Thanksgiving & Harvest Celebrations On Thursday, November 26th, Americans will celebrate Thanksgiving. Families will gather, and feasts, including turkey and pumpkin pie, will be eaten. Some may go to church. Some may even think back to the first U.S. Thanksgiving, celebrated in New Plymouth, Massachusetts in November of 1621. The fifty-three survivors of the one hundred two passengers who had set sail from Plymouth, England, aboard the Mayflower, in search of religious freedom, adventure, and profit, in the New World, offered thanks that they were still alive. Of the eighteen women who embarked on that grueling two-month journey, fourteen died during their first brutal winter ashore. Only four remained to…

Learning in Adversity How many of us have wished for a life that flowed smoothly, with no adversity?  At one time, I said a daily affirmation that asked for a life, “safe, secure and perfectly smooth.”  When I look back at my life, it is clear that I learned more during the rough times than the smooth ones. While it is certainly less stressful when our lives are running smoothly, we also tend to become complacent, taking things for granted, and may even get lazy.  How many know Christians who attend church, read the Bible, or pray only when they or someone close to them are facing some crisis?  I’ve…

Book Review Stellar Magic: A Practical Guide to Rites of the Moon, Planets, Stars and Constellations Payam Nabarz has once again provided reader and practitioner alike with an invaluable tome that will aid its readers for generations to come. ~Michele Burke PaganPages.org A Little about the Man: Payam Nabarz is author of ‘The Mysteries of Mithras: The Pagan Belief That Shaped the Christian World’ (Inner Traditions, 2005), ‘The Persian Mar Nameh: The Zoroastrian Book of the Snake Omens & Calendar’ (Twin Serpents, 2006), and Divine Comedy of Neophyte Corax and Goddess Morrigan (Web of Wyrd, 2008). He is also editor of Mithras Reader: An academic and religious journal of Greek,…

A Tombstone Every Mile It  was the winter of 2006 and the electric trains that usually pull the weight of Russia’s commerce were off line because of unusually heavy snows. Not so, “Old Number Ten”. She and her three sisters, products of the last century and maintained in the case of just such emergencies “soldiered on”. The big, black and red steam powered 6-8-6 combine puffed and rumbled it’s way through the Urals, shoving the snow aside as it climbed ever higher into the mountains, until it reached the dividing line between Europe and Asia. Slashing it’s way through the snow, and temperatures that approached 50 degrees below zero, the…

Well ladies and gentleman… I had a much different article planned… but we had some major happenings in our home… They say the October is the time of change… well woohoo!!! Change it did… My daughter had influenza A and then 3 weeks later the N1H1 virus… and my computer crashed and burned and not only took all my hard drive… but my external hard drive as well… so when put into a spot to write another article I decided to research herbal remedies for cold and flu.. And I found loads of stuff… I will include links at the end for you to look for remedies yourself… Many people…