I know for a fact that I'm neither the best nor the most imaginative chef around>

That doesn't mean I can't cook at all, though, or be good at it.

When I was at school I wanted to become a chef.  I loved cooking while I still lived at home, but my mother's stomach (or burning thereof) limited what I was allowed and thus able to cook.  Plus, we seldom had anything exciting in the house to experiment with - it was the barest minimum of what we needed.

No, I'm not telling you this for a sob story.  Goodness knows I hear enough of them, and prefer hearing them to telling them.

After I left school my second job involved admin at a hotel, where my meals, since I lived on the premises, were provided by management.  None of the staff were even allowed in the kitchen to make our own tea.  The kitchen staff made and brought it to us.

I had better luck living with my aunt, in terms of experimentation, but even so, I couldn't use some of my favourite spices.

When I lived alone, I very rarely ate at night - I simply didn't see the point in cooking for only one person every night.

So, supper tonight was a risk for me.  I used a recipe I pulled off of Google for dumplings, and though they fell apart and I forgot the salt in the filling, I have to say I rather enjoyed it.  Mommy to the rescue:  I haven't the faintest idea on how to make a gravy, so my mom rescued the dumplings from killing us with boredom by making a delicious sweet/sour gravy for it.  Wow...  Even thinking about it makes my tummy happy again.

On the topic of food:  why is the Neo-<insert description here> movement suddenly giving rise to so many vegetarians?  I look at myself and draw on the descriptions of a rather prominent figure of South African Pagan who says that while our [Pagan] ancestors most certainly lived very close to nature, they were by no means vegetarians.  I refer here to Anglo-Saxon / Celtic Pagans.  So many of us who follow this path suddenly convert to vegetarianism  - what real reason is there behind it?  I mean, I can understand if it were part of our religion (as it is for some Buddhists or all Jainists), but those who follow the other gods rarely ate only one food.  Do I have the wrong end of the story here again?

I wouldn't be too surprised - my nose is all stuffy and that usually affects my cognitive functions.

I've finally managed to get hold of Dan Pelletier's "The Process", in which he likens his tarot journey to his rose garden.  Please, if you get the chance, listen to it - it's brilliant, and I love the way he draws the listener into the story - you actually sit there and see the way he speaks about his roses and how he likens them to the tarot.  I'm going to listen to it the first chance I get, but from what I've heard so far:  anyone in the tarot should REALLY get this audiobook!

I like Chinese food and things and and and...

No, that doesn't make much sense, and I'll be the first one to admit that.  Hee hee!

My mind's been in a bit of a twist the last two days thanks to a tummy bug doing the rounds.  I'd hoped it was flushed out by today, but apparently not.

Anyway, gross topic with TMI.

We had Chinese food for supper (the U-Seng Sweet and Sour family meal) because I got this gier to try out wonton dumplings.  OMG!!  They are wonderful!  The ones my mom and Pierre ordered were the pan-fried pork dumplings and man, the it was so certainly worth the spinach!

In this shot:  Sweet and Sour pork nuggets, no dough; chow mein noodles with chicken and veggies; the last vegetable spring roll; and the three white dumplings.  OMG!

while I waited for the food (the two "elders" made like bananas and  split) I wandered around the little supermarket they have attached to the restaurant.  They have some really interesting things in there!  They also have some really unidentifiable things in there.

One of the more unusual items is what they call in Chinese "Hundred Year Eggs".  Don't worry, they aren't really 100 years old.  No, it's duck eggs that are covered (traditionally) with a layer of clay and rice husk.  As the clay dries and the egg ages, it actually chemically preserves the egg and changes the flavour.  It doesn't look too appetising, I have to say, but have a look for yourself and think it over for the next round of munchies (oops!  Did that come out...?):  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Century_egg

On another note, and one more closely related to tarot:

I've been relearning my runes.  No, not in terms of the written alphabet (I know and use that anyway), but in terms of divinations.  All I can say is, thank goodness for tarot.  If not for the cards I do believe I would have had a much harder time of this.  I made a set of willow runes about ten years ago, but only used them once or twice.  Now, with time and reason to learn them again, i actually find them easier to work with.  I can't read them as "fluently" as my cards yet, nor remember their proper names (I only have the Anglo-Saxon names in my little book - really frustrating!), but I do have a better grasp of them now, and I say it's thanks to my experience with the tarot.

I also learned that the study of runes (all varieties), is know as Runology :P

Here's hoping I can get my lazy rear end (mentally speaking) back into learning them properly!

OK, so I'm a tad behind on my people skills.

Earlier tonight I rescued a little rain spider (probably a male, otherwise a baby) that only had four legs left to its body, two to each side of it.

In the shower now, that got me thinking about life.

Our lives very much resemble those of spiders:  as we grow, we go through different and unique stages in our lives.  I want to smack anyone I hear speaking of a "normal" life or "normal" experiences.  The only "normal" about anyone's life, from one person to the next, is that we get through these different stages the same way a spider moults - it sheds the old exoskeleton, the broken and damaged one, and moves to the next.

This even goes for those poor people working desk or call centre jobs - you have precisely the same job and duties as the person in the next cubicle - hells, you might even have your one dog and 2.4 children - but your thoughts, dreams and ides are yours and yours alone.

The same way spiders lose legs and body hair for defence, we tend to cut out or let go of those situations that  hurt us or cause us emotional harm.  This can even be likened to the people who drain us, what we call "emotional vampires":  we let them go because they damage us.  They make up those body hairs we release for defence.

The enterprising members of our race build their webs and maintain them as part of their plans and dreams.  others also build webs, but then wait for something to walk into them.  Yet other have given up fixed webs in favour of going out into the big, wide world and looking for "nourishment" - spiders do the same.  Orb-weavers build their big-ass webs every night, or every few nights, and maintain them, keeping track of the damage they may pick up and replacing them often to keep them sticky.  Funnel spiders build their webs in the short grasses in the veld and wait for something to walk into them, not replacing their webs nor maintaining them because they see no need to.  Jumping spiders, among my favourites, roam our houses and our gardens looking for their prey.

Basically, we aren't really so different, in our day-to-day lives, as the spiders so many of us so (VERY WRONGLY) squash or kill with Doom or Baygon.  We build our webs or roam through our lives, but we all go and look for dreams where our biology sends us.

The biggest thing is, we're human; we can change our "biology".

To point out how absolutely exciting my life has been lately, there's been rather a large gap since the last entry.

Also, every time I just latch onto something to write about, I don't happen to have pen or paper nearby, thus forgetting all the interesting and really cool stuff I had in mind for this blog.

Ugh much?

So, this time, I'm starting slow and hoping the cool stuff jumps in somewhere along the go of things.

It took me years to get into the flow of shuffling my tarot cards properly (or any cards, for that matter), and to this day I will still drop one or two or a whole lot of them when I'm shuffling.  Initially I was also extremely paranoid about damaging my cards while trying to slide one lot in with the other lot.  Until I hit on this really simple little trick that I wish someone had taught to me early on.

Im also going to explain it so that whoever reads this as a tarot card reader will take this with him/her and teach his/her clients to shuffle properly.

1. Hold the deck face-up in your taking (weaker) hand.
2. Now, simply roll the deck over onto your fingers.
3. OK, now you can shuffle them face-down with your giving (stronger) hand:  curve your fingers slightly so that they form a sort of basket for your cards, then take a small pile of cards from the bottom of the deck (the lot against your fingers) and bring it up slightly above the main deck.
4. With your weaker thumb, pull a few cards off the top of the smaller pack and onto the top of the main pile.  DO NOT FORCE THE CARDS OF THE SMALLER PACK INTO THE MAIN PACK!!  Not only will you frustrate yourself, you could seriously (i.e., PERMANENTLY and VERY VISIBLY) damage your cards.
5. Repeat this action until you feel you've shuffled enough (or, if you're using your LWB, follow the instructions).
6. You can now shuffle your deck.
7. Or, if this made no sense at all, wait until I've uploaded the video of what I'm talking about.

It bugs the living NIGHTLIGHTS out of me to see some client sit and shuffle the cards face-up, and it gets frustrating to have to explain that they're doing it wrong.  So please, spread the word and let them learn to shuffle the cards properly!!

Back to more serious things.

I read a post on Facebook earlier tonight about how members of certain groups and covens back-stab and undermine others, particularly when it comes to the leaders or anyone in a key position.  You know, we're supposed to above all that.  We shouldn't be hunting after power and / or trying to cause anyone's downfall, but my word, we sound more and more as if we're slipping back into the Dark and Middle Ages.  Wake up, fools!  We're supposed to love and help our fellow man, and charity starts at home.  How the hells can we expect to do any good in the world if we can't even play our parts when it comes to keeping the house clean?!  We are NOT a part, or off-shoots of, the "main" religions, but Goddess knows, we certainly behave as though we are.

WAKE UP!!  We're supposed to be separate from all that; why are we aspiring TO it instead?

I promised more on bees - here it is :)

Sadly, it isn't that much, but it does deal with swarms and hives and the differences (as I remember them).

So, last time it was about treating bee stings.  When a bee stings you, get it out as quickly as possible and take the appropriate medication (if necessary).  But what do you do about a swarm of bees?

OK, it turns out swarms fall into two categories:  I call them "moving" and "protective".  a Moving swarm is just that:  the hive has taken off after the queen and is now looking for a new location for their hive (this also applies to the little queens and their new hives).  A Protective swarm is this:  the hive has been disturbed for some reason and the workers are trying to protect their queen, and the best way to do that is by stinging (well, duh, they are bees, after all).  The thing with beehives is that the hive will never attack without provocation.  Usually the hive has been disturbed by humans or honey badgers, bee-eaters or other animals after their carbohydrate treasure.  Sometimes the hive has to be moved because they constitute a threat of some kind to children or the elderly.  Whatever the case, there has been a disturbance of the hives and the workers are in full attack mode.  This is where the beauty of nature becomes deadly:  it only takes one bee's sting to incite the others to swarming.

This is done by the release of pheromones in the apitoxin (bee venom) when the sting is delivered.  As bees communicate visually and by smell, pheromones are a perfect war-flag.  Not only do the released pheromones "activate" the workers' defensive kamikaze modes, they also identify the target (hypothetically, the poor, inexperienced fool tasked with removing the possibly dangerous hive to a safer location).  Once this attack drive is activated, the bees will attack the threat until such a time as they feel it isn't a threat anymore.  Many people who die of bee stings die because of swarm attacks for this very reason.

Right, it's after midnight and my eyes are on fire.  I'm off to bed and I hope you will be, too.

Sleep tight!

For those of you who don't know, I'm allergic to bees.

What does that mean?  Well, simply put, it means that if a bee stings me and the sting is left untreated the bee's venom (apitoxin) will cause enough swelling to reach my heart or my throat.  in either case, the swelling will kill me.

Now, how does a person treat a bee sting?  Quite simply, you can't.  Not really.  A bee's sting is basically a heavily modified egg-laying organ (ovipositor) that now carries venom and a bard instead of eggs.  When the bee stings you, the bard on the sting catches and the sting is ripped from the bee's body, thus ending her life.  For you, the stung, is has another implication, though.  The bard makes sure that the sting stays in your skin long enough to deliver its full dose of venom.  Regardless of what you do, the amount of venom delivered is always the same.

To remove a sting is actually easier than it sounds.  The old-fashioned way is to remove the sting by sliding a blade in under the slant of the sting and to scrape it out.  Since you already have the venom in you, that doesn't matter, though, and you can remove the sting any way you like.  I rubbed mine off when I got stung on Saturday, like it was dust.  If you do feel the need to remove it with something flat, please don't go looking for a knife - paper works just as well, and most people have at least one money note somewhere on them.  Once the sting is out, you have nothing to worry about anymore.  Just try not to scratch the itch from the sting for the next few days.

For those of us who are allergic, getting our medicine as soon as possible after the sting is of tantamount importance.  The swelling can either stop our hearts or suffocate us.  Any anti-histemine will work, but I would personally suggest either Phenergan or Celestimine.  Carry them with you at all times just in case.  I was lucky, I was stung just outside a petrol station on Saturday, so getting my pill in was really simple, but we aren't all that lucky.  Try and keep a small bottle of water with you as well for swallowing the pills.  Also, don't panic at all:  the faster your heart beats, the better your chances of the venom spreading.  Take slow, deep breaths, and the tablets also won't hit you with too many side-effects (diziness, etc).  I'm not quite sure how that works, but it does.

I'll give you guys more on handling bees in the next post.  Until then - sleep tight!!

Her'e a question all readers have at one point or another: "How do I learn to read?"

The easiest (and personally best) answer to give is to say, "Use the Little White Book", which is the answer I gave.  I wonder now, in retrospect, if it was the right answer to give.  I gave it because that's how I started my tarot journey, with very little idea of how anything works, much less my own intuition.  I still have my first LWB, wrapped up in home-made laminating and travelling around wherever I go in the same velveteen bag their companion deck travels in.

But what now about those who can't start like I started, those who don't have the advantage of having afternoons and weekends and weeks off from school, like I did (yes, I know, I should have focused on my school-work, but the cards were much more fun)?  How do people like this learn the cards?

The question of "How?" was tonight asked by a doctor friend in New York City who works in public health with HIV/AIDS.  I gave her the LWB answer, but I doubt she has enough free time on her hands to actually sit and work through the little pamphlet, folding and refolding it, while she works with her patients.  For her, it's easy enough to track down the American Tarot Association and find a tutor/mentor through them.  In South Africa, how does one do that?  Here in Cape Town we haven't got anything even nearly like the ATA, though we do have the Cape Town Tarot Association, but most of us have other jobs and or hobbies that very often pull us away from our tarot.  In regards to mentoring and tutoring, there are very few members of the CTTA who have that amount of free time to sit and work with someone, and in this tiny little group even fewer who have the actual skill to guide anyone in the cards.  I know I tried it once, and it wasn't a flop, but it didn't work out half as well as we'd both hoped it would, mainly because she already had a tarot basis to work with and the material we used was so very different from what she'd already started doing on her own.  Some teachers also tend to charge more than some students can afford, while the majority of teachers seem to float around the City more than in the suburbs.  Maybe I have this wrong, but it's been my experience.

If only we could pull ourselves together and start working together as tarot card readers and not only tarot enthusiasts; tarot helpers and mentors instead of tarot "oh-I'll-do-it-myself"s.  We need to grow up when it comes to things like this.  Am I wrong, or not completely correct?

Right, ranting aside, something I found useful when it comes to tarot books is tagging.  No, not tagging online.  I mean actual sticky-tape-and-paper tags, or filing tags.  I did it originally with a copy of the "Tarot Bible" and now did it again, and slightly more completely, with the companion book for the Grail Tarot.  I tagged the Major Arcana Chapter on its own, then tagged out the suits, and then sub-tagged all the court and pip cards. This way, while I work with the book, it's easier to find the correct card instead of struggling with pages sticking together for some reason or another.  I also tagged out the "Working with the Cards" and "Spreads" pages to make it easier.

The sad thing is, it's such a nicely set out book, I didn't want to bend the spine.  However, it IS a working book, so you WILL bend the spine as you work with your cards and get to know them, and the constant back and forth through the book may even eventually loosen a few pages.  If you happen to buy a "how-to" book, but don't want to bend the spine, you might just as well throw it in the rubbish for all the real good it will do you.  Or, be a bit more practical and take it back for a refund and stick to the LWB.  Whatever.

Anyway, this cat's off to bed.  Have fun and sleep tight, guys and gals!