[Warning to the people who know me IRL: this gets personal at the end and might be a little awkward.]<\/p>\n
So \u2026. I\u2019ve picked up a few new readers in the last weeks.\u00a0 Welcome to the Obsidian Dream, folks: it\u2019s good to have you along for the ride.\u00a0 As of last week I know have more \u201cfollowers\u201d here than I had back on blogger, and (although I know there\u2019s some overlap between the two, and that many of my beloved readers don\u2019t use those buttons for whatever reason) that feels pretty damn good.\u00a0 My monthly hits aren\u2019t quite what they were, but I haven\u2019t actually been keeping up with the posting that well these last couple months, either, and I suspect those facts are closely related.\u00a0 I\u2019m grateful to have you all.<\/p>\n
Things have been interesting here in the Satyr\u2019s life: working in the mall to cover rent and summer spending money, living with Aradia for the summer, studying my Attic Greek (but not enough), the whole HPF main ritual drama and the continuing fallout, researching my planned switch from disposable razors to a straight edge (not because it\u2019s superbutch<\/a>, which is almost creepy enough to be a reason not<\/em> to do it) but because it\u2019s more environmentally sustainable), my car breaking down earlier this week, getting ready for Sannafrid coming out to visit next week, and getting ready for the giant fucking party we\u2019re going to have while she\u2019s here.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been doing some visionary work, but haven\u2019t yet reached a point where I can provide an interesting narrative about it.\u00a0 The Moon has a lot to teach me, but it seems like I have to fuck shit up for the correct information they\u2019ve imparted to rise to the surface (\u201cNo, man, like this<\/em>: like I showed you already.\u201d)<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been working images of Venus and the Moon, inspired by my work with the Moon Talisman at Heartland and based on more of the descriptions from Christopher Warnock\u2019s Picatrix<\/em> translation.\u00a0 This has been a technical challenge, but super-fun.\u00a0 I plan to do at least one Picatrix-based image for each planet.\u00a0 Posts for each of those are forthcoming upon their completion.<\/p>\n Progress in my ceremonial studies has slowed greatly.\u00a0 Partly because I\u2019ve been resting, partly because I\u2019ve been researching, and partly because I\u2019ve been devoting a lot of time to try to actually understand what I\u2019ve already learned.\u00a0 The biggest things I\u2019ve gotten done in this regard, lately, is downloading AstroWin<\/a> and Morinus Tradional<\/a> as potential alternatives Astrolog<\/a>.\u00a0 Further, my studies have also been slightly hampered by the ever-clearer knowledge that, while many planetary magic techniques are really interesting and awesome (electional talisman construction, for example), my own talents slant so hard toward visionary work that ceremonialism, Hermetics and astrological magic will always be peripheral to my practice.\u00a0 They\u2019re good, solid tools\u2014fun to use and especially to make–but never my favorites.<\/p>\n Two things have consumed the last week more than anything else, though: emailing back and forth with the HSA Sacred Experience Committee regarding the horrible ritual<\/a>, and getting ready for Sannafrid\u2019s visit.<\/p>\n I have, to date, exchanged nearly a score of emails with the head of the Sacred Experience Committee and a couple other people involved in the ritual planning and execution.\u00a0 The initial emails were heated; since we have begun negotiating a face-to-face meeting (moderated by the former head of the SEC, an individual whom I respect greatly), things have calmed a little.\u00a0 The meeting will take place tomorrow, and a full report on the exchange will be forthcoming, as will be analysis of how I feel this event was exemplary of what I feel to be one of the greatest failures of the neo-Pagan and magical communities today: a deep and unexamined investment in the patriarchy which poisons all of our lives.<\/p>\n Although an altogether happy occasion (as opposed to the other, which might turn out well or might finish ruining Heartland for me), Sannafrid\u2019s visit will be, in some ways, an equally iconic rejection of the mainline narratives which dominate our lives as people with one foot in the \u201cMuggle\u201d[1] world: I\u2019m not just involved in deeply loving relationships with two different women.\u00a0 Although they have never met, they have always known about each other, and next week my \u201cgirlfriend at school\u201d is going to come visit me while I\u2019m living with my \u201cgirlfriend at home\u201d.\u00a0 I don\u2019t even know where to begin counting all the \u201crules\u201d we\u2019re breaking, let alone deconstructing them, so I\u2019m just going to go for the lulz: Sannafrid is actually going to arrive while Aradia is<\/em> away on a business trip<\/em>.[2]\u00a0 Yeah.\u00a0 We\u2019re all emotionally mature grown ups, capable of negotiating such potentially treacherous waters, but there is a lot<\/em> of negotiating and triple-checking that needs to be done (in addition to all the housecleaning) to ensure that everyone\u2019s on the same page about what is and isn\u2019t going down, and that everyone\u2019s anxieties are being allayed and that everyone\u2019s needs are being fulfilled.[3]<\/p>\n The fact that both of these events are happening (and could only happen) while Venus is fucking retrograde<\/a> is \u2026 interesting.\u00a0 Also: this shit<\/a>.\u00a0 WTF, life?\u00a0 Man, am I glad that I made those Venus talismans.<\/p>\n All of this is to say that, while I\u2019ll be doing a lot of magic in the next ten to twenty days, and finishing out some Big Shit Already In The Works (including at least one more write-up from HPF), it\u2019s probably going to continue to be a month of light posting.\u00a0 Welcome to my wild and crazy life.<\/p>\n 1 \u2013 Referring to people who don\u2019t practice magic, see ghosts, or talk to spirits.\u00a0 On the one hand, I hate this Harry Potter-born neologism.\u00a0 On the other hand, it\u2019s so much less problematic and idiotic than any of the alternatives I\u2019ve heard or used: normal, once-born, cowan, mundane, uninitiated, blind, mortal.<\/p>\n 2 \u2013 The best part is that, although it will work out for the best in some ways, we didn\u2019t plan it that way.\u00a0 The dates for the business trip came down weeks after the dates for the visit were set.<\/p>\n 3 \u2013 Wondering how this is related to magic or to my spiritual practice?\u00a0 Click here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [Warning to the people who know me IRL: this gets personal at the end and might be a little awkward.] So \u2026. I\u2019ve picked up a few new readers in the last weeks.\u00a0 Welcome to the Obsidian Dream, folks: it\u2019s good to have you along for the ride.\u00a0 As of last week I know have … Read More<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[21,38,127,134,203,214,273],"class_list":["post-675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-art-of-magic","tag-by-the-way-im-crazy","tag-journeywork","tag-keeping-score","tag-planetary-magic","tag-pushing-the-boundaries-of-coincidence-and-chance","tag-the-personal-is-magickal"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8kUcm-aT","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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