Mothman and More

New posts at Mothman Flutterings,  Orange Orb Tarot, and the Orange Orb!

Speaking of Wicca/Witches and Definitions. . .

See link below to great article on wiccans, er, witches . . .

Which inspired me to note, that here at Women of Esoterica, where there are many women (we've  been dormant but that doesn't mean we're not here and won't awaken very shortly) who contribute to this blog, that is not to say we're all about wicca, wiccan, witchery, etc.

Some of us here. Some of us aren't.

I am. But that's me.

So this isn't a witchcraft blog, or magick blog, or pagan place or goddess moon dancing site. Some of us indulge in these things, and may post about them, but it is not our focus.

All Wiccans Are Witches. Period. | gardnerians

I do so love this. The entire article is funny, well written, and, in my opinion, right on:

All Wiccans Are Witches. Period. | gardnerians: very day online, people are being bombarded with misinformation. From the Westboro Baptist Church to Fox News to ex-gay reparative therapy success stories like Michelle Bachman’s husband, the world is full of people who will lie to you because they desperately want to believe in the bullshit they’re spouting. It’s just a part of human nature, and it’s something that we, as witches, need to remain aware of. Sometimes people say untrue things to your face, and don’t even know that they are lying

Professor Says Elf On The Shelf Is Preparing Your Child To Live In A Dystopian Police State

Professor Says Elf On The Shelf Is Preparing Your Child To Live In A Dystopian Police State: Philosopher and cultural theorist Michel Foucault warned of a future in which society is under constant surveillance. He used the "panopticon" -- a model prison watch system designed by 18th century political philosopher Jeremy Bentham -- as a symbol of modern societies that use surveillance as a form of disciplinary control.

That future may be here, in the form of a sprightly little elf telling children that they better not pout and they better not cry, because Santa is coming to town -- and his little helpers are always watching. (Huffington Post)

At first, this seems like overblown conspiracy stuff -- hysterical, silly even, and full of bah humbug anti-Christmas sentiment.



But look at the retro image of the little red elf. Very 1950s, 1960s. Pleasantville all around. Our little elf isn't helping Santa make toys; he's watching you. Me. Us. Always, watching. Not protecting -- watching.



Huffington Post has an article about the "Elf on a Shelf" who watches us all, especially children of course. Watching to report back on the naughty ones. Watching us whether we're good or bad, just always … watching.



Professor Laura Pinto thinks this is preparing children for the police state.

"When a family adopts the elf and gives him a name, the elf takes to his watchtower in various parts of the house and monitors the children's behavior. During the Christmas season, children are told that they must play by not only their parents' or teachers' rules, but also by the elf's rules.
In Bentham's panopticon, the inmates never knew exactly when the watchers were watching, so they were forced to behave at all times as if this were a possibility. " (Huffington Post)

And it gets down to this:

"If the children are the subjects, then Santa is Big Brother, and his elves are the Ministry of Truth. Pinto's concern with the Elf on the Shelf phenomenon is that the children see the surveillance not as play, but instead accept it as real." (Huffington Post, Pinto) 

On the surface, sure, this is fun and cute and no doubt on the conscious level sinister aspects never entered the minds of authors, parents and teachers. But swirling beneath the surface those sinister elements do the work in parallel eso metaphysical ways.

 

Orange Orb Tarot : 7 Steps to Developing Your Intuition With Tarot Meditation | Biddy Tarot Blog

Linked at my tarot blog Orange Orb Tarot, "7 Steps to Developing Your Inutition with Tarot Meditation" by Biddy at Biddy Tarot:

Orange Orb Tarot : 7 Steps to Developing Your Intuition With Tarot Meditation | Biddy Tarot Blog: From Biddy Tarot, one of my favorite tarot people on the web (Lisa Frideborg being another) on developing one's intuition using the tarot:

7 Steps to Developing Your Intuition With Tarot Meditation | Biddy Tarot Blog: A Tarot meditation typically begins with a general relaxation of the body and the mind, before going deeper into the image of the selected Tarot card and exploring the messages of the imagery.

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Speaking of Orange Orb Tarot, it's been revamped a little; clearer to follow, I think. Plus, reviews from satisfied clients!

Orange Orb Tarot : The UFO Tarot

Orange Orb Tarot : The UFO Tarot: The Magician: UFO Tarot

I haven’t seen this deck yet in person -- haven’t held it or worked with it -- and, while I am of course, all about UFOs, aliens/entities and all that goes with the phenomena, I’m not sure about using this deck. More specifically, I don’t know what I think about using this deck to directly address one’s UFO/entity/abduction/missing time experience. That might sound contradictory, I realize. But, I haven’t actually handled this deck -- it’s just the overall impression I have. It seems to me too trite and too easy. An interesting artistic deck, but to use in a serious way to get at these experiences? Not sure.

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Day Three: Tarot Essence Meditation

 On my blog Orange Orb Tarot:

Orange Orb Tarot : Day Three: Tarot Card Essence: Last night I decided to choose a glass to use just for this purpose. I got a pretty vintage cocktail glass that I had stored in my cupboard down from the top shelf, washed and cleansed it, and that is what I used last night. I also used the violet cloth I use for spreads with the Angel Tarot deck. I’ve been doing this little ritual close to bedtime, using filtered water and letting the glass sit for at least fifteen minutes -- last night it was about forty five minutes.

Orange Orb Tarot

New posts, including one about my days as a telephone psychic, on my blog Orange Orb Tarot.

Einstein’s letter defending Marie Curie shows just how long trolls have been slut-shaming women

Einstein’s letter defending Marie Curie shows just how long trolls have been slut-shaming women:

In 1911, nearly a decade after winning a Nobel Prize for her pioneering work on radiation, Marie Curie received a letter from Albert Einstein in which he urged her not to be beaten down by people who would, today, be called trolls.

The letter is among the thousand of Einstein’s documents released last week — which are being called “the Dead Sea Scrolls of physics” — and it begins by Einstein asking Curie “not [to] laugh at me for writing you without having anything sensible to say.”

“But I am so enraged by the base manner in which the public is presently daring to concern itself with you,” he continued, “that I absolutely must give vent to this feeling.”

What Aging Women Want Most That Money Can't Buy?Iris Krasnow

What Aging Women Want Most That Money Can't Buy Iris Krasnow: This is the definition of my brand of feminism -- to gain independence and self-esteem from decisions that make a woman feel her most powerful and most real, and not allow others to shape or define her. The word "feminist" is not scary; it means "let me be" and many men claim to be feminists too.

What women don't want is to be judged on any front.

I like it.



There's a whole other area here that isn't being addressed, and many women just past menopause know exactly what I'm talking about. But that's for another day.



I'd also add: to be left alone. Just leave me alone. Don't tell me, give me a list of shoulds and expectations, treat me like I'm a child when I'm old enough to be your mother, if not your grandmother, or treat me as if I'm invisible because I'm over fifty.

Wiccan Inmate Suing Massachusetts Department of Corrections | The Wild Hunt

A great pagan blog, The Wild Hunt, reports on the following case involving a prisoner's rights who is a practicing wiccan:

Wiccan Inmate Suing Massachusetts Department of Corrections | The Wild Hunt: A Wiccan man serving time at MCI-Norfolk since 1987 for a  triple murder  is suing the Massachusetts Department of Corrections for allegedly infringing on his religious rights. Daniel LaPlante says prison officials are interfering with his ability to practice the Wiccan religion by preventing him from obtaining specific ritual oils, herbs, teas, medallions, and a variety of cakes for his faith. He also says they are preventing him from practicing his faith in the “time, place and manner” that the Wiccan religion requires. (The Wild Hunt)

Tessa Dick Presents: It's a Philip K. Dick World!

Writer Tessa Dick's site; also links to her other places on the web.

Tessa Dick Presents: It's a Philip K. Dick World!

Art, Personal and Handmade Pagan themed clothing:Practical Rabbit

A plug for an artist I know; if you're in the Eugene area, visit the Holiday Market and be sure to visit Practical Rabbit. Beautiful work! If you're not in the area, visit the website and order from there.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Yahoo Ate My Email

And Google/blogger and …

Anyway, the rlee@cafeesoterica does not exist, even though blogger-Google thinks it does. Trying to get that surreal loop of insanity fixed is impossible, so there it stays, at the top of the blog, as if it means something.

As to my other email account, the one with all the great UFO sighting reports and Bigfoot encounters (I know! Backup!) Yahoo ate my rlee@orangeorb.net awhile back.

But you can reach me at orange orb@mail.com, and whitewolftarot@juno.com.

Unicorn oracle synchronicity

My post at Orange Orb Tarot and Oracle, on unicorn synchronicity, journaling, and exercise.

Los Angeles Times: Becoming Mrs. Charles Manson: 26-year-old insists it's happening - LA Times

 The Manson myth continues with another installment:

Becoming Mrs. Charles Manson: 26-year-old insists it's happening - LA Times: Charles Manson is getting married, insists his bride-to-be. And Afton Elaine Burton, 26, plans to take her new husband's last name.

A look at the couple's marriage license shows it's Burton's first marriage and Manson's third, and Manson is listed at an address in Santa Barbara, where he reportedly lived for a short while in 1969 before moving to Los Angeles. It was in L.A. that Manson orchestrated the stabbing and shooting deaths of seven people over two nights in August 1969.

Manson was an experiment gone rogue and that's why the masses still think of him as the "one who murdered Sharon Tate, etc." but of course he did not murder them. Orchestrated, as the article writes, yes. Murdered others, no doubt. But try explaining that to the good citizens. What is it that has caused this young woman -- Elaine Burton -- to believe Manson innocent and why did she begin her quest at such a young age? Of which, prison authorities undoubtedly knew; her age, her full bio, allowing her wooing of Manson to continue.

Louisiana bus driver detains gay student to make him repent for ‘sinful ways’ of homosexuality

Louisiana bus driver detains gay student to make him repent for ‘sinful ways’ of homosexuality: The ACLU of Louisiana on Tuesday urged the East Baton Rouge Parish School System to take action after a school bus driver allegedly tried to make a student “repent” because she thought he was gay.

In a letter to the Superintendent of East Baton Rouge Schools, the principal of Broadmoor High Schools, and the Director of Transportation for East Baton Rouge Schools, the ACLU argued that the bus driver had violated Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972 by discriminating against the student with LGBT-related harassment.

The driver also violated the First Amendment Establishment Clause by proselytizing to a student, the ACLU said.

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Reading further, the article goes on to quote a school district spokesperson, who, astoundingly, said that a "reprimand" of the driver is all that's needed.



I know it's the Christian south, but … still … the mind boggles.

A Fairy Survey

Link to a fairy survey created by Fairyist at my blog: The Orange Orb: A Fairy Survey

From LogDriver: Emma Woods, Creepy Professors and My Little Wooden Box

LogDriver: Emma Woods, Creepy Professors and My Little Wooden Box

LogDriver — Emma Woods, Creepy Professors and My Little Wooden Box: Suffice it to say that listening to the recording of Creepy Professor threatening Emma Woods over the phone when she refused to go along with his delusional script for her life brought back an explicit (by which I mean detailed, not X-rated) memory of being threatened by my former dissertation advisor when I called him up to explain why I wanted another one of my committee members to serve as chair instead of him. I remembered the trepidation I felt as I got ready to make a call I really did not want to have to make; I remembered his lengthy silence after I said my piece; I recalled the venomous tone in which he finally spoke. He had a low, rumbling voice and did venomous quite well.

An excellent piece, well written and very personal. I am inspired by the concept of the "little wooden box" as well.

Hey Lamarr

TIME Magazine Compares Witches To Terrorists

TIME magazine apparently has a nasty article by Jennifer Latson on witches.

TIME Magazine Compares Witches To Terrorists: In a piece entitled, “Why Witches on TV Spell Trouble in Real Life,” TIME writer Jennifer Latson suggests that this revived interest in witchcraft is “mere silliness” at best and a sign of troubled times at worse. In the article, much to the offense of pagans and witches everywhere, Latson quotes history professor, Emerson Baker, in this amazingly offensive passage.

“Witches, like terrorists, threaten to wipe out everything you believe in. If they could, they would overthrow your government, overturn your faith, and destroy your society.” (Inquisitir, Oct 28, 2014)

Very stupid, very sad.

Clearly a Troll Who Lives Among the Dung Beetles

Yes, of course the following comment left on my post linking to Jeremy Vaeni's blog is nothing more than spam, and severely, deeply, trollish spam. (As well as a non-sequitor, the comment has nothing to do with the post.)

But it is so stupid it deserves notice. Oh I know, that's what they want, these silly smelly little morons --  the attention, the linking, the arguing --  but if you're stupid enough to take this little gnat of a human seriously, go for it. Too damn stupid to resist posting it here.

Note, as well, his bizarro series of numbers:

ce8d632a-647c-11e3-94d3-000bcdcb2996 said...
I am an American man, and I have decided to boycott American women. In a nutshell, American women are the most likely to cheat on you, to divorce you, to get fat, to steal half of your money in the divorce courts, don’t know how to cook or clean, don’t want to have children, etc. Therefore, what intelligent man would want to get involved with American women?
American women are generally immature, selfish, extremely arrogant and self-centered, mentally unstable, irresponsible, and highly unchaste. The behavior of most American women is utterly disgusting, to say the least.
This blog is my attempt to explain why I feel American women are inferior to foreign women (non-American women), and why American men should boycott American women, and date/marry only foreign (non-American) women.
BOYCOTT AMERICAN WOMEN!
www.boycottamericanwomen.com

I think my favorite reason he gives is "…highly unchaste."

The Orange Orb: Jeremy Vaeni is back!

The Orange Orb: Jeremy Vaeni is back!

Frame 352: Bigfoot Should be on Endangered Species List, New York County Legislators Hear

Frame 352: Bigfoot Should be on Endangered Species List, New York County Legislators Hear



Don't know why article mentioned the Gulf Coast Bigfoot hunters...

Spam Hacking Comment

If you find a comment on your blog using the name of John Ambrose and "welcoming" you to the Illuminati -- all its riches, secrets and powers, you know, the usual stuff -- do not click on it, do not put it through, do not click and follow the link. It will screw up your blogs, log-in info and email.

We're Still Here

Just been very quiet. Which has been my fault; I haven't been encouraging all of Women of Esoterica's bloggers. But that is changing, and we'll soon have lots of new posts. Don't give up on us!

Also playing around with the look of the place. What to do, what to do...

White Wolf Tarot: A Journey, Not a Punishment: A Small Bit of Advice...

New post at my White Wolf Tarot blog:

White Wolf Tarot: A Journey, Not a Punishment: A Small Bit of Advice...:          Often, people new to reading tarot become overwhelmed, confused and frustrated very quickly. There's an expectation that yo...

Vintage sexist ads . . .

A vintage sexist ad that has one wondering if it's her breasts that are doing the projecting, or the machine?

Russia: Pussy Riot suffer burns and head injuries after being attacked at McDonalds | euronews, world news

Real he-men attack two members of Pussy Riot; the irony of the fact they were wearing anti-Nazi symbols does not escape:

Russia: Pussy Riot suffer burns and head injuries after being attacked at McDonalds | euronews, world news: The men, who were wearing St George ribbons which commemorate the victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two, used pepper spray and poured rubbish and green antiseptic over them. [italics mine]

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Big Oil doesn't want you to know that you could be running one gallon of water to run your car 55,000 miles, and thus they are going to mock the hell out of you for thinking Cold Fusion is a real, viable source of clean, safe energy

The 6 Weirdest Things Women Do to Their Vaginas | Alternet

   

      

     Marketing has no shame, which is not even close to being news, and so, despite decades of feminism, the beat goes on. Chemicals to wash that disgusting twat; no matter those same chemicals have been banned in other countries. Mints, to sweetly encourage your partner that going down on you can be a good thing; "Altoids for your vagina."  Vagina not the right color? No worries! Get that "Barbie Dream House" pink look with a variety of pussy colorants: The 6 Weirdest Things Women Do to Their Vaginas | Alternet

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Imbolc 2014: Facts, Dates, Traditions And Rituals To Know

Imbolc 2014: Facts, Dates, Traditions And Rituals To Know

Octopus Confessional; where eso-metaphysics meets conspiracy theory: Cthulhu, In Your Face

Octopus Confessional; where eso-metaphysics meets conspiracy theory: Cthulhu, In Your Face: Recent triangle of events, some related, one not (seemingly) share one thing: the magnitude of their blatant nature. Mockery is big. As wi...

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White Wolf Oracle: From Diablo to Spirit: Animal Communication

White Wolf Oracle: From Diablo to Spirit: Animal Communication: This is an i ncredible video of animal communicator Anna Breytenbach  and her work with an abused black leopard, who was rescued by an big c...

Use Mediums in UFO Investigations - Binnall of America

Use Mediums in UFO Investigations - Binnall of America

Turbogeist - Alien Girl (Official Video)

White Wolf Oracle: Synchronicity, Cat Killer, and Archangel Raphael: Be Willing To Forgive

From my blog White Wolf Oracle:

White Wolf Oracle: Synchronicity, Cat Killer, and Archangel Raphael: Be Willing To Forgive: Just yesterday I was reading about how synchronicity occurs once you start working with oracles. And just a few minutes ago, I got into an altercation with a woman who lives down the block. Absolutely not a proud moment for me, but I am still hanging onto my anger and deep sadness over the loss of my cat -- the cat that was killed in front of me by her two dogs last spring. Two dogs she consistently allowed to run loose in the neighborhood. Aside from the depression I am still feeling over my beloved cat's death, I am angry at this person's complete lack of compassion or responsibility.

Upset at myself for behaving so immaturely and lashing out, upset with her for being a scary, threatening and irresponsible person, upset at the death of my cat, I stormed into the house. Opened my email to find this post from the Divine Guidance blog: Forgiveness. ~ Regan Lee, White Wolf Oracle