Clutter

Sometimes I can be a bit slow on the uptake. Don't get me wrong - I'm a very cute cookie, and the sort of things I don't catch on to are the sort of things everyone has trouble catching on to. Of course I mean the little things one does which one doesn't realise on is doing, and which are usually rather counter-productive. This is despite the fact that I'm gratified to announce that I'm rather self-aware. I know this because in my current workplace you get 360 degree feedback. As a means of professional development this is, of course, useless, because people tend to put the things about someone's personality which most annoy them. Mine basically said exactly what I expected it to say. Some other people's have said things which didn't surprise me at all about them, but which surprised the recipient and often upset them. Whereas when mine says I'm difficult, contrary, and just generally a shit, I preeen with pleasure because I've spent years developing this personality.
No, the thing I do which I have only just noticed is a repetitive behaviour of accumulating stuff for some time and then throwing stuff out. I have probably done this all my adult life. I don't really need to do this, because at my stage of life there isn't really anything I need to acquire.
The (now rather dated) buzzword in the chattering classes for getting rid of this stuff is 'decluttering' and while I'm not really a hoarder so I never really get cluttered, I've just realised that if you never get cluttered you don't need to declutter! Of course the trick is to notice what you acquire and stop doing so. For example, for me charity shops are absolutely fatal. I acquire clothes, books, DVDs, random stuff, you name it. I'm better than I used to be - when I first set up my own house in 2000 it was before the global economic crash and in earlier days of eBay so the stuff in charity shops was much better.
I find that the answer to this is not to go anywhere. It is odd that living in Birmingham City Centre has reduced my outgoings to probably the smallest they have been for years. I just plain don't like the Bull Ring and the shops in which I used to spend money have all, without exception, shut.
So I am delighted to announce that at the time of writing the only thing I have in the bottom of my wardrobe which is on the way out, is a pair of trousers which have strangely become smaller since they have been hanging in the wardrobe.
That said, I'm getting urges to have an outing somewhere tomorrow where I will probably acquire junk, but at least I'm better than I used to be.

Help Needed

Hello, Witches.
This post is to ask for your help in magically creating justice for a turd whose initials are DCB. I am not publishing his full name because his alleged crimes are not in the public domain or even in the hands of the constabulary at the moment. The universe and powers know who this person is and he edges towards his fate as we speak. I look forward to reporting a success similar to that with the former Abbot Soper.
Here's a suitable incantation:

Tarot: 'Hidden Mickeys' in the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot

The universe's gift to me was a used RWS tarot deck from a Blue Cross charity shop. I know there is a strong tradition that magical tools should be 'virgin' but my own opinion is that the universe will give me what I need at the right time and the tool may even include the vibrations of what it's been through before. In this case it had magical gift written all over it - the cards were in a box I picked up and although I didn't want the box I bought the whole thing and gave them back the box to sell again, as 'payment'. They are the standard UK RWS tarot cards, definitely used but not in bad nick. I feel that they belonged to a woman, a nice person. I am unsure why she gave them away, and I sense a certain disconnection - perhaps she just didn't click with them. Anyway, they immediately leapt into life in my hands and when I asked what they have to teach me, I drew The Star. Hope - what a lovely lesson.
It has revived my interest in the 'hidden Mickeys' in that deck, so here is a non-exhaustive list of them. I am not attempting to interpret them, just point out some things not apparent.
O The Fool - the symbols on his belt represent the seven planets to some. There is an eagle depicted on his bag.
I The Magician - the top of the leg of his table may hold the word 'din' (there isn't even agreement on what alphabet it's in), which in Hebrew means law or judgement, or the squiggles are sometimes seen as alchemical or elemental symbols. His belt is in the shape of an ourobouros.
II The High Priestess - the pomegranates on the hanging behind her are in shape of the kabbalistic Tree of Life. Attempts to see words in the folds of her garment are sadly unconvincing, in my opinion. The water which can be glimpsed behind the veil is said to be the source of every other body of water in the tarot.
V The Hierophant - some people see acorns and oak leaves at the top of the pillars.
VII The Chariot - the charioteer's clothing is covered in astrological signs and his belt with geomantic symbols used for divination in the Golden Dawn.
VIII Strength - some people see bees flying around me maiden's head.
X Wheel of Fortune - the alchemical glyphs from the top clockwise are mercury (conscious/ego), sulphur (passion/will), water (dissolution) and salt (inertia).
XI Justice - there is a tradition connected with the Marseilles tarot that the rope round the figure's neck is the rope which hangs the Hanged Man.
XIII Death - there is a tiny entry to a cave in the background of the card, which is sometimes connected to Plato's Allegory of the Cave.
XIV Temperance - just under the neckline of the angel's garment is the biblical name for God in Hebrew letters.
XX Judgement - the figures' arm postures may spell out the Latin word LUX - light.
7 of Cups - the shading on the cup containing a laurel wreath forms the shape of a skull.
4 of Swords - the Latin word 'pax', which means peace, appears at the top left of the stained glass window.
8 of Swords - the number of coils of rope are the same as are used in a masonic ritual (sorry, didn't note its name) and so signify being reborn.
10 of Swords - the man's fingers form the Japanese kichijo-in mudra, indicating good fortune or joy. In Chinese mudras this one is called the sword mudra and indicates cutting through perpetual difficulties.
9 of Pentacles - some people on t'internet are adamant they can see an indication there is another person in this scene - either a hand or an eye. I have never been able to myself, but do wonder whether Pixie intended the background to be suggestive.
Queen of Pentacles - there is a rabbit in the foreground of the card.
7 of Wands - the figure has odd shoes on.
Sources include many internet forums and quite a few from Sandra Thomson's Pictures from the Heart.

Reblog: A Manifesto of Apocalyptic Witchcraft

1. If the land is poisoned, the witchcraft must respond.

2. It is not our way if life, it is life itself which is under threat

3. Witchcraft is our intimate connection to the web of life.

4. We are the Witchcraft.

5. Our World has forever changed. The trodden paths no longer correspond. Witchcraft thrives in this liminal, lunar, trackless realm.

6. We are storm, fire and flood.

7. We will not be denied.

8. Witchcraft is the recourse of the dispossessed, the powerless, the hungry and the abused. It gives heart and tongue to stones and trees. It wears the rough skin of beasts. It turns on a civilization that knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.

9. If you have no price you cannot be bought. If you do not want you cannot be bribed. If you are not frightened you cannot be controlled.

10. Witchcraft is folk magic, the magic of the people and for the people.

11. We call an end to the pretence of respectability.

12. We will not disarm ourselves.

13. The war is upon us.

14. Choose then to become a Mask.

15. Those with nothing left to lose will dare all.

16. There is one Witchcraft under many names. There is one Grand Sabbat on one mountain. There are many ways to fly. There is no witness present at the Sabbat.

17. Witchcraft is a force, not an order. Witchcraft is rhizomatic, not hierarchic. Witchcraft defies organisation, not meaning. We simply bear the marks.

18. Witchcraft is power and possesses this in ekstasis, sex and ordeal.
Witchcraft is unbridled sexuality.

19. In witchcraft it is the woman who initiates. We challenge man to be the equal of this woman.

20. Witchcraft is the art of inversion.

21. Witchcraft is the beauty which is terror.

22. Witchcraft is a myth, which drawing on the past, clothes itself in the symbols of (its) time.
Witchcraft does not mistake myths for history, it harnesses them to transform the future.
Witchcraft knows the ground upon which it stands.

23. Witchcraft honours the spirits. Witchcraft enchants for the lost. Witchcraft will not forget.

24. Witchcraft embodies our ancestors and saints, they carry us with them.

25. To Her is offered the blood, to use the care of the ask and bones.

26. The example we follow is our own.

27. The practice of witchcraft is one of revolution and of the power of woman.

28. The Goddess who speaks through us is known among men as Babalon.

29. Witchcraft concerns itself with mystery. Through the gates of mystery we come to knowledge. Knowledge enters us through the body. The highest form of this knowledge is Love.

30. Every drop of blood is sacrificed to the grail. Love cannot be bought with any other coin.

31. We seek and drink this wine together.

32. Will is finite, passion infinitely renewed.

33. Witchcraft is present, its is ensanguined and vivified. Witchcraft is prescient, it gazes on the future. Witchcraft is oracular, it will not hold its tongue. Our time has come

…from Apocalyptic Witchcraft by Peter Grey, published by Scarlet Imprint

Source: http://goblinmarket.tumblr.com/post/168718902179/a-manifesto-of-apocalyptic-witchcraft

On not Getting Derailed

Another new year and yet again I'm not making any resolutions. I know that nobody ever keeps tham and they are a waste of time. Instead I am adopting an interest in noting how people get diverted or divert each other from what is going on.
It may seem like I'm getting away from the point, but recently I have posted here how the former Abbot of Ealing has been sent to prison for a term of eighteen years for mutliple counts of child abuse. It will come as no surprise to regular readers that I hope the cunt dies in prison. Not because he has abused children - I suspect there are many men and women who have urges to do so and do a full and frank inventory on themselves resulting in them taking action to keep children safe. For example they wouldn't because a teacher. It is only the same sort of action I have taken to stop myself smoking, but writ large. I have performed a full and frank inventory and know that I can't smoke. Or rather, I can't smoke just one or the odd one, so I cannot smoke at all. This is only really the same action - I am keeping myself away from a behaviour which I know I cannot manage and will cause harm - in this case - to me rather than to others.
But Mr Soper (as he is referred to on the Ealing Abbey website) is not showing signs of doing a full and frank inventory. Remember that in English law, for a criminal conviction it has to be proved *beyond reasonable doubt* that you have actually committed the crime you are accused of, which indicates that in this case there is a large body of compelling evidence that he's guilty. The smallest hint that you might not have done it and you don't get convicted. But in the face of this evidence Mr Soper didn't plead guilty. He claimed to be not guilty to the multiple crimes, in the face of multiple accusers and witnesses, to the bitter end. His non guilty plea meant that his victims had to be retraumatised by a criminal trial which needn't have happened. The accounts of the lengthy trial suggest that his defending counsel tried her absolute damnedest but she had absolutely nothing to work with and was on a losing wicket.
Not only has he not caved in and admitted that he's as guilty as hell, there are indications on the internet that he has started using diversionary tactics (phew, managed to get the post back on its subject). He is playing for sympathy. He was very upset at the reaction of other prisoners in the prison van to having a nonce among them. What a pity. You can imagine how sorry I feel for him. 'Look at poor little innocent me' is what the diversionary tactics are aimed at saying. And it's spotting and dealing with these kind of diversionary tactics that are my current focus - they create further abuse for existing targets and indicate that the person employing the tactics is either ignoring the problem or looking after number one.
The other discussion which has broken out on the internet in the wake of his conviction is whether his victims should forgive him. There is one blog (called Sceptical Thoughts) which has tended to become solely about child protection and at Ealing Abbey and the English Benedictine Congregation in particular and a particularly lively discussion has broken out on there about the power of forgiveness to enable healing. Again it will come as no surprise that the Hound's official position is that the target of abuse should feel no obligation to forgive their abuser - particularly in a case like this where the abuser is not willing to carry the can for his actions. In fact my opinion is that in the maelstrom of strange experiences and emotions which happen after trauma, keeping hold of the fact of it happening may be one of the few things which create healing as being a source of validation for the target, in the face of overwhelming denial about the fact of it happening. This is to my mind a very good reason for refusing to be diverted from the fact of abuse happening.
I did actually meet Mr Soper once when I visited Ealing Abbey. The visit was for a matter of hours only and I wasn't there for long enough to get an impression of what he or the community were about. He is the second convicted clerical/monastic abuser I have met - the other was Fr Phillip Temple of Cockfosters Monastery. Now I have to confess with him that he is the person who has made me understand why people say they didn't know an abuser was abusing, because I thought I had him sussed and had *no* idea. Even other people who knew him better than me werer surprised when he was convicted. He did the right thing and after an initial non guilty plea, changed his plea to guilty and fessed up. This is the opposite of using diversionary tactics.
The other things which has been making me think about diversionary tactics recently has been comments on Bishop Pat Buckley's blog. These tend to follow the more classic arguments used by those who try to divert attention from the problem at hand. So that, say, when the topic under discussion is the fact the Catholic church is a cesspit of sexual abuse and clergy not living in any way in the way they are supposed to do so, we get answers such as this:
'You're forgetting about the many good priests who get on with it and live celibately'.
'The abusive priests are only a few bad apples.' [This is the most ridiculous one because Catholic clerical abusers may not exceed the proportion in the general population but have been extensively facilitated by their bishops]
'You are anti-Catholic.' [Another ridiculous one]
'Those things happened in the 70s and the 80s but things have changed now.' [Let me see, child abuse was a crime and a mortal sin even then, so the behaviour and response to it was illegal and sinful, and the recent inquiry has been hearing about a teacher abusing a girl pupil at Ampleforth in the Noughties]
'We all have sins and you should think about your own.' [Pause for laughter - I have a lot of sexual sins between consenting adults and am very proud of them indeed]
And so on and so on. You get my point, which is that diversionary tactics divert from the actual problem, whether making the odd case out to be an aberration or denying its importance, or diverting attention to the person pointing out what has happened. The Christian milieu is particularly vulnerable to diversion because of the dangerous custom of confessing things and having them wiped off the slate. This is dangerous because it - literally - 'absolves' the person of any future responsibility for it. It's gone. It's exactly like me smoking the 19th Camel in a packet and thinking 'I'll just have this one, because I have stopped.'
The key to recognising and dealing with diversion is tha one I suggested above - a full and frank inventory of what is actually happening, which will always be bound to be embarrassing and painful. Especially painful when one is considering how one may be using diversionary tactics as a defence mechanism in ones own life. Personally I find it helpful to think of it in a diagram. When you draw arrows to indicate who is talking about what, diversion will always appear as an arrow pointing away from the person. I can tell that this year I'm going to be drawing a lot of diagrams!
Happy new year, everyone.