00:00:00.002-06:00

Owen was dressed and ready and had the Prosecco cooling fridge. He was wearing the suit that had been retailored for his mom’s birthday celebration and he had to admit he looked good. His family had spent the day hanging out at his new pool but he had taken them back to their French Quarter hotel to dress for dinner. He and Nola were meeting them in the Quarter for 7PM. He smiled again as he thought back to Nola's initial response to his dinner invitation and the idea of being presented so his family would assume she was his girlfriend. Few people could even begin to fathom their actual relationship. The Grigori knew that neither Nola nor Owen fully understood it themselves. She was right when she said that walking this path had opened him up to himself. He felt he'd learned more about what made him happy and how to be comfortable in his own skin in the last 6 months than he had in the previous 40+ years. And Settrano smiled at Tago who nodded in acknowledgment that not everyone needed the same guide.

Owen knew that Nola still wasn't sure about the idea and was going to do everything he could to keep it as light and as comfortable as possible for her. He thought back on the conversation that he'd had with Dad & Ryan and Eric as they were shooting hoops in the back yard the day before.
"Ok, I need to let you on a little secret, just for us guys. You can NOT tell Mom or Stella. They'll find out tomorrow at dinner."
Eric's eyebrows shot up. Jack looked at Ryan and they both thought 'uh oh'.
"Ah come on. This is a good. It's going to make mom" and he threw the ball to Eric "your grandmom happy."
Jack said, "Ok I'll bite. You know part of the reason for the visit is that your mom's been worried about you. So what kind of secret do you have that will make her happy?"
Ryan said, "You're getting married."
"What!? No." And Jack grabbed his chest in mock horror and amazement.
Eric laughed at them as Owen said. "I'm bringing a date with me to dinner tomorrow, a woman I've been seeing regularly for about 6 months. This basketball court was her idea."
"Damn." said Ryan and then looked at Eric as if to say don't tell your mother.
"Well, that's some secret, son."

Nola was irritated and stressed. The hazard assessment on the unit had run late. She was a part of the field team to work follow ups and today was the day for those follow ups. She was walking back to her truck in a hard hat, steel toe shoes and a fire retardant jumpsuit. She was going to be cutting it really close. She should be getting ready for dinner with Owen’s family. She shook her head and wondered again how she had let herself get talked in this. She still wasn’t sure it was a good idea. She had her clothes and backpack in the truck. Her plan had been to use the shower facilities at work and save herself the hour it would take to run home, shower and change. She was due at Owen’s in 15 minutes dressed and ready. She could probably make it there in 15 minutes. The ByWater was closer than her Carrollton home. But dressed and ready would take about 20 more minutes as long as ‘ready’ excluded dry hair. She tossed her hard hat into the back seat and grabbed her cell phone off the charger. She had to wait until she was off refinery grounds to use it. So she cued up Owen’s number before starting the engine and swiped out of the facility. As soon as she hit the public street she pushed the button to call him

He answered on the first ring. “Hello, babe.”
Nola pulled the phone away from her ear, raised her eyebrows and then put it back, “Babe?”
“Just practicing.”
He heard her sigh, “Owen I’m calling to let you know I’m running a little late. I’ll be there in about 15 minutes, maybe 10 as long as I don’t catch the bridge.”
“Ok, I’ll see you then. You should see how good I clean up.”
She hated to talk on the phone and drive in city traffic, especially since she was speeding just a bit, and he seemed like he was in a playful mood, so she decided to cut it short. “See you very soon.”
“Ok babe, see ya.” and she could hear him grin.
She said, still irritated but smiling despite herself, “Bye…, babe.”
Settrano smiled at Bellaria and Meana, completely pleased with the plan that Tago had agreed to allow to play out.

Babe. What have I gotten myself into? Why did I let him talk me into this? But while she had only met his mom once at the airport her intuition told her he was right. If he had a woman on his arm, his mom would be happier and more relaxed about his being in New Orleans. Owen had promised that it would be Ok because his brother Ryan and his wife Stella and Eric were in town with his mom Abby and his dad Jack. Simon and Lisa had stayed at home because Lisa was very pregnant. Nola mentally practiced the all the names again. Owen had promised that he would ensure that he sat on one side of her and Eric sat on the other. He said Ryan and his dad and Eric were in on keeping Abby at bay. The men knew Owen was bringing a date but they were going to surprise Abby. That way Abby wouldn't have time to work up a series of questions for her. What a comforting thought. The guys weren’t in on the whole story. They really thought Owen had a girlfriend. But they knew how Abby could pepper them with questions and understood exactly what Owen wanted and why. He said they were comrades in arms. She sure hoped so.

Nola pulled into the driveway in 9 minutes. She was out of the truck in a flash and getting out of her steel toes when Owen came out of the kitchen door.
“What the…..”
“I know. I’m sorry. I didn’t have any control over the schedule. I swear I can be ready in 20 minutes.” She tossed the steel toes into the back seat and unzipped the jumpsuit,
His eyebrows went up not knowing what was underneath. She stepped out of the jumpsuit wearing a simple camisole and light pants. She tossed the jumpsuit in with the rest and grabbed her dress and backpack and bolted for the door in her sock feet.
Owen just shook his head and followed her in and closed the door she had left open when she dashed in. There was no way any woman on the planet was going to be ready for dinner in 20 minutes, especially not one who had just pulled off steel toed shoes. She was already in the downstairs bathroom and he heard the shower turn on. He checked the clock in the kitchen. It was 6:15PM. Owen called Ryan and let him know that they would meet them at the restaurant instead of the hotel, then poured a glass of Prosecco for the wait.

Nola was out of her clothes in a flash. She hung the dress on the back of the door and turned on the water in the shower. She dumped the contents of the backpack into a heap on the floor and made sure there were 2 towels available on the rack. She grabbed the larger zip lock bag and dumped its contents onto the floor of the shower, quickly grabbing her toothbrush and toothpaste out of the pile and then she stepped into the shower. She took a quick deep breath as the cold water hit her and then adjusted the temperature. She brushed her teeth while standing under shower letting the water beat down on the top of her head to get her hair and body wet. She finished brushing her teeth and grabbed the shampoo from the floor of the tub, squeezed some in her hand, dropped the bottle to the floor and lathered up her hair. She shampooed and rinsed quickly. She scooped up the conditioner, squirted some in her hand and worked it over the ends and then rinsed it. She grabbed the body scrub squirted in some grapefruit scented bath soap and lathered up to get the grit of the refinery off of her. She grabbed her razor off of the floor and while she was all soapy ran it quickly over her legs and underarms. She made sure that all the conditioner was out of her hair and then she grabbed the presoaped face cloth and washed her face. She took a deep breath and stood letting the shower beat on her for a minute, mentally asking for the Old Ones to help her bend time and for Umbrea goddess of shadows and enchantment to give her the ability to enchant and hide in the shadows, before she grabbed the removable shower head and made sure that all the soap was gone. She turned off the shower and grabbed one of the towels and wrapped it around her head to let it soak the water out of her hair. She reached into the shower and scooped out the toiletries and dumped them onto the bathroom rug to dry. She dried off with the other towel, well mostly and found a smaller zip lock that acted as her makeup bag. She grabbed the Oil of Olay smoothed it on her face. She used the natural deodorant stone on her still wet underarms until the salts dried them. She did a few light strategically placed spritz of Jill Sander no. 4 parfum. She took the towel off her head and rewrapped it putting the drier part against her head and twisting the now wet part up and flipping it back over her head. She put a few dabs of makeup under her eyes and around her face and smoothed it around on her freshly moisturized face. She barely swiped some pale purple shimmer over her eyes and then lightly powdered her face with a small brush. She grabbed the toiletries from the bathroom rug and shoved them back into the large zip lock bag and tossed it toward her backpack. She took the towel off her head and worked at getting her hair as dry as she could. She flipped her hair back and grabbed her comb and combed her hair into place. She squirted some foam mouse into her palm and then with her other hand worked it in strategically around her temples and made sure the swoop of hair on the right side of her face would stay in place, she worked the rest of the stuff from her palm into the back of her hair to help keep those curls in place. She swiped over her hair with a comb again. Her hair was still wet but she knew that it would dry well. She never used a blow dryer. She took another look at her makeup, dabbed here and there, decided to lightly line her eyes and then went over her face once more with the makeup brush.
From the floor near the backpack she grabbed fresh underwear and put it on and then dropped the deep purple dress over her head. She made sure the loose ruched waistline was straight on her and adjusted the v-neck crossover neckline and straightened the shoulders. She put on her mascara last, then some lip moisturizer, realizing she had left her purse in her truck. The lipstick would have to wait. She swept the makeup into the small zip lock and returned both zip locks to the backpack and shoved in her dirty clothes on top. She grabbed the half slip from the floor and slipped it on under her dress. Then she slid into her shoes, turned to ensure the back of the dress was flowing Ok and that the slip was properly in place, fingered her hair a bit to loosen up the mouse and checked the pearl earrings she had put in that morning. The last thing she did was pull a multistrand of pearls, with a large quartz tear drop clipped on to them, out of the front zipper pocket of the backpack. She put the necklace on and then took another deep breath, called on Umbrea again before she opened the bathroom door with the backpack in her hand.

Owen turned the barstool around and looked up thinking there is no way that could be the bathroom door. Nola dropped her backpack outside the bathroom door and walked into the kitchen and said “I need about 15 more minutes before my hair is dry enough to look like I didn’t just step out of a shower but once I grab my purse from my truck and put on some lipstick I’m ready.” Owen’s jaw dropped open as he saw the clock. It said 6:33. She had done it in 18 minutes. “Damn woman! 18 minutes! How did you do that!?”
“When pushed I can bend time.” And she mentally thanked the Grigori.
Then he really looked at her and said, “Wow and I thought I cleaned up good. You look fabulous. Even with your not quite dry hair.”
“Thanks.”
He handed her his glass of Prosecco and she gratefully took a sip before realizing it was Prosecco. Owen was smiling and moving in for a kiss. It was after all tradition. He grabbed her waist and pulled her close and kissed her like a new girlfriend should be kissed. As he pulled away slightly he said, “You smell good too.”
“Thanks” and then she said, “Are you really sure this is a good idea?” And he kissed her again. “Owen stop. You’re making my head spin.”
He smiled and said, “Isn’t that what a boyfriend is supposed to do? Then he noticed the necklace. "Well that's quite a rock."
"It's just quartz, with a bit of amethyst wash in it and some purple rutile crystals."
"Geology lesson, huh?" and he grinned at her before he said, "Pearls can be so conservative. That quartz is not. The combination is perfect for you and this evening.
Then seeing that she was having second thoughts said, “Let’s go, we’re meeting them at the restaurant instead of the hotel. At this point we might even beat them there.”

As he pulled out of the driveway, Nola asked, “Owen, if asked, what did I get you for your birthday? Since we can’t really tell the truth about that, can we? And if I were to try and think of a present for you I have no idea what I’d get you. Shame on me but it’s true."
He smiled and acknowledged that she had a point. “Hmmm, hadn’t thought about that. For my birthday, I asked you to paint a picture for my bedroom and you’re still working on it.”
“Oh, no pressure.”
And he laughed. “But it sounds good.”
Then he said, “Oh I've been meaning to tell you that I didn’t tell my dad that he already met you at the Allentown airport back in November.”
She sighed, and said, “OK, Anything else I should know?”
“Hmmm, Oh Eric’s birthday is the same day as mine. He just turned 14.”
She nodded, “Anything else?”
“Nope, that’s pretty much it. We’re all just winging the rest. I’m hoping that pulling this off is something else you can do without thinking about it.”
She smiled, laughed lightly and sighed, “Well, I’ll see what I can do.”

As they drove downtown Nola thought about her necklace. The pearls had once belonged to her friend Dana who became Polly. And she thought about how she had become Nola to Owen. The one thing Polly had not been was conservative. Polly was a serious Norse Witch and they had shared the same birthday one year apart. She missed DanaPolly. The last time they had spoken was when Polly called to say she was leaving to go to the Czech Republic and that had been 4 years ago. The quartz was a piece she had picked up in the Denver Airport. James had broken her heart and she had met a guy while at a training class in Denver. They had such a good time together during the week of the class that they had stayed in touch and he had flown her back for a week of skiing and sex in a cabin in the woods. She smiled remembering it. The quartz piece was something she had purchased for herself, because it made her happy and because she couldn't walk away from it and leave it there in the Denver Airport.

In 15 minutes Owen was parked in the garage around the corner from the restaurant. Nola checked her makeup in the truck mirror as Owen grabbed his jacket from the backseat then walked around to open her door. Nola fluffed her still not quite dry hair one last time. She had been so rushed and keyed up that she really hadn’t looked at him. When he opened the door, like the gentleman he always was, and she took his hand to step down out of the truck she caught the fit of his pants and the way the shirt stretched across his chest and the jacket accentuated his shoulders. She looked up at him and smiled, bushed her other hand slowly down his tie, leaned into him, brushed his ear with her lips and said and in smoky smiling voice, “You look really good in that suit…. Babe.”
He reached around her waist, nuzzled her neck and said, “Keep that up and we’ll miss dinner.”
At that she pressed herself closer against him bared more of her neck as she said softly in his ear, “What ever you say.”
He pulled her even closer and kissed her like he was going to haul her off to bed, and she gave totally into it. Tago finally nudged him and he realized they were in a parking garage. He said wistfully, “That was not fair. But it’s too late to get out of this. And you promised.”
She sighed, “You can’t blame a girl for trying.”
He laughed and hooked her arm and headed to the restaurant.

Eric was walking down the sidewalk slightly ahead of everyone else so he saw his Uncle Owen round the corner with a lady in a purple dress. He stopped and looked to his dad, nodded toward Owen and did a low whistle. Ryan nudged his dad, whose eyebrows raised in appreciation before he said, “Owen could always pick ‘em and he’s always preferred shapely over skinny. It’s cute how she fits under his arm.” Abby & Stella were walking more slowly behind them, window shopping and chatting. They caught up with the men wondering what had stopped them. Jack nodded toward Owen who was smiling and talking to Nola. And the whole family smiled collectively.

Owen looked away from Nola and spotted his family down the street. He squeezed her against his side and said, “Here we go.”
She squeezed her hand against arm and said, “It was a good thing I was busy today and late. I haven’t had time to be scared, until now.”
He said, “I’ll protect you.” And then they both laughed.

They meet at the door of the restaurant and went in together. They had to wait at the bar for a few minutes and Owen took this time to officially introduce Nola to everyone in the group, starting with his parents. “Nola, these are my parents, Jack and Abby.” Nola, used to the corporate world, put her hand out to shake Jack’s hand. Jack caught on and put his hand out and said, as he smiled Owen’s smile at her, “Hello Nola.
“Hello again Jack. I don’t know if you remember or not but we met at the Allentown airport back in November.”
And that was when Abby said, “Hello Nola. I’m glad to see I was right.”
“Hello Abby.” And then, as if it were girl talk, Nola said, “What were you right about?”
“Oh I can tell when my son has a twinkle in his eye. I knew something was in the air in November.” Then turning to Owen she said, “So that’s why you changed your flight.”
“Mom you’re amazing. I can’t keep anything from you. You know things before I do.” Then turning to his brother and family said, “Nola and I met on the flight I took home for Mom’s birthday party last year and we also returned to New Orleans on the same flight." Then he smoothly segued into, “Nola this is my brother Ryan, his wife Stella and their son Eric.”
Nola thinking that this was going to be a very interesting evening nodded to the group of 3 saying, “Hello, I hope you're having a good time in New Orleans.” And she put out her hand to Eric, “Happy Birthday, a few days late.” And he shook her hand and his mom and dad smiled.

They were quickly moved to their table. Jack moved Abby to one side of the table and pulled out her chair and sat down at one end. Owen moved Nola to the opposite side of the table pulled out her chair and sat her down in the middle seat and then took the seat next to his father and across from his mom. On cue Eric slid into the seat next to Nola. Ryan pulled out the chair next to Abby for Stella and then took a seat at the other end of the table. And Nola smiled as she thought, Nicely done. I’m on one side and the women who will grill me are on the other.

As Eric sat down he noticed that Nola’s hair was still a little wet and being a kid commented. “Nola, your hair is wet.”
Nola took it stride, “Yes it is. I was at work until around 6PM. But I managed to clean up before dinner.”
The waiter came and handed out the menus, told them about the specials and took their drink orders.
Abby then asked, “Where do you work?”
“A refinery, a few minutes outside of town in St. Bernard Parish. Then seeing that the whole table looked a little incredulous added, “It’s only a few minutes from Owen’s house, so it didn’t take me long to get there.”
The rest of the family was wrapping their brain around that fact that she worked at a refinery when Abby said, “I’m pretty sure you didn’t go to work at a refinery looking like that.”
And Nola wondered if there was something wrong with her dress and did a mental comparison between her dress and Stella’s before she relaxed.
And Owen jumped in. “No, she didn’t. When she pulled into my driveway around 6:15PM she was wearing a protective jumpsuit and steel toe shoes.”
Now the family looked even more incredulous and Ryan said, “No way.”
Owen countered with, “I wouldn’t believe it either if I hadn’t seen it for myself. It was amazing. I think Nola’s turned the downstairs bathroom into a time machine.”
Abby and Stella glanced at each with looks that said, ‘Not possible.’ And the men silently wondered why it wasn’t possible all the time for their women.
Eric, trying to do his best in the adult conversation asked, “What do you do in a jumpsuit at a refinery?”
“Well I don’t wear a jumpsuit every day, most of the time I work in an office on site. I’m responsible for a team of people who manage the technical engineering documentation the refinery is required to maintain to run the plant safely and keep OSHA and EPA happy. I rarely have to go in the field. It was a bit of bad timing to have to today. I’m glad we didn’t keep you all waiting.”
Jack asked, “Oh so you’re an engineer?”
Nola answered, “No, a geologist by training.” And to satisfy their quizzical looks gave them the short story about the arch her career had taken so she could stay in New Orleans.
Stella commented, “So you’re as committed to New Orleans as Owen.”
“Well I’m a native. This is my home. Before Katrina, New Orleans had the largest population people in the US who were still living in the city where they were born.”
Abby said, “Really?
“Yes. It was part of what made the PostKatrina experience so horrible. Large families and extended families were impacted making it harder for family and friends to help each other. In some ways the same thing that caused me to adjust my career to stay in New Orleans is what cushioned some of those affected by the aftermath of the storm. People who had moved to cities in other states because of their jobs were able to take in family and friends. But it was still devastating.”
The waiter returned to take their orders. After he left Ryan said, “Owen took us on a tour of the city.”
Stella said, “I really had no idea how large an area was impacted until I saw it myself.” And everyone around the table nodded in agreement.
Nola said seriously, “It can be hard to fathom even for those of us who lived through it.”
Ryan nodded and said, “In some places you can’t tell that anything was ever wrong. In others it looks almost like it happened yesterday and then there are areas where you can see recovery in action but it’s incomplete.”
Nola laughed and said, “Yes and the recovery now seems like it has every major street under construction.” And wanting to move the talk away from the chance that she’d be asked to tell her Katrina story said, “What have you done on your visit, other than the Devastation Tour?”
Eric piped in with, “We went to the Aquarium. The big tank is my favorite. The otters are fun and the penguins are messier than I imagined.” And Abby smiled at her grandson as the salads and appetizers were served.
In an attempt to keep the conversation light while feeding his mom tidbits about ‘his girlfriend’ Owen commented to the table but mostly to Eric and Ryan, “Nola is a big Star Trek fan.”
Eric said, “Really? Cool. Who’s your favorite character?”
Nola thought for a minute and then answered him seriously. “Well in ‘The Original Series’, Spock. In ‘The Next Generation’, definitely Guinan. In ‘Deep Space Nine’ it’s a bit harder to choose so I have to pick, Kira and followed by Jadzia Dax, and you’ve got to love Quark. I do wish that Kai Opaka had lasted longer. She was a lot like Guinan. In Voyager it’s close, but I’d have to say Janeway followed closely by Seven. In Enterprise, definitely Trip.”
Eric was impressed that she had responded with someone from every series. He figured he’d like anyone who would think to put in a basketball court. But now he really liked Nola. Ryan was impressed too and said, “Wow you are a fan.”
He knew everyone in his family knew a little about the Star Trek universe because of his and especially because of Eric’s fascination. But he caught himself thinking out loud “Interesting…” and commenting for the rest of them but especially his mom, “Mom you’ll find this very interesting. If I were to translate the characters Nola choose into something about her personality I’d say that she loves logic and science: Spock, Dax, Seven, Janeway. Is philosophical and a bit mysterious, Guinan, Opaka. Is tough and a fighter and a leader with hidden strong emotions: Kira and Janeway. Appreciates fun and a man who can fix things – Trip and I guess even Quark. She’s perfect for Owen.”
Nola knew that she’d be on display but she hadn’t expected this. As Owen listened to Ryan and watched his mom he was amazed at how well Nola was described. He wasn’t sure he could have done a better job of it himself. The waiter interrupted to refill their wine and water glasses and after Nola took a sip of wine she smiled and excused herself from the table.
Owen rose slightly to get her chair and she said, “I’ll be right back.”
After she left Jack said, “Well Owen, how well does that describe Nola?”
And Owen said, “to a T. Very good Ryan.”
Ryan smiled, winked at Eric and said “Star Trek has the answer to almost every question.”
Stella rolled her eyes and smiled at both of her men.
Abby asked, “So Owen, is she perfect for you?”
Owen responded, “Pretty close mom, pretty close.”

Nola was in the ladies room, asking herself again why she let herself be talked into this. She needed a minute and also figured it was as good a time as any to give the family time to talk about her with out her being in the room. As she re-fluffed her now almost dry hair, straightened her dress and touched up her lipstick she looked at herself in the mirror and told herself mentally, Too late to back out now, and did her best to be calm and centered and sent a silent plead to Umbrea again before she returned to the table.

The rest of the dinner went well. The conversation flowed. Nola asked about the hotel business. Jack indicated that May was kind of an in between time for them, not the busy winter season or the height of summer and therefore a good time to take a break. Nola asked what he thought about climate change and the potential impact on the business, not realizing that this was one of Jack’s favorite topics. Nola was asked where she lived and talked about her neighborhood and her PostKatrina recovery activist activities. When Nola mentioned that New Orleans had lost 50% of its urban tree canopy and that one of the things her neighborhood was doing was planting trees, Stella mentally noted the Hike for KaTREEna organization that provided the trees so that she could make a donation when they got back. Owen knowing that both Abby and Stella were avid gardeners mentioned that his new permaculture landscaping was Nola’s design and the girls talked gardening. By the time the dessert was done and evening was over they were relaxed and realizing just how much they had enjoyed each other’s company.

The ladies excused themselves to the rest room. Stella commented that Eric had worn himself out in the pool and that they should get back to the hotel. Abby agreed. Before they let the restroom, Stella, touched Nola’s arm and said, “Nola it was a real pleasure to meet you.” and gave her a hug, before nodding to Abby and opening the door so Abby could walk out, leaving Nola speechless.

The 2 groups parted ways outside the restaurant, Owen promising to pick them up for breakfast at his house. As they rounded the corner Owen said, “Well that’s one more thing you can do without thinking about it. Jack was the first to fall. Well after Ryan and Eric and your list of Star Trek characters. I know that Stella likes you. And you even impressed Abby. I was so smart to keep you a secret until dinner. Mom was caught off guard and less prepared to question you. I think that Eric and Ryan and Dad did a nice job of deflecting Abby and keeping it light. But you managed to keep the conversation flowing so that she didn’t have to question you much. Very nicely done.”
And as he ran on, Nola realized just how pent up he had been and smiled at him as he released his energy. “You're welcome.”
After he opened the door of the truck for her and but before she sat down, he made sure her gave her a proper girlfriend kiss. “Thank you, very, very much.”

As Abby and Jack walked arm in arm behind Ryan and his family, Jack said, “Well?”
“He’s happy Jack. For the first time in his life he is content and really happy. You know that’s all I’ve ever really wanted.”
And he squeezed her arm and said lovingly, “Yes, I do know that.”

Owen drove them home lost in his own thoughts. Nola was glad it was over and looking forward to escaping home. She didn't even need to go back into Owen's house because she had dropped her backpack in her truck when she grabbed her purse. He tried to talk her to coming in but she wiggled out of it saying she had to go to work tomorrow. As he watched her drive away his grandfather said, "Well you two are definitely naturals. Too bad it's not real."
"But it is real."
"Yes, son and no."

Labors of Lupercus

2011-01-31T00:00:00.001-06:00

1. To carry the sacred ram and set him among the stars.
2. To purify the hide of the sacred white bull.
3. to tame the twin serpents of Teramo.
4. To carry the Great Sea Crab to the Western Horizon.
5. To free the sacred Lion.
6. To fashion a bow for the goddess Diana.
7. To forge the Great Scales of Justice for the Gods.
8. To seal the giant scorpion back within the Earth.
9. To make a golden arrow for the King of the Centaurs.
10. To fashion two golden horns for the Great Goat Fish.
11. To purify the jugs of water which are bore to the Gods.
12. To leash the two Great Fish of the Sea and set them among the stars.

Wolves

2011-01-30T19:05:00.000-06:00

Taken from How to Stay Alive in the Woods by Bradford Angier

The Wolf is so cautious that, aided by a high order of intelligence, it will put forth every effort not to be even seen by man. Its correspondingly keen curiosity, however, will sometimes lead to close investigations especially during protective darkness, and this has stimulated some of the tales about wolves trailing individuals with the alleged motive of eventually attacking.

Whenever I hear such accounts I think of the many nights in the Continental Northwest when I've gone to sleep wherever in the wilderness I have happened to be, many times listening as I dozed off to a wolf chorus and often as not hearing the wild music when half-awakening during the night but - except for the thrill it still never ceases to arouse - having no particular emotion except the pleasure of feeling more closely attuned to the unspoiled places; not because of any daring but because I soon realized, both from observation and from what others told me, that no wolf will harm a human being.

New Streghe on the Block

2011-01-29T19:50:00.000-06:00

Interesting exchanges going on.
And we are reminded again, even when there are similarities, of how diverse Italy and its traditions are. Remember even the Romans didn't "unify Italy".

Henbit

2011-01-24T06:27:00.001-06:00

I know it's just a weed but I think it's lovely.
It grows where it is moist and wild and cool and dies back in the summer heat.
Apparently lots of people take great effort to eradicate it.
I've actually started collecting clumps on my walks in a golf course that has been fallow and
wild since Katrina in the hope of getting it started in my garden.

Interview with Arch Priestess Diana of Strega of Benevento

2011-01-21T23:16:00.000-06:00

Friday, January 21, 2011
SCANDAL in San Diego: Interview with Arch Priestess Diana of Strega of Benevento, Puglia & Piemonte by Lupercus del Bosco Sacro

It is my pleasure to be here interviewing Arch Priestess Diana of Strega of Benevento, Piemonte, Puglia & Sicily. For those of you who might not know yet, she arrived here in America on December 8, 2010, together with her husband and Son, to initiate and teach in the wisdom of Stregheria of Benevento. Tonight at 7:00 PM, APS Diana will appear for the first time to teach before Pagans in San Diego. There has been a great deal of gossip and scandal coming out of San Diego this week - in anticipation of this event.

Arch Priestess, the sudden appearance ot Strega of Benevento in America has been causing quite a scandal this week. What do you think of this?

It is normal and to be expected. Nothing at all of our Stregan tradition of Benevento has ever come out before. We have been extremely secretive until now and our tradition has remained virtually unknown.

Actually, I think it is The Great Rite that is causing most of the scandal. What do you make of this?

This is normal too. Most people think that The Great Rite amounts to nothing more than putting an Athame in a cup or sexual relations between a High Priest and High Priestess before, after, or during a ritual. The Great Rite, in reality, is much more than this. The Great Rite is a means, just to give one example, of contacting divinity in the flesh. There is a vast corpus of spiritual sexual technology that has never seen the light of day before we came to America. This information is an incredible blessing for Pagan couples everywhere.

Yes. There has been quite a scandal prior to your arrival in San Diego this week for your first lecture, workshop, and initiations. There are even several Pagan authors beginning to weigh in on the discussion. Would it not have been better for you to hide the teachings of The Great Rite in the higher degrees of Stregheria of Benevento, instead of putting them up front and center like you have?

Well, I am certain that it would have been easier!

This would not have been in line with our mission, however. By putting The Great Rite up front and center, we make an important statement to the Neo-Pagan movement in America. We want people to know right from the beginning that Stregheria of Benevento is not at all like Neo-Pagan traditions. We do not, for example, rely on fairy tails, psychology, or psychodrama. Moreover, in our rites and tools, you will find next to nothing of the theater and complicated implements that you find in other traditions either.

Stregheria of Benevento is a Pre-Pagan shamanic tradition. Our rites are simple and deadly effective, as are our practices. Most importantly, Stregheria of Benevento is a Pagan tradition that is NOT for everyone. Most people are not even close to ready for a tradition as powerful as Stregheria of Benevento.

We are not interested in educating and initiating vast numbers of people. In fact, there are only couple handfulls of Pagans that are completely prepared and truly ready for something like this at this juncture. Putting The Great Rite up front and center is a great way of weeding out 90% of candidates right from the beginning. Pagans who still have not bothered even to begin liberating themselves from the fear and negativity around sex instilled in them by Christianity, should certainly not come to us. They should better instead go deal with their sexual issues in psychotherapy or in one of the many Neo-Pagan traditions first.

I know that this sounds arrogant, but Stregheria of Benevento is, after all, a School of Perfection. We are only interested in the spiritual elite of the elite of the modern Pagan movement. For these few individuals, Stregheria of Benevento has an enormous amount of knowledge and training to perfect your spirituality and your practice.

We simply do not have the time or energy, however, to waste with the idly curious or people who still think that they can simply make up their own Pagan traditions.

Putting The Great Rite front and center in our teachings, thus, in the long run is not at all a bad idea. Sure, we are scandalizing a lot of people by rubbing under their noses the fundamental importance of spiritual sexuality in ancient Paganism. On the other hand, we are frightening off a lot of people who are nowhere near ready for a school of perfection like ours any way. This helps us preserve both our energy and our initiatic resources for candidates who are truly ready for such an extraordinary opportunity like Stregheria of Benevento.

I am not here to waste my time with individuals who are not suited for this work anyway. I could just as well have stayed in Italy. In fact, I certainly would have preferred to have remained in Italy. Our elders, however, are absolutely convinced that NOW is the time for this knowledge finally to come out.

It is not at all normal, that someone leaves their lives and everything behind to go to another country and start over like this. We barely speak English, for goodness sake. Our Son had to leave his school and his friends behind. If I had it my way, I would still be in Italy, dancing with my sisters and brothers beneath the Great Walnut at Benevento.

This is why I could care less about all of the gossip and noise like that coming out of San Diego this week. Those who are ripe for this message will hear the call of the Goddess, Diana Lucina, and will come to hear what we have to say. Those who are not right for this message will listen instead to the fear mongers - and they will stay away. This is the way of things - and it is good that things are are like this.