Being Selective

I think a major feature of the fairly neat compartments into which our world has been dividing itself for some years, is that one side is real and the other isn't. That's why the right wing attracts the flat earthers and conspiracy theorists: the whole thing is a fib.

'But they're mistaken or have been lied to' goes the narrative at this point.

I'm afraid at this point I honestly don't care. At this point if you claim to think the earth is flat, Trump won, Brexit was a sensible decision, abortion is murder, covid doesn't exist, etc, you are choosing to believe this nonsense. The reality is as an adult it behoves you to orientate yourself to reality, and I don't owe these people a discussion, evidence, or even an audience. They're fools and will not be persuaded because they don't want to be (that is, if they're even actual people, on social media).

Is this judgemental? Of course. Am I being horrible? You bet. Do I care? Do I fuck.

When you don't care about these fools, it changes your perspective. It gives you the opportunity to concentrate and be very selective who you talk with. This means that I don't waste the remaining years of my life around people that I can't stand, and I think we can all agree that this is a desirable thing.

In my misspent youth hanging around the monastic world I got to know the idea of being focused on thing, being alone, and so on. In a Christian monastic world this tends to mean being focused on God and the other people in the community form the lessons that God teaches you by the love of neighbour. I suppose in true witchy fashion I've turned this on its head to focus on what I want to focus on, and not be distracted by fools. The Hound's rule for monasteries would tend to end up with a very different end product than St Benedict's!

I honestly can't really see a downside to this approach. I can see an objection that you would never get your opinions challenged if you only hang out with people of your own opinion. However if you're just making a point of avoiding unreality and argument with the unpersuadable I think you actually get challenged more. I think this is the result of seeking out intelligent people.

This also highlights that in a witchy/Pagan milieu, rather than the single eye being focused on God, it will necessarily be focused on the world and open to all the possibilities therein. Just not fools.

Subtle, I know.

Happiness is Rebellion

Let's start with a tale Snopes says is an urban legend:

Lunching with English friends at the time of her husband's retirement, Madame de Gaulle was asked what she was looking forward to in the years ahead. "A penis," she replied without hesitation. The embarrassed silence that followed was finally broken by the former president. "My dear," he murmured, "I think the English don't pronounce the word quite like that. It's 'appiness.'"

We all know one of them, one of those annoyingly superior people who know best and act as if the world is their oyster. I'm not talking about becoming quite one of them, but about the attitude. They're ok and always will be. In the UK they tend to shop in Waitrose.

We have many of them in the government and nobody else's views impinge on them in any way.

What if we take the attitude and rebel by being happy? In a stressful, conflicted world it would be natural to be depressed and stressed beyond belief. I'm also not talking about minimising any of the shit that's going on in the world.

I'm talking about doing things that make us happy as a rebellion against the nonsense. An act of self care in the face of everything, if you like. A way of changing the script slightly.

Because when you make small changes they tend to have knock on effects elsewhere, like all magical acts.

It is also my firm conviction that the world is increasingly dividing into two factions. In true Hound fashion I call the factions the people who are cunts, and the ones who aren't cunts. The cunts want everyone except themselves to be miserable, and the non-cunts want everyone to be happy. This means that being happy, making sure you can be happy by doing things which make you happy, is actually an act of rebellion against the people who want everyone else to be miserable.

And this isn't just a positive behaviour. It is actually witchcraft. If you think about the bit in the Gospel of the Witches about the feast, it says, you will dance, sing, feast, make music and love, all in my praise... and this will continue until every last one of the oppressors is dead.

That sounds very much like the sort of thing I'm getting at. Like sticking your fingers up. And strangely enough I have a soundtrack for this!

Finally if you'd like something quieter I've just recently discovered there are people (all men, apparently) who are made happy by racing washing machines! AND they even get people in the comments requesting particular cycles. 😂

I Haven't Lost my Touch

The council have had a run in with me (I phrase it like that to stress that it was of course entirely their fault and problem, and in case anyone might make out that I could start a fight in a phone box).

To cut a very long story short they sent me a letter telling me to pay them money that they actually owed me because I'd overpaid on my council tax. They seem to think that this shambolic correspondence is acceptable. I have had a protracted battle with them at the end of which they'd refused to sort out their correspondence, but it strangely felt like the matter had left me.

Magically this is very significant and I was happy to leave it because I knew something was going to happen. Of course I can't take the whole credit for what comes next LOL, but was involved because obviously the universe wanted me to tell them they were twats because I'm the neighbourhood witch.

The big thing that was coming dropped yesterday:

This is all the worse because their unequal pay has been going on for years and has actually been extensively litigated. There was a time you couldn't get on a bus or train without seeing ads for solicitors saying if you were a woman and employed by the council you would be owed money. It's the fact they've been extensively sued and still carried on.

Their hasn't been that much outcry yet but their certainly will when further cuts hit the poorest of the poor. Set of cunts.

The council think they are going to carry on with this and not make the legal submission to the government where the council is essentially dissolved and the government takes it over.

WANNA BET?

How to Recognize a Gift

This blog post was inspired by the illustration, which I found somewhere on Tumblr and immediately thought all of those sound just like me.

However I'm not confident of the high and low vibration idea. I find it a bit new agey, particularly as high vibration people are supposed to be successful people. Per-lease.

So if I recognize myself but not the high vibration thing, obviously I'm going to have to recast the meme thingy into a witchy mould. I haven't phrased it as being how to recognize a witch, although witches will routinely experience thoss things.

I'm also not happy with using the word gift although I don't have a better one. In fact gift could probably be exchanged with curse for a lot of people so I'm going to have to explain this.

There are some people who you recognize as witches definitely walking a path which is a very important part of their progress through their lives, correcting a lot of things from previous incarnations and being continually faced with ridiculous shit as a side effect of correcting karma. They will definitely attract toxic people's attention, will definitely attract animals, etc. Another very common characteristic of these witches is that they have chronic illness which really screws them over and they are completely incapable of healing. They will have a pattern in their relationships where they attract the work that they can do, and will keep being presented with their special task.

It may sound as if I'm describing what is elsewhere described as an old soul, endowed with maturity and wisdom, but that's not what I'm getting at. I've used the word gift because what I mean is what is called in Christianity a charism. For the Christians this is an ability given by God. In witch fashion I suppose we would have to call it an ability or abilities possibly divinely given, but the nature of the gift will be mediated by our life experiences.

If you want to take divinity out of it completely this isn't that different to saying, 'Hes a really gifted mechanic', for example.

The point of this, of course, is what you do with your gift. Some people fight their gift tooth and nail, especially as its bound to be something we don't enjoy in the main. Not always, though, one of mine is that trophy dogs held on leads by hot rough trade tend to roll over to have their tummy tickled when they see me. I can't help this: I'm just naturally gifted.

Donald Trump Yet Again

Of course you knew I wouldn't be able to leave this one alone and of course I've pulled some cards for what's going on for the orange turd.

There are three major arcana cards here which suggests big forces that he's not in control of, dominate this situation. I love it when a tarot reading reflects the obvious reality from the start.

First up we have the 7 of Cups, the Lord of Illusionary Success. As stated on the tin this card deals with illusions and similar things so I would interpret this as meaning the old fool has genuinely persuaded himself none of the cases facing him is real. This is what it's like to be a total psychopath folks.

But...

Then out popped the Moon. This might seem a bit obvious coming after the 7 of Cups, given that it reflects things which aren't seen and delusions. But being the moon it also reflects the light, and its Hebrew letter means the back of the head, which is taken to refer to the subconscious. I think this means that even Trump has an inkling that he isn't as innocent as he's persuaded himself and all these legal woes aren't just nothing burgers.

Next we have the Queen of Swords. This could certainly refer in Trump's mind to my new hero Stormy Daniels. However being a mature character card in the suit of swords which deal with thought, I am going to go with a different meaning. I think this means the thought is really dawning on him that this is going to happen. If this was a cartoon it is the bit where he's run off the cliff and has realised he's running in the air. In the Golden Dawn tarot the queen holds a cut off head, indicating she's all about thought.

Temperance has a more initiatory meaning in the Qabalistic tarot than may be apparent from its lower meaning of mixing and balancing - in fact the mixing of materials to cause transformation. This initiation is often associated with a sense of distaste which is certainly applicable here. In fact I think he's horrified by this initiation into reality and feeling...

...contained and controlled, which is the main meaning of the Chariot. This is not to say he wouldn't love to run away and isn't it lucky he has Secret Service agents with him?

To summarize: it's even sinking in for him that he's fucked.

I mentioned above that I have a new hero. And so in an unusual step I will take this opportunity to declare Stormy Daniels, Tish James, Alvin Bragg, and Jack Smith as Honorary Witches. Give them a round of applause 👏

What, do I hear you say? They haven't secured convictions yet? The annoyance they cause him alone is an indication of true witchhood.

Update: I've just discovered Stormy does oracle card readings. We all recognize each other. 😂

By Appointment to The Hound

I don't know if other countries with constitutional monarchs do it but of course in the UK we have a system of Royal Warrants where companies are made official suppliers to members of the royal family. They get a crest above the door and get to put the prices up. Some of them are wild, like suppliers of fire extinguishers and older readers will remember how Benson and Hedges were the cigarettes by appointment. Currently I think the barmiest warrant is to Ainsworths Homeopathic Pharmacy, purely because it's the famous one that sells a 'remedy' called Berlin Wall to treat feelings of alienation.

Kings are nearly as good as witches so it's high time I issued some official Royal (or rather, Canine) Warrants of my own and here they are. These have the added advantage that in addition to being a witch so knowing these firms' inner dispositions I'm also a complete nightmare in shops so have mostly tried out these firms' resilience as well.

Apart from anything else this list should be some evidence that I'm not a complete curmudgeon and do occasionally have something good to say.

I feel slightly doomed saying this because my warrant has previously been given to firms which have gone bust (Packard Bell and Blackberry) but my current technology warrant goes to Lenovo. My current Windows laptop should be the same as any other but it's strikingly easier to use. It's also eminently reliable.

My warrant for supply of furnishings and household appliances goes to John Lewis. They naturally have a reputation for being posh but their stuff is quality and they're incredibly easy to deal with. Their own brand electricals are also reliable. This warrant does not extend to their partner firms Waitrose and Ocado because their prices are ridiculous.

Otherwise I have awarded a separate warrant for domestic appliances to Bosch. They just keep going forever and I told my mother she'd regret buying a cheap one when she was berating me for spending £400 on a fridge.

My warrant for supply of energy is awarded to Octopus Energy. They've always been perfectly simple to deal with and have never done any of the cock-ups other energy companies have. And in this case it's not just me saying it, they keep on winning awards from Which? (who are rightly difficult to please and USwitch and now even from the witch. And their electricity is green.

I have issued two warrants for banking: one to The Co-operative Bank and the other to Leeds Building Society. LBS can't quite match the Co-Op's ethical standards but it's still a mutual. They are both strikingly easy to deal with. 

This one might be a surprise because of their generally unethical reputation but I've thought carefully about this and I'm not sure you can get a supermarket with better ethics unless you can afford to shop at The Co-op. So my warrant for home delivery of groceries goes to Tesco because they deliver when they say they will, what you've ordered and with no drama. I used to have deliveries from another one which just wasn't reliable; in contrast Tesco couldn't deliver one night because someone crashed into the van. They rang me up to apologize, gave me a gift voucher and delivered the order the next evening and it was free! Suppliers in shop of groceries and household supplies by appointment to The Hound are Aldi.

If you are near Birmingham and need a gadget repaired my warrant has been awarded to Mr Gadget Xchange behind Oasis. Again I can't overstate how without drama this place is. I think they sell gadgets as well but I haven't used them for that.

I never thought I would find one I would recommend because I've dealt with a lot of solicitors over the past few years and they have mostly been a complete nightmare but I have decided to award my warrant to Mann and Co. Again they stand out for the complete absence of drama and just getting on with it professionally. They do criminal defense, property and family law, and I will leave it to your imagination which I've used them for.

So there you are, my very short list of Royal Warrants.

Oh alright, I know you want the picture of Mohammed Al Fayed burning Harrods's royal warrants.

Gambling

I have a friend who works in a betting shop and I'm fascinated by his tales of what happens because gambling is completely alien to me. I have never set foot in a bookies and have never even done the lottery. I can see how it could be addictive but of course my substance of choice has been smoking.

When I was a student I shared a house with a man who started playing backgammon at a casino. To start off with he won hugely but then suddenly started consistently losing. To me this was so obviously fixed that he should have cut his losses but by that time he'd decided he'd got too far in (this was only a matter of weeks) and had to try to get the money back by keeping going, with the predictable result that he kept losing.

I think what makes gambling distasteful to me is that as a witch, a former mental health professional and an INFJ I'm pretty good at predicting the future. I also know that predicting the future isn't rocket science. Given these weather conditions that horse will run like that. That football team won't win, and I'll tell you right now we're not likely to have a white Christmas. Betting works by you gambling on something and the bookie works out the risk. To my surprise there are actually people who are professional gamblers who make a good living, and obviously the bookies absorb that risk to make the other punters think that it could happen to them. In reality of course they are supporting the professional gamblers.

Insurance of course is the same exercise reversed. The insurer bets that something won't happen based on the likelihood and risk. Again it's not rocket science, and of course if you're a young man you're likely to crash your car. See, I said predicting the future was not rocket science. The only difference is that where the bookies make you think some good thing could happen, insurers want you to worry about bad things happening so that you will essentially gamble on them happening. House insurance is just you betting that your house will burn down and getting the payout if it does.

If this sounds like a scam it's because it's definitely got one foot there.

Similarly I have discovered that casinos use all sorts of tricks which aren't that different from the tricks supermarkets use, to keep the punter in there and keep him betting. No windows, free gifts, disorienting in time and even the carpet are among them. I'd just assumed the people who furnished casinos had no taste but the carpet is to create a prison of sensory perceptions. 

It's no wonder I don't do betting when I'm so cynical  attuned to the nature of the risk assessment and psychological tricks and can do the risk assessment myself and conclude it wouldn't give me pleasure and I'm unlikely to profit from it. The reason the subject is appearing here is that I've only just realized that this in itself is a gamble and after my risk assessment I've decided the risk isn't worth it. If gambling is about risk and prediction rather than 'chance' then I'm not giving myself good odds so am not making bets.

... which is in itself a gamble! And I haven't lost any money!

Oh go on, I know you want some tic tac men:

Solitary?

By the time you read this post it will have been resting for at least a few days because I am writing it in reaction, rather than in response to this blog post.

First up I have to say that Macha Nightmare has it bang on when she comments that there is a sense in which a witch is never really solitary. We are surrounded by energies and entities, and there is the tradition of the Red Thread which attaches us to all witches of all times. At least the ones we're talking to.

Where I would tend to disagree is about one of the reasons she gives for witches working solitary:

The Witch is socially maladroit.

This (and don't forget that it's coming from someone who calls herself nightmare and belonged to a coven called Holy Terrors) is to miss much of the point entirely. If your witchcraft and you yourself aren't socially maladroit and shocking, you're doing it wrong.

I first became aware of this as a child - I would have been in secondary school but very young indeed, and mentioned to a teacher about something that was going on in another teacher's private life. This was obviously something known in the staff room but not for discussion with the kids, and I got a cross examination about how I knew. Muggles are so slow sometimes - you would think that a teacher would be very aware of how kids can see things. Anyway she didn't believe that nobody had told me this and thought I was covering for someone, and some teacher had broken the secret.

The point of that is that magical abilities are automatically socially unacceptable. Additionally, transgressive actions can break down the social barriers to magical actions. To put it bluntly, if you're not socially maladroit, you're doing it wrong.

I think this view (which I find I have given the name of the No Fucks Given tradition) is something you come to as you get older. When I was a young witch first conscious of my witchiness I too thought that working with other people was the way to go. I belonged to the Children of Artemis and signed up for their coven finding service before it collapsed completely. In those days I had more time and energy for that sort of thing.

I think this more common reason for solitary working is obliquely mentioned in one of Doreen Valiente's books where she mentions that you will find older witches who work alone but have usually been members of covens when younger (I can't remember which book, sorry). Again the witches concerned are older: I think you just reach an age where you no longer have the patience to deal with politics. You may have a sense that there is limited time left in this incarnation, but you are certain that dealing with the ridiculous things people do in groups is a waste of time and you just can't be doing with it.

Once you reach this point you may come across as antisocial but frankly won't care. You will still find the advantages of a coven in other ways - the universe never leaves her witches unprovided for. This is of course a very individual view and this essay gives a different perspective, including more elements of how psychological development plugs into magical working. 

There is of course another very good reason for refusing to play nicely with the other children: doing so leaves you at a disadvantage to some c*nt who doesn't even pretend to play nicely. Who knows, if people stopped playing by the rules we may no longer have seas full of turds and a government which doesn't even pretend to follow its own rules.

In fact I've just realised that what I'm describing as the persona of the solitary witch is someone who has outgrown their previous ways and come into their own power! Anyone would think that was the point of solitary witchcraft! I'm also very aware that I am also thinking in the back of my mind that if you're going to start having to be nice to people and putting up with bad behaviour, you might as well be a Christian. And we've seen how well this approach has worked out for them. That's why they sit in neat rows for their rituals but ours are barely distinguishable from revolution. Because nobody is in charge.

So there.

An Oathbound Secret about the Ancient Craft of the Wise

Goodness, that title should get me a lot of hits for this one! Today I'm letting out a secret of the craft because

1. It's not ancient

2. It's not oathbound

3. It's blindingly obvious to anyone with eyes to see

and

4. Anyone who tells you otherwise is deluded.

So here's the secret: the word witch is a word which has almost always had negative connotations and instilled fear, because the witch is an agent of what needs to happen in a particular time and place. Witches always are born from the real needs of their time and so this may mean a healing, an inspiration, a little slap from Fate, whatever is necessary to either bring back balance, correct something or move things on. This is why we're so horrifying - many people go through life trying to get away with stuff and we are the living witness that what you are avoiding will come back to you. People also don't like seeing themselves, and mirrors are associated with witches just as much as cats and cauldrons.

I have been reminded of this this week because I reported my last boss to our registration body for lying. I thought her frank incompetence would become apparent the instant she opened her mouth.

I am still waiting to hear what they will do but in the meantime I am delighted to announce that she is moving to a certain area of the city. I am sorry to hear that because being struck off would be mild in comparison to what she has inflicted on herself. Suffice to say it is an area that you move from not to, and getting to work will be an absolute bugger. 🤣 She was talking about extending the perfectly nice house she's lived in hitherto and I am guessing she has money problems. The reflection she's getting is not to overstretch herself - and I'm sure it's completely unwelcome!

Reading the Signs

One of the most ancient magical arts, and which has therefore been absorbed into the modern Craft is that of divination by signs and omens. Robert Cochrane gave crossing the Lethe, the mythological river of death, as another one and since it's the Christians' Good Friday I want to connect divining and endings or death.

Years ago a nun told me that Easter presents a problem in its celebration because we humans are not otherwise used to celebrating resurrections! I have no idea how the devotees of the many other gods who came back from the dead, celebrated this in the ancient world but it seems to me to present a real problem for most humans.

It is the exact problem that people have with the Death tarot card. It gets redefined to the point where it is hardly about death at all, but what is death but an inescapable ending? We cope with our fear of endings by tending to put them off or deny it completely. A good example would be the way half the world's population denies any forthcoming climate disaster and the other half are busy trying to put it off.

My own opinion is that it is very obvious that life on this planet will end at some point, even if we have to wait till the sun burns out. Of course it's quite likely we'll do it ourselves before then! My prediction is that if we don't end the world before the millenial generation get in control, it will then go better environmentally. I love the millenial generation for their strong sense of what is right and taking action.

The ability to face the omen rather than deny it may even be the difference between the witch figure and muggles.

This post was prompted in my mind by this article about a dead man who started breathing just as his organs were going to be harvested. I can't begin to think how difficult the situation must be for his family.

The Witch Figure Again

I saw a thing on one of my other social networks which said, tell me you're a witch without telling me you're a witch. Other people were putting things like having lots of herbs, jars and candles but mine seem a little wild in comparison.

People don't understand the values which drive me, which can make my actions incomprehensible sometimes.

I do actually have jars, candles and other weird shit, but people think I've travelled a lot.

Strange things happen around me, almost as if people were being faced with their destiny.

People do pick up on the more psychic bits when I tell them what they're thinking.

Cows stop giving milk.

Just joking, I am a city person and the only time I go near a cow is in Tesco.

How I Spent my Holiday

 

I spent it clearing the rubbish out of my life. 

As we know this is one of the classical magical acts, and one I will freely admit to not doing often enough. I am already feeling the benefits in terms of a renewed focus and the universe is beckoning me onto the next step.

Years ago my Goddess mother (you didn't think I made this shit up myself did you) told me that witches hold mirrors up to people and give them the opportunity to correct karma. If they take it, all well and good but they have to take the consequences if they don't. 

This is a mission from the universe or the divine and of course means that people either being ridiculous or in ridiculous circumstances get drawn into our orbit before they get the results of their own actions. Shame.

The very first tarot deck I bought was the ancient Italian tarot - I bought it because I liked it but at the time couldn't read with it and gave it away. I found one at a price I was prepared to pay and am bonding with it old school, by sleeping with it under my pillow.

When the pupil is ready the teacher will appear or disappear.

Oh, and my choice of Birmingham's dancing bin men is surely obvious. The ones in Wolverhampton are a pale imitation.

It is too safe only to put music videos up on your blog. Here is some real divine inspiration:

Witch Ethics Again

I have been thinking of a phrase somebody used to me once - she referred to 'doing the right thing'. Up until a few years ago I would probably have resisted the idea of a fixed right thing to do, although would have wanted to look at underlying principles.

It will surprise everyone that I have even a vague awareness that professional negotiators can use underlying principles to cause two opposite factions to agree. However it will come as no surprise that I think people usually don't think about principles enough.

Those principles can also stop fake compliance to an assumed agreement.

Those principles are actually strikingly like what the witch works with all the time - the many layers and levels, unseen entities and realities.

Therefore witchcraft can also resolve differences and incompatibilities. But this won't be needed if the person does what is right to start off with and doesn't need the karmic bump.

Harvest

I like it lots when things I have sown years before come to fruition. Regular readers will remember the spot of bother at work I had some years ago, largely because of my manager at the time, Zippy. She was a bit screwed up to start off with, but was hit by the menopause, lost any interest in her job, and started asking any man she met to impregnate her. She shagged a friend of mine on the organisation's premises - sadly I couldn't cause her grief because although he had given me a rather sickening blow-by-blow account, I have a certain loyalty to him. She then tried to get him in trouble the day after for doing something which really wasn't a thing, which merely indicates what a cow she is. Then she married the least evidently heterosexual man in world history who made her pregnant in circumstances I don't care to think about. Another of her former friends who she has stabbed in the back told me that Zippy's husband doesn't like sex - since he previously gave me the come on with a very obvious hard on, I feel he likes sex perfectly well, just not with his wife. She miscarried his baby and then discovered she had Lady trouble, and they spent a fortune on IVF which failed - all while they didn't own a house or even a bed, and their baby was conceived on a mattress on the floor. She was already pushing fifty at this point and had stopped doing anything which might look like management of the team.

This is all background to say that I saw a job advertised in the team this week and Zippy is no longer manager. I got the cards depicted as an explanation of what happened and that's definitely pushed by a lot of stuff coming home at once. I love it when a plan comes together.

Shrines

The witchcraft movement  with our great tradition of stealing any practice that isn't nailed down, has not been slow to go with the traditions of pilgrimage and shrines. This is not too far from our custom of visiting each other or meeting in moots. Of course we tell the outside world that this is to check in, make sure others are OK, and for networking. But of course it has a deeper purpose, of gossip, bitching and backstabbing.
Sadly some of our people are beyond the veil but we continue to commune with their memories and the residue of their acts. There are even some people who are legendary and this post was inspired by a colleague telling me she wants to visit Derek Jarman's house. This post is about the shrine of another great, but her simple presence speaks to power so I will not speak further except to draw the reader's attention to the parallel of the great Marie Laveau's tomb.

Tomb reputed to be that
of Marie Laveau

The canonisation of Derek Jarman 

Have a Witchy New Year

Of course I am celebrating the new year with the womanly arts of witchcraft. I did some clothes repairs and sauntered over to the Jewellery Quarter to sacrifice some black sesame seeds in Warstone Lane cemetery. Sadly the needs of witches are rarely considered in town planning and the convenient Park Street cemetery is boarded up for HS2. On the other hand, how I laughed when I found the brand of black sesame seeds in the Chinese supermarket was Honor.
I have enjoyed baby sitting a cat but he is going back to his normal human early because the human is not helping me in a particular problem so I am not feeling the need to do him any favours and find myself out of pocket on cat litter!
As for what the problem is, well of course despite being one of the more obvious homosexual men you could wish to meet I am a c*nt magnet so am in the early stages of a grievance already in my new workplace and of course am finding allies!

'Tis the Season

And so we arrive at the season of ill will and even more ridiculous stuff than usual. So it's time for a few inflammatory comments from the Hound.
If you should go to a nearby city for its Christmas Market, there are two things you need to know. The first is that those bright things you can see are electric lights and it's not really that wondrous. The other thing is that in a city you keep moving. The stream of people around you will not stop just because you have.
As an old school anarchist I am delighted to hear of so many planned spoiled votes this election. The parties represent only themselves and anything which will stop one of them being in control is very welcome. However I will make one prediction - the days are gone when tiny countries could survive and leaving Europe will mean we end up in a union with the US. Think very carefully what that will mean before voting.
In wonderful news I am baby sitting someone's cat for a few months. He is a gorgeous black cat and of course I understand him better than his normal human, but then cats and witches go together.

Always a Witch

<Sigh>
Why would people want to be witches? Apart from the obvious appeal that it is the best thing ever, way better than sex. Oh I've just answered my own question.
Otherwise the thing is that you are always a witch, and everywhere the universe can provide you with the next task in rectifying 'karma' and getting stuff moving along.
Stuff of course is a word we occultists use to describe the effects of actions, and that can mean a few whammies flying around.
Take the building manager of my building. He sent me an email asking me to bear with him while he deals with my perfectly simple request. One I made for the first time a year ago and which has since rolled on with great pain and embarrassment to the company. I think they may have finally learned their lesson, the hard way.
The dynamic of witchcraft messes with your life because it always attracts the things that you will deal with to you. It may be that you happen to be the only person who will do it, or you might need to because of your own 'stuff'.
Oh - I've started my new job. As a job it is fine but do I even need to say that only three weeks in the deputy manager has already revealed herself to be an arse in need of a slap? And stupid too - when I'm laughing and joking with the other staff and being icily polite and professional to her that should be a warning, surely!
Although I did have the satisfaction of seeing her suddenly flip to being dead helpful today after another member of the coven fed her to Reggie and Ronnie!
The universe's reward was that one of my (totally straight haha) colleagues suddenly started talking about rimming  I just looove hairy blond men 😍
Oh - Inexplicable likes a sound track -

The List Reinstated

I used to have a List. It lived in a box on the altar. Part of it was an actual list, and part was newspaper cuttings about local rapists and so on. One day I took my list out and found that (I have the word now) redress had happened to everyone on the list. So I threw it out because, frankly, touchy unforgiving old queen I may be, but even I don't want my space cluttered up with a bunch of turds. Recently though I have found the need to start it again. You can go back a couple of posts to see my altar as it currently is. Divine is now sitting on the list, so my spirit persona can work on what I've got going on. Incidentally it is incredible how many object links of ourselves we give out on a daily basis: things we've touched, signed, and so on. If your issue is with a big corporation, just use their letterhead with intent, and let the universe work on your list. My experience is you only have to think of it occasionally.
And here's a song we can all sing while we do so:

Conflicted about Peace

Source

Today I passed a Quaker meeting house which was displaying the poster which illustrates this post. As usual this small thing set the Hound thinking - perhaps because of the witchly concept of Will in the poster - and it has left me deeply conflicted. In fact I find myself in almost complete disagreement with everything in the poster!
I have a real problem with the concept of peace anyway, if it is the absence of conflict. Readers of this blog will be almost certain to remember the X-Files episode in which a man discovers a genie. She grants Mulder three wishes and the silly man first wishes for world peace. There is a dead silence, and of course he is the only person in the world. To me this sounds like a dream, but of course some people still wouldn't experience peace, even alone. In those circumstances peace would be contingent on the person having really good self esteem and no hidden psychological nasties. Ultimately Mulder realises you can't force people to be good and his final wish is for the genie to be free.
I have been forced to conclude that the absence of conflict is unnatural, and thus the kind of thing people who aren't witches hold up as an ideal. In nature there is a continual ebb and flow of everything, maintaining homeostasis. There is also a process of selection, deciding what will survive. I have a feeling the people who look after number one and stab others in the back are the ones who are more likely to survive! And do very well for themselves.
And yet... I don't want them to. I am always on about some turd or other here, and the reality is that we live in a violent world. I would like there to be peace but I really don't think peace is what I've incarnated for this time.
Here I am actually at the heart of the witch figure as I understand it. We are like mirrors. We give people opportunities to correct their own stuff (history, actions, karma, debt, perceive it as you will). They see themselves reflected in us and don't like it, which is why witches tend to get burned. I see this also as part of the action of homeostasis, and it doesn't really have a long-term goal as it is happening.
I suppose the longer-term goal could be called peace, but unfortunately the world is full of people who lack things like living skills, emotional competence or even consciences. They won't pay attention to a poster about peace, and unfortunately it's them the witch has to move towards peace. It's a hard life being a witch.