I posted this in the poetry forum, but thought I'd stick a copy in here too for witches that might not read the poetry forums.


A Child of the Earth

I've been a witch in school since Yule
the sun has waxed and waned
I've met a spirit named Raol
I've touched the unexplained

I've learned of stones of sovereignty
and walked the labyrinth way
The Christians often scoff at me
with scowls of much dismay

But now the flowers glow with love
and moonshine gets me high
I cast a sacred circle
bringing loving spirits nigh

Halloween has come alive
with spirits from the past
It's not a candy holiday
or a trick or treater's blast

All this time I've lived alone
with spirits right next door
Unaware that all along
they were seeking a rapport

There's so much more than meets the eye
life's not what I had thought
Call the spirits; they'll reply
despite what you've been taught

A year and a day, is but a blink
yet, also a lifelong trek
Time is not what we might think
for the "now" is but a speck

The gap between our thoughts
is an infinite ocean of time
If you can quit thinking
without even blinking
you'll find that life is sublime

A calm medication
of psychic meditation
soothes the calamity of life

A short incantation
of manifestation
will remove trepidations of strife

A magickal wand waved over a pond
can scry up divinity's mind
Look at the surface and see far beyond
and know that you're no longer blind

You're one with the rest
of all nature's best
and evil is not what it seems

Mankind's maligned
by the fears he's enshrined
it's the source of his tormenting screams

Know that your birth
was from Mother Earth
you came from her oceans of water

Like all things that sprout
there's nary a doubt
you're purely her son or her daughter

(c)Abra, November 4, 2009

It's wonderful. As usual.

Don't know if anyone reads in here anymore or if anyone will even remember this. But, I found my stone of sovereignty.

What is a stone of sovereignty?

I think it is some sort of Wiccan ritual tool


Or perhaps she means it metaphorically

Yes, it is a metaphor. It's not a real stone. It's a term used by Penczak in his books on Witchcraft and one of the spiritual/mental tools a witch needs to become more powerful. And, I found mine.

Abra and I had been discussing it a while back in this thread.

Tell me more about your stone of sovereignty. What is it?

It's hard for me to explain. Abra could probably do a better job, For me, it's personal power. But, those words just fall flat when compared to the reality of it. It's like trying to explain a rainbow to someone. You just can't. You have to see it. You have to experience it.

You probably already have yours. At least that's the way you come across to me. So, for someone like you, you might say, "Oh, that. Yeah. I've always had that." But, for someone who didn't have it before, it's like winning the lottery.

It's like in the Wizard of Oz. When Dorothy and her companions face the "Great Wizard". They are terrified and believe all the propaganda about this guy. But, they stand up to him, knees shaking and ready to faint. And, it's only when they've faced him and killed the witch that they find out that he's just a little old man behind a curtain with no power over them at all. Not only does he have no power over them, he doesn't even have the power to help them. They already have the power. They find their Stone of Sovereignty. No one can give it to you. Just like Glenda the Witch says. You have to find it out for yourself.

Gotcha!

When I was 18 years old my mother handed me that stone when she said, "It's your life now. Do what you want with it." And from that day she ceased trying to tell me what I should or should not do.

There have been other stones along the way too. The realization that you are in charge of your own destiny. You are the final authority. You are responsible.

Yes, this is the way that I think of it too. There are many stones of sovereignty throughout life. Because they are indeed metaphorical. Therefore they can be associated with many difference facets in life.

Ever since I have studied the Qabalah I've become aware of the 10 consciousnesses of being. And thus I have become aware of many stones of sovereignty associated with each one, and even in combinations of them.

Looking back over my life, I see which stones of sovereignty I've held and at which times. I've spent my entire life in the pillars of logos and ethos, and almost no time at all in the pillar of pathos. I've held the stone of sovereignty of Malkuth, and Yesod, and Hod, and Tiphereth and even Geburah. But I have since allowed those stones to fall from my grasp.

I'm now looking to reestablish my possession of the stone of sovereignty associated with Malkuth and Yesod. And then I can begin a brand new journey to find the stone of sovereignty of Netzach. A stone that I have always wanted to hold but never have.

I think the flames of Atziluth have died from beneath my cauldron of creation.

My thoughts of Briah, Yetzirah, and Assiah, have become mere shadows dancing on the walls of my empty castle in unison with the flickering candlelight of empty dreams.

If only I can make it to the city of Murias where the faeries of affection float fearlessly in the underwater castle of exultation. Then perhaps my life will take on new meaning and my soul will be rejuvenated by the Goddess of Love.

A Story

By the way, I've been watching some movies lately and they have inspired me to go back to writing on a screenplay for a movie that I had started some time back called "Hoofed Angels".

It's a movie about a young girl who has a wicked sister. The young girl (Kathy) is a witch, like her grandmother. Her wicked sister (Tanya) is Catholic like their father.

The movie takes place in the 50's. Tayna is mentally ill and become nastier and nastier throughout the movie. Kathy is extremely innocent and naive as well as being just barely underage for the first half of the movie.

Kathy's grandmother raises draft horses. But there's an accident in the beginning of the movie where a tractor trailer truck crashes and overturns, setting lose thoroughbred races horses. The race horses breed with the grandmother's draft horses, thus rending their offspring worthless mix-bread mongrels.

Kathy and Tayna's mother and father are also killed in a car accident on that same nasty highway. Bad highway!

Anyway, I thought I'd post an abstract of it for anyone who might be interested. (in the next several posts)

~~~

A Story part 2

Tanya, being of age and quite savvy realizes that she can win "custody" of her sister and be eligible to collect assistance for doing so. So she does this with the money in mind.

Tanya is becoming increasingly mentally ill, and increasingly nasty to Kathy. She treats Kathy like a slave. Tanya also becomes a prostitute to pay for her increasing drug addictions. She threatens that Kathy will need to pay her own way via prostitution too just as soon as she becomes of age which is rapidly approaching.

Kathy stays in her little bedroom that is filled with stuff horses that her grandmother had given her. She talks to the stuffed horses like as if they are alive. But of course the horses just sit there like stuffed animals.

Her Grandmother calls her often to check on her. Kathy always tells her that things are going great and that she can't wait to visit with her Grandmother again on her horse farm, but that never comes to pass.

On Kathy's 18th birthday the phone rings and Kathy runs to answer it believing that it will be her grandmother. But instead it's the news that her Grandmother had died.

Kathy is devastated and in emotional shock. Tanya is practically jumping up and down with excitement because they will now inherit the horse farm which Tanya plans on selling immediately for a large wad of cash.

They argue over the fate of the farm, Kathy desperately wants to move from the big city and onto Grandma's horse farm. But Tanya won't hear of it. She argues that they need the money and wouldn't be able to run a horse farm anyway. Kathy is distraught but unable to do much about it.

Tanya takes Kathy and heads out toward a lawyer's office where they must both sign the papers to sell the farm. Kathy sees no way out of this predicament and reluctantly goes along arguing the whole way. As they approach the law office Kathy grabs Tanya's arm in one last attempt to rebel against her plans. Tayna's purse falls to the ground and the contents spill out. A vial of her drugs rolls out onto the street. In mindless reaction she dives out into the street to retrieve the drugs and is hit by bus.

Tanya doesn't die, but instead she is knocked into a coma.

After this ordeal, Kathy is back home in the apartment alone. The lawyer comes to the door with the papers that need to be signed to sell the farm. Kathy sits down at a table with him and almost signs the paper without thinking then she stops and says, "I don't want to sell the farm!"

A social worker who happens to know Kathy also drops in to pay her condolences and show concern for Kathy's welfare. The three of them begin to discuss the fate of Kathy and the farm. They are both trying to explain to her that it would be better for her to just sell the farm and take the cash. But Kathy won't hear of it, and even though she is only just 18 she demands to be allowed to move into the farm.

The Lawyer says, "Well, it is paid in full, so there won't be any mortgage payments". The social worker just shakes her head and says to Kathy, "Honey, it's a lot of work to run a horse farm".

~~~~

A Story part 3

When Kathy arrives at the horse farm, she is greeted by an old farm hand named Zed, and the maid name Maime. They have been hanging around taking care of the place until it is sold. Kathy announces that she is going to move in and run the horse farm. They are taken aback and also try to talk her out of it. But after talking with her for a while they see that she is stubbornly determined. Neither of them have any place to go so they offer to stay on with her and help out. They will accept whatever income the farm can generate.

Zed shows Kathy the worthless half-breed horses. They are the laughing stock of the town. Half draft horse, and half race horse. They have the bulk and brute strength of a draft horse, but the wild and restless mentality of a race horse. Zed himself cannot control them well enough to use them to pull the farm equipment.

Kathy has always naturally had a way with her Grandmothers horses and every animal that she has ever encounter. She is able to approach the horses and calm them a bit. Zed is impressed.

But as soon as they hook a horse up to a piece of farm equipment it bolts and breaks the hitch running off through the field dragging the tattered remains of farm implement. It appears to be worthless. But Kathy refuses to give up.

She works with the horses every day and asks Zed if he can beef up the flimsy farm equipment. So he goes about welding on stronger hitches and beefing up the equipment, while Kathy continues to work with the horses using a wagon that they can pull, but refuse to pull slowly.

Finally Zed sets her up with riding plow and she prepares to plow a field. The horses still refuse to go slow but the plow manages to hold up as she races across the field leaving behind her a wake of freshly plowed ground.

Zed runs into the kitchen and tells Maime. Maime looks out the window and see Kathy racing across the field with a trail of dirt flying high into the air behind her. "My gosh that girl just won't take no for an answer", she says.

Zed replies, "At this rate she'll have that whole field plowed by noon!"

~~~

A Story part 4

They continue to work like this throughout the growing season. One of the horses gets sick and they have to call in a veterinary doctor named Todd. When Todd arrives he is disappointed as the horse has contracted some really nasty infection that is extremely difficult to cure. He tells Kathy that the chance of recovery is pretty hopeless. She responses by breaking down into tears like a truly helpless little girl. Todd sees that she can't handle the emotional strain and begins to tell her that maybe there's more hope than he had thought. He gives the horse a shot and places a bandage on it's leg.

Todd truly believes that the horse is hopeless and he feels great sorry for Kathy whom he finds himself becoming attracted to.

Todd returns to his office and tells his secretary that Kathy's horse is hopeless and that he merely gave it a tranquilizer to relieve it's pain.

In the meantime, Kathy goes into her Grandmother's room in the farm house and pulls her Book of Shadows off the shelf. She begins to read it intensely looking for something special. Then she goes to a draw on a stand in the living room and pulls open a draw to remove a large dagger.

Maime sees Kathy with the blade and asks, "What are you going to do with your grandmother's athame?"

Kathy simply replies, "I'm going to heal a horse".

Maime grabs a shawl and says, "Well, I'm coming with you!"

They go outside to the barn and bring the sick horse (Keanu) out into the middle of the paddock. The horse lays down on the grass before them. Kathy then pulls out the large dagger and holds it up toward the sky.

Zed watches on from a loft in the barn. At first he thinks that Kathy is going to kill the horse and put it out of it's misery, but then he hears Kathy begin to shout incantations toward the moon.

"Oh Great Goddess of the night,
Please send the power of your light
Cleanse this horse from all its plight
Renew its soul and make it right"

Zed notices that the moonlight has brightened as he looks on with wide-eye curiosity. Even Maime puts her hand up in the air as if to shield her eyes from the bright moonlight. Maime as performed rituals with Kathy's Grandmother, but not like the one she'll witness tonight.

Kathy shouts with passion and love toward the North:

"Oh great spirits of the North
Malkuth, Gaia, and Assiah
Pour out your crystal love
upon this suffering equine"

A white cloud appears in the sky just beneath the moon. Filaments of mist grow from the cloud and appear as the rack of a great white stag. The cloud itself takes on the look of the face of a stag as Maime and Zed watch with disbelief.

Kathy turns to the east and shouts with passion and love:

"Oh great spirits of the East
Hod, Odin, and Yetzirah
Fill this horse with the breath
of your everlasting life"

A wind comes in from the east and Maime has to cling to her shawl to keep it from being blown way. Owls fly in from and swoop down near the sickly horse. Zed is whacked in the face by the barn shutter on the window he is peer out.

Kathy turns to south and shouts the passion and love:

"Oh great spirits of the South
Yesod, Hephaestus, and Atziluth
Ignite your flame of life
rekindle Keanu's spirit"

A great ball of fire soars across the sky like a meteor in the night. A fragment of fiery orange light sparks from meteor and flashing on Keanu's body. The horse lets out a screeching neigh as its body quivers and shakes.

The faces of Maime and Zed are illuminated by the orange fiery light as the watch with speechless open mouths.

Kathy turns to the West and shouts with loving passion:

"Oh great spirits of the West
Netzach, Chesed, and Briah
Fill the heart of this equine beast
with the blood of your loving spirit"

The western sky turns dark blue, and then purple, and finally deep maroon as cloud forms and rain begins to fall on the paddock.

The horse jumps to it's feet and shivers off the water and begins to trot around in a circle.

Kathy turns to the moon once again and shouts with great gratitude.

"Thank you! Mother of all creation!
Thank you for you love!"

Maime turns to Kathy and says, "If your grandmother was here she would tell you that it was your love that healed this horse my dear".

~~~

A Story part 5

The following week Todd returns expecting that the horse would most likely be dead by now. He is surprised to see the horse, not only fully recovered, but actually working again. He tells Kathy that he has never seen such a recovery and then goes about asking her for a date. She is surprised by the request and isn't sure what to make of it. She doesn't trust men and after having lived with her sister she's convinced that all men are lowlifes that only want one thing. So she declines his request. He's not easily dissuaded though and offers to check over her other horses to be sure that the infection hasn't spread. Kathy accepts his offer and they slowly get to know each other.

As time goes on the crops are doing very well and it looks like the farm will produce enough money to pay for land taxes and supplies for the coming winter.

One night a storm blows in. Kathy, Zed, and Maime run around battening down all the hatches and putting the animals in the barn. The weather stations on the radio are predicting damaging winds and rains. Zed overexerts himself and isn't feeling well.

The rains come and are indeed a very drenching downpour. The fields are flooded and the winds come and play havoc with the crops. The creeks overflow and the radio announces that some bridges are out.

Zed is not feeling well, and begins to clutch his chest. His heartbeat become erratic. Maine, having worked as a nurses aid understand the symptoms and calls the doctor. The doctor agrees that Zed is in desperate need for medication but there is no way that anyone can bring it to him because the roads are nothing but mud and the bridge is out.

Kathy has fallen in love with both Maime and Zed, they have become her family. She is desperate to save Zed. She goes to the barn and rides Keanu to town through the mud, and jumping over flooded streams and even swimming through a torrents with Kathy on his back. They make it to the drug store and back just in time to save Zed's life.

After the storm they see that all of their crops have been totally destroyed the entire summer of farming was all for naught and they have no insurance. They are distraught and not sure what to do.

The phone rings and it's a call from the hospital where Kathy's sister has been. They say that Tanya has come out of her coma. Kathy is elated with the good news. Maine can't believe that Kathy is so happy, "They way that girl had treated you I'm surprised that you've ever want to lay eyes on her again".

"Oh no! Tayna didn't mean to be mean, she was just confused", Kathy defends her wicked sister. Then Kathy starts talking about bring Tayna "home" as soon as possible. Maime argues that they may not even be able to stay at the farm over the winter with no food and no money to play for the property tax and the money they had borrowed for seeds.

Kathy is determined and tells the hospital that she's gladly take her sister in. So Tanya is brought to the farm in an ambulance over the new makeshift bridge that had been temporarily constructed after the storm.

A friend of Maime's at the store in town hears of Tayna's recovery and offers to dentate some supplies and wheelchair for Tayna as she recovers. Kathy hooks up four of her half-breed worthless horses to buckboard and drives them into town to pick up the supplies. She hasn't taken her horses into town before and has no clue of how she will be received.


~~~

A Story part 6

As Kathy pulls into town there is still mud everywhere and there is a large tractor trailer stuck in the mud and a large tow truck backing up to it to hook on and tow it out.

Kathy pulls up to the supply store with her buckboard. The men sitting on the porch of the supply story start talking about her half-breed horses, and laughing behind her back. Kathy is totally unaware of the gossip that's going on around her. She is just set on getting her supplies.

One of the town hecklers calls out to her, "What kind of horses are those?", he then laughs looking around at his buddies who are egging him on.

Kathy looks at him a bit confused and just replies, "They're farm horses". The whole crowd breaks out into laughter as the "joke" seems to have backfired.

The heckler then asks, "Well what BREED are they?". He then look back toward his buddies like as if he has really got her pinned now.

Again, Kathy just looks at him with a confused look on her face and say, "I don't know, their just horses". Kathy has no clue what the heckler is trying to accomplish. She's not interested in breeding horses which is what her Grandmother had been famous for before the 'accident'. She was totally clueless that this farming community prides itself on having the best horse breeding farms around. So it's common in this area for people to make fun of an 'inferior' bread.

Kathy goes into the store and loads up her buckboard. When she comes out the men are still making fun of her horses behind her back. She starts to climb up on her buckboard and notices the tow truck that is trying to pull the tractor trailer out of the mud. It too is just spinning wheels and appears to be just as hopelessly stuck as the truck it had planned on pulling out of the ditch.

Being a naturally helpful person, Kathy yells over to the driver of the two truck and asks, "Do you want me to pull you out of that ditch". The driver yells back, "With what?". Kathy replies, "My horses can pull you out that ditch". The driver laughs and simply replies, "You think so?", Kathy says, "Sure". So the driver say, "Well this I gotta see!"

Kathy innocently gets off her buckboard and unhooks her team of four horses and walks them over to the tow truck. She backs them up to the bumper where there is a large ring that she drops her hitch onto. Then she yells to her horses "Gee! Gee!". The tow truck driver yells down from his cab, "Wait a minute ladly! I need to unhook first!" But Kathy doesn't hear him and just yells to her horses again "Gee! Gee!"

The muscular horses dig into the mud until their massive hooves contact the solid earth beneath the chains become taught and the tow truck lurches forward inch by inch. The tow truck driver still yelling, "I didn't unhook! I didn't unhook!"

Kathy still doesn't hear the driver and inspires her horses to keep working, "Gee! Gee!" the horses lurch forward inch by inch pulling the large two truck forward until the chains behind it become taught and the cab of the tractor trailer also begins to move forward.

"Gee! Gee!" Kathy repeats as the walks her horses up onto the road the two massive trucks screeching and shrieking behind her every so slowly be moving.

The crowd of men on the porch of the supply store who had been previously laughing at her horses now stand in silent awe as they watch Kathy's four mongrel horses pull the massive trucks out of the muddy ditch and up onto the road.

Todd also happens to drive up just in time to catch this awesome sight unfolding before him. He too stands in awe of the sight.

After both trucks have been pulled onto the road, Kathy unhitches her team and walks them back over to her buckboard. The men on the porch still in shock of what they have just witnessed stand as wide-eyed statues.

As Kathy hitches her horse back to her buckboard Todd approaches her and say, "You've got to enter those horses into the state fair horse pull". The prize is $10,000.

As Kathy drives off heading back home finally one of the awestruck men breaks the silence as he asks, "What the hell kind of horses were those?"

~~~

A Story finale

Kathy gets back home and there's a whole subplot going on with her sister. Unfortunately I won't be able to get into that here since it would have required developing other characters. Just to breeze over that part, Tanya is still pretty self-centered, and wants to get back into cigarettes and drugs. But there are no drugs to be had, and she is even having bad reactions to cigarettes after having been in a coma for so long.

With the help of Maime's lectures she finally realizes what love truly means through Kathy's example, and another fellow that has been innocently in love with Tanya for years. She also happens to be over her mental illness which may have ultimately been nothing more than the result of guilt, depression, and drugs.

Tanya even blows up at this innocent guy who is in love with her, and tells him that she used to be a whore and a horrible person. He says, “I don’t care what you used to be, the past was a different time, all I care about is who you are now”. He shares with her some of his own personal history that he’s not real proud of and suggests that all anyone can do is take life one day at time. Then he asks her if she can love him for a day.

Tanya finally sees the wisdom of living in the now and not wallowing in a past that can never changed.

~~~

The story ends at the State Fair, where Kathy's half-breed horses do indeed win the grand prize and are now the talk of the town, only this time with pride.