Ohhh this Mercury retrograde has just been brutal this time around!

Breathe a sigh of relief because on September 29 at 9:13 a.m. Eastern, Mercury stations and prepares for direct movement. Mercury has been retrograde since September 7.

The complete retrograde cycle, including the shadow period, is August 17 to October 14. Mercury will have retraced his steps beginning from 6 degrees and 13 minutes of Libra all the way back to 21 degrees and 38 minutes of Virgo. Expect to revisit unresolved issues or major events between now and back to August 17, especially with four other planets currently in retrograde.

As Mercury moves forward through the degrees he's previously visited, twice before, this third pass may give resolutions, final answers/decisions, raise awareness to something/s previously missed, or perhaps a look back to reflect upon the current status of these situations.

I for one, will be VERY glad when this is over. It has been craaazzzyyyy in my life this month. How about you? How has this Mercury retrograde affected you?


Source: astrogrrl.com

I was certainly hoping to have a more festive celebration for Mabon this year but unfortunately everyone here is sick - really sick. I haven't even had he energy to decorate my altar.

Although I love the Autumn season, I really dislike how colds an viruses seem to emerge this time of the year.

I hope you all are well~

I am so bummed - I won't be at the Mabon Circle tonight and I was really looking forward to going - so was Olivia! Actually, I really wanted to go to the Fall Frolic today with my BFF, Cherie too. All plans just went down the drain.

Olivia is sick, she has pharyngoconjunctival fever (read about that on my Just One More Makes 4 blog) - even though she seems better today, she woke up with a temperature of 99.3 so something is still going on with her and I could never take her to a public gathering knowing she has a virus. The boys are coughing now and CJ said he's not feeling the world's greatest so it seems sickness will be visiting everyone in this house sometime soon. I could go without Livi - CJ is more than capable of being home with the kids, even if they're sick but if he's not feeling well, that's just not fair to do to him. He had to go to work today so I am sure by the time he gets home at 6:30 pm he'll be feeling really worn out.

It is such a beautiful day out today - perfect weather for a Fall gathering. Oh well, maybe next year...

Mabon is upon us! Finally, Autumn! This is, hands down, my favorite season!
Here's a bit of info on Mabon:

The Equinox is an in-between time; the end of something, the beginning of something else, the cusp of change. The zodiac shifts from Libra, ruled by Venus, goddess of love, sex, beauty and relationships, to Scorpio, ruled by Mars and Pluto, planetary Gods that rule death, insight and transformation.
The calendar date of the equinoxes vary, usually between the 19th and 23rd of the month (tending towards later as we approach a leap year). This year Mabon falls on the 22nd.

The Autumn Equinox is the second in the trilogy of harvest festivals. Mabon marks the completion of the grain harvest begun during Lughnasadh. Celebrations revolve around the gathering of crops and thanksgiving for the abundances of the harvest, and rituals to insure the success of next year's harvest are characteristic during this harvest time. The making of corn dollies from the last sheaf of corn that is harvested is a typical custom. She is kept until the spring - keeping the spirit of the corn, when she is ploughed back into the field to breath the life of the corn back into the soil.

Mabon is referred to as the 'Witches Thanksgiving' - in my house anyway! We usually have a big feast on Mabon night! There goes my diet! Tomorrow my best friend Cherie and I will be attending an open Circle for Mabon. I am really excited! I hope to remember to take pictures!

My wonderful friend Diane found this beautiful book, Fairyopolis and thought enough of me and my daughter to send it to us! Olivia was tickled when she got the book, she kept calling it a 'Goddess book':

I will admit it, I've become jaded when it comes to other religions. I suppose that's because it seems I have had mostly bad experiences with people of different faiths.

I was raised Catholic and forced to go to church, CCD classes and I was forced into receiving all the sacraments. Interestingly enough, I don't know anyone in my family who 'practiced what they preached' so to speak. In fact, I still don't. Pretty pathetic - to me they are all followers, going along with things because that's 'just how it is'

I seem to meet many extremists too and that is a complete turn off no matter what religion. So, I've been feeling pretty 'anti' lately. Thankfully, someone very wise and dear to me made a comment regarding the latest Celebrating Earth Spirituality Event debacle. She said:

"I will never understand why some people just cannot understand that there are many, many different faiths. Each has its beauty and is right for the person that follows that path. My faith is within me and it keeps me strong just as others' faith does for them.

Whenever I see one or two of any faith trying to force their way on another, I think of my father and how his deep faith as a Christian never wavered...he came to our Circles, he celebrated with us and he never once felt threatened or felt he needed to pull me or any one in our Circle to his faith. This is a true example, to me, of a Christian...of a beautiful person. We shared together...and we loved each other!

When you close your eyes and heart to someone based on religion, color, race, etc, you will never know the possible beauty, kinship or love that you may be missing. How sad would that be! Kudos to all those who are happy in their faith and know that others of different faiths feel exactly the way they do!"

Well, I was unable to attend but from what I have read and what I have been told (by those who were there) it went better than expected but there was at least one incident where police had to be involved.

The news article in LancasterOnline.com is titled 'Bewitched, without incident' but it seems that reporter left before the incident! The RPW were greeted by praying/protesting Christians.

"Religious freedoms and convictions became the point of contention and some shop owners decided to close their businesses Saturday. Most, however, remained open. Gift shop owner Phyllis Cook said her shop is open every day but Tuesdays and Wednesdays. When asked if she considered closing for the event, she said, "I have had great business today."

An antique shop owner in the village left a message with the Sunday News on Friday evening saying that her business, and others, would be closed in protest.

The proprietor, who did not want to be identified, said businesses and community leaders were neither notified nor consulted about the event until they read about the festival in the paper. The business owner said many churches would have people coming out to "circle the area in prayer."
Ephraim Renno and Luke Martin, of Denver, were among those who did just that.

"People will always try to fill the vacuum of life," Martin said. "Without God, they will turn to other religions." Martin and Renno were at the festival with about 10 other people from Ephrata Christian Fellowship.

They were among several others from nearby churches who came to the festival to pray and "witness to those who have questions," Martin said.

He said they were there to show God's love, not to make the practicing witches and pagans feel attacked. He believed his group was effective because he said he was able to talk with people there. "Some of them were searching for the truth," he said.

"Satan is the father of lies," Martin said. "There is none righteous, no not one," he added, quoting Romans 3:10.

Jen Anderson-Wenger, president of Reading Pagans & Witches, said several church groups "laid hands on us and prayed." She said she was pleased at the turnout, and said her group was received "very peacefully."

Anderson-Wenger said having the church groups come, and pray over them, was an "amazing spiritual experience."

ARTICLE

Apparently these groups did corner several children and ask what religion they were. According to one of the members of RPW:

"There were protesters preaching, at first just to adults, some blocked commerce and were asked to move to an unused canopy, which everyone was fine with. The trouble really started when some of our teens were approached. Within an hour of the start, I had a young woman come to me for help, after being preached too, she was shaking with upset... another young lady was surrounded by 5 men preaching, she was frightened and told them to leave her alone and her mom saw her, called her over and they didn't persist, thankfully. Every one of our 4 kids present were approached, the final one being Cat's son who did JUST as he was told... say no thanks, walk away and if pursued, get security - only when he walked away the guy followed and then he got scared, started to run, tripped, scraped his ankle and the protester ran off the premises... police were called in by the Village's official and they took a report.

The police then suggested to the remaining protesters (who were horrified this happened and didn't want to take responsibility for the man's actions, though he was passing out pamphlets from their own church) that they leave and they did so... the rest of the day was a mix of Pagans, non-Pagans, atheists and all sorts... the air lightened and the day was quite enjoyable.
Sadly, some of our young people in our youth group ARE Christian and saw the dark side of it yesterday and were VERY upset by folks identifying as Christian, acting 'un-Christ-like'... we were VERY glad we had our two 6 yos stay with my mom, though the protesters did seem to hone in on adults first, then our teenagers and didn't seem to go much younger than 12... all in all though the day was a success and hopefully opened a few eyes."

I want to thank all of my readers - who are now friends ;) Thank you for reading, commenting and sharing. Somehow I deleted my blog list -errrrgggg! Please, if you have my link on your blog/site, leave me a comment here with your link so I can re-add.

I want to wish the Reading Pagans and Witches a blessed day - today is their 'Celebrating Earth Spirituality' Event. I had fully planed on being their but a turn of events has now made it impossible for me to attend. Dante's birthday is September 19th and my grandmother wants to take him shopping and out for lunch - she asked me to take her today and well, my grandmother is 87 years old - when she feels good and wants to go somewhere, I take her if I can. I want her Crone years to be full of love and fun. Hey, we are taking her to Disney for 3 days next year!

I hope everyone has a wonderful, peaceful weekend.

~Blessed Be
)O(

but this whole 'protesting' thing that is planned for tomorrow's Celebrating Earth Spirituality Event that will be held in Stoudtburg Village in Adamstown, PA has just struck a nerve with me.

I read this latest article: Some Pa. shops close doors to Pagan festival and at the very end of the article is this:

In Hertzog's Yard Sale Store, owner Terry Hertzog finished off a cup of ice cream and said he plans to close his store the next day.

"We just don't believe we can support witches and pagans," Hertzog said. "We believe in God, not in worshiping Satan or anything like that. We can't really support that, and as a result we're just going to stay closed."

"Being witches and pagans, right away that puts a red flag up," agreed his wife, Donna. "They might be wonderful people. It's just that we don't believe in that type of worship or whatever you want to call it."

SERIOUSLY, WHY DON'T PEOPLE EDUCATE THEMSELVES BEFORE MAKING SUCH STATEMENTS?

I recently blogged about the Celebrating Earth Spirituality Event that will be held in Stoudtburg Village in Adamstown, PA. There has been an uproar regarding this event, from some local shop owners. Recently I have come to find out that there are now going to actually be protesters at this event.

*sigh*

Apparently because of the grumbles of some shop owners in that area, this event became very well known and the Reading Pagans and Witches were contacted by a newspaper, local to that village and the reporter came to interview some of the group members and wrote two articles. One article was about the event and the other was about Paganism and the group in general. Soon after those articles went live, a Lancaster PA paper contacted the group's President, Jen, for an interview. Once those articles went live things seemed to spread like wildfire.

The Wicca expert on About.com posted about this, Witchvox picked up the articles as well. A few other sites also started picking it up and suddenly it wasn't just some shop owners protesting this event to a group who is actively calling on folks to hold vigils all week, this week, to fast for the week and to prepare for a day of proselytizing. Nice.

Witchvox Article 1

Witchvox Article 2

The link to the protesters being called to action:

http://www.gatewayprayer.com/religion/

The most interesting part of this whole thing? It's been rumored that a group of nuns may be making an appearance...of support!

If you're in the area and would like to support this event, come on out! Like Pagan Pride, this is NOT for Pagans only. Just come with an open mind and an open heart.

Thanks to my 'sister' Saffire for posting this information in her blog.

I recently had a bit of a panic - I was a few days 'late' if ya know what I mean! At first I was excited, then freaked out - I suppose those feelings are normal? I mean, I was even looking at these really cute maternity jeans - which I found online by the way, on a site that describes their clothes as funky maternity wear, totally suits me!

Well, since I am not going to be having another Witchlet any time soon I found myself reminiscing about when Olivia was just 3 months old and we had her Wiccaning ceremony. Check out the pentacle in our backyard:

I lost touch with the woman who performed Olivia's Wiccaning but recently, thanks to Facebook, we've recently been in touch!

This is semi - local to me. Well, it's abut 50 miles or so from me and The Reading Pagans and Witches is a WONDERFUL group - I found them after the split with the Coven I used to be in, happened. Since there is such a distance I don't get to many of the events they hold but you can bet you buns I'll be at this one!

ARTICLE:

A festival designed to celebrate the nature-centered spirituality of pagans and witches is getting a mixed reaction from shop owners at Stoudtburg Village in Adamstown, where the event will be held Sept. 12.

While some of the village's shops will be open during the festival, others will close because of the group that is sponsoring the event — Reading Pagans & Witches.

Group president Jen Anderson-Wenger said that at the festival there will be educational workshops about the harvest celebrations of different spiritual and religious organizations, and there will be explanations of what those organizations believe.

The festival also will feature vendors, food sales to benefit children's groups, tarot readers and reiki practitioners. There will be children's games, storytelling and entertainment.

Jane Lesher, who owns The Soxy Lady but doesn't live in Stoudtburg Village, said her business, which is usually open on Saturdays, will be closed during the festival.

"I try to keep my personal feelings and being a merchant separate," she said. Personally, Lesher said, "I am a Christian, and anything that is not worshipping God is something I object to. You can't force it on another, but you don't need to support it in any way, either. I base this on what God says. I'm not just a stick-in-the-mud and can't change my mind, but I base it on what I believe is an absolute."

Lesher said that when she first learned about the festival, "I got the impression that it was to be ecology friendly, healing massages, vegetarian, aromatherapy," she said.

She said that she was "shocked" when she later learned it was sponsored by Reading Pagans & Witches.

As a merchant, Lesher said, she believes the Earth Spirituality Festival is "not the image we want to portray for Stoudtburg Village."

READ article in it's entirety

September's Full Moon is known as the Harvest Moon as it is the Full Moon which falls closest to the Fall equinox, Mabon.




Correspondences:

• Colors: Browns and greens, earth tones
• Gemstones: Citrine, chrysolite, peridot, bloodstone
• Trees: Bay, larch, hawthorn
• Gods: Demeter, Brighid, Freyja, Vesta
• Herbs: Wheat, valerian, witch hazel, skullcap
• Element: Earth

This is the time to do some 'Fall cleaning' as I call it. Spend some time cleaning house. Also, use this time to clear out clutter - both physical and emotional, before you have to spend the long winter days inside.