Packing Up To Move It’s still only February as I write this but in ten days it’ll be the first Monday of March and I will be moving into a new apartment. I am so excited but I have to admit that I am just a bit overwhelmed! I have all of my books packed and most of my fine china and collectibles. I still have to pack up my kitchen – except for what I’ll need on a daily basis until moving day. And all my pictures will have to come off the walls here. There were lots of holes punched in the walls in this place I’m in…

Book Review Shaman Express by Beretta Rousseau Short review: I hated this book. Let me say right off the bat that I am the wrong person to be reviewing this book. I am going to be fifty-nine this year; I am a die-hard radical feminist; I have been in recovery for almost thirty years now; I read the entire canon of Carlos Castanedas over forty years ago; I grew out of this kind of “using drugs to find spiritual enlightenment” bullshit before the age of THIRTY. To be honest, I might have liked this book – a whole lot – when I was twenty-one or so – but that was…

Baking Basic Bread I absolutely adore baking bread. To me, there is nothing more magical than the mixing of yeast and water and flour and sugar and salt to make a loaf of something nourishing and nutritious. If you have only had “Wonder Bread”-type bread, then you don’t know how fabulous real bread can be. I usually invoke Isis before I start a batch of bread. To me, Isis is the preeminent goddess of bread. According to Patricia Telesco, the Egyptians were the originators of leavening to make bread rise and that they had over thirty different kinds of breads. (Telesco, 53). They were also adept at brewing beer, which…

The Universe Has Your Back … and More! One of the gifts I received at Yule was a set of meditation cards entitled “The Universe Has Your Back”. Beautifully designed by Gabrielle Bernstein, with artwork by Micaela Ezra, these are some of the loveliest cards I have ever seen. I was first going to review them for “Seeing the Signs” but after looking through them thoroughly, I realized that they weren’t divinatory in the classic sense but rather meant just for mediation. Not that Tarot cards, Lenormard cards and Oracle cards can’t be used for meditation – we all know that all these cards can be used very effectively as…

Breaking Sugar’s Grip One Day At A Time   (Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash)   I decided this year not to make any huge platters of Yule cookies. I might make a small batch of Heirloom Cut-Outs – just before the holiday – but I am not going to make very many – and they are going to be for bringing out for guests who stop by – along with tea or coffee or some all-natural eggnog. The reason I don’t want to make a bunch of cookies is because along with trying to stay off alcohol and drugs, I am trying to stay off sugar as well. Totally ending…

Review of Arin Murphy-Hiscock’s The House Witch     I received a “review copy” of The House Witch: Your Complete Guide to Creating a Magical Space With Rituals and Spells for Hearth and Home by Arin Murphy-Hiscock just before the Thanksgiving holiday. This handsome book is published by Adams Media, an imprint of Simon and Schuster, and is the twelfth book by Arin Murphy-Hiscock. On Simon and Schuster’s author website for Arin Murphy-Hiscock, you can find all the titles of her other published books. Some were known to me and some were not. Some, like Birds: A Spiritual Field Guide, I had borrowed from my local public library and had…

“H.A.L.T.”! Before You Continue Into The Holiday Season! One of the discussions lately in the rooms of AA – at least here locally – is how to get through the holiday season without relapsing. As someone who has been around recovery for a while, I find my best bet is to stay home and enjoy my own company. This year, my son’s father – Mr. AA himself – is spending the Yuletide season with us, so it’ll be lots of recovery talk and talk about Buddhism and other spiritual paths. Plus lots of good food to eat! I admit, I am looking forward to this! When people ask me my…

A Portrait of the Morning My sun is in Taurus and I most definitely a creature of habit. My morning routine is a good example of this. I generally wake around 4 a.m. I stay in bed for a half-hour or so, cuddling with a kitty – usually Radar, who sleeps with his head on my pillow – and praying. Then I get up, put on my flannels and go into the kitchen, where I start the coffee. I feed the cats. I have my oatmeal and coffee while reading and replying to emails and then it’s in the shower. I’m in and out of the shower by 6 a.m.,…

Wicked Simple and Easy Black Beans and Rice Every Thanksgiving, I make a huge dinner for my son and myself and sometimes his father – if he is in town from Florida – and maybe one or two other people. I always make homemade bread stuffing for the turkey that I lovingly roast. I make garlic mashed potatoes with creamy gravy. There is always some kind of squash on the table – butternut squash or acorn squash or perhaps a nice creamy mixture of several squashes, delicately seasoned. I can’t imagine any meal without a salad, so of course there is a large bowl filled with mixed greens, cucumbers, tomatoes,…

Madame Pamita: Her Book, Websites, Music, and Vast Storehouse of Tarot Wisdom I received a copy of Madame Pamita’s Magical Tarot: Using the Cards to Make Your Dreams Come True this past Ostara, and in the past eight months, this wonderful book has become one of my favorite tarot books. Published by Weiser Books, earlier this year, it’s a powerhouse of information and magic. I wanted to write a review of this fabulous book months ago but personal events in my own life got in the way. However, this only gave me more time to become acquainted with Madame Pamita via her website and monthly emails. I was really sad…