This post is going to be doing some jumping around on multiple topics. Here goes...

I've had a Lenormand deck of cards for a few years now, but never really used them until recently (as in, less than a year ago).

In this time I've learnt that my Lenormand aren't quite what's been out there for a number of years.  For instance, most decks have a card called The Ship - I have The Train.  there are also other cards and Images I have that other Lenormand don't, and vice versa, and at one point it had me wondering, Is this even real!?


I then took some time out the one afternoon to have a look through the companion book* and have a look at the tarot associations for the cards and came to the conclusion that my Lenormand are as real as the other decks out there.  So there are a few differences (biggest being that mine don't tie in with playing cards, nor have any such symbolism, and the few card substitutions), but don't we have the same thing in tarot?  Look at the Beast's Thoth tarot:  instead of the Pages and Temperance, he has Princesses and Art.  Why should it make his tarot any less real then what old Arthwaite went and made?  For those who don't know, Arthwaite's Rider-Whaite-Smith tarot is a reimagining/corruption of the traditional "Marseilles-style" tarot, which itself is one derivation of the Visconti-Sfroza Tarot.

So, back to Lenormand:  I'm now part of a Lenormand Card study group online - wow!  That's all I'm saying on this right now anymore.

Touching on a subject I went on about last time, the wine shop at the Old Biscuit Mill (aptly named "Wine @ the Mill") had a selection of curries and stews that they served up as... BUNNY CHOW!!  Would you believe, I go ten years without seeing a bunny chow and suddenly I see hundreds of the bedamned things in one week, on two separate occasions.  it's so weird how things turn out....

On the topic of curry:  my sister has had this craving for wraps for a long while, so Friday my mom decides, right, we're making rootis for supper.  So, 5.00pm she's finished her class and had a shower and it's off to the brand new, simply GIGANTIC new Checkers that opened up on Sandown Road to get chicken, veggies and whatever else we might need for our chicken curry rootis.  Ingredients bought, shop closing warning received, we make our way back home - and realise, just before Parklands Junction, that we don't have any wraps or rootis.  Out of everything to have forgotten, we go and forget the ingredient that gives the meal its name.

Rush into Woolies - no, too pricey.  And small.  Rush all the way down Wood Drive (Friday evening traffic, please note) to Spar - also small,, but cheaper and good quality.  At least, that's what we thought, until Zan and I actually worked out the number of rootis in the packets and relative "so much per rooti".  It turns out, Woolies would have been the cheaper option with eight rootis for R35, whereas Spar were almost R30 for six...

Touching on "The Process" again, I'm on chapter 22 now.  WOW!  Again, WOW!  I can't get over how amazing I'm finding the whole thing.  One thing he said has been running and bouncing around in my head for the last two weeks, and it goes along the lines of, "Sitters come to us [divinators] because we fulfil a unique need in their lives.  Yes, they can very easily and for the same price most professional readers charge go to a psychologist or counsellor, but they come to US, as readers.  Why?  I just spent a few minutes trying to put thoughts to words for the possible reasons, and you know what?  I kept coming up blank.  I think they come to us because they can.  Make no mistake, there are a few that come for the mysticism and magic others, and some that come to us to hear the answers they want that maybe other people or circumstances in their lives aren't giving them; but, I personally think, for the most part they come to us because we can help them in a way most other people can't.

The cards are our tools.  Runes, Lenormand, tarot, bones... they're all of them a way for the sitter to get an answer from us without us seeming as if we're shrinks.  They can block out, forget for a moment, that we're also people, and ignore that we're interpreting the cards on their behalves.  WE aren't the ones giving them advice or helping them with an issue.  Its the cards doing all the work.  We aren't even the ones doing all the talking, it's the voices of the cards making themselves heard.  They can let themselves forget for a moment that so MUCH that goes into and comes out of a reading is what we see in the sitter, how s/he reacts, what s/he says.  That's fine, you know.  Our work as readers is to read our cards/stones/bones and conveying what we see to the sitter.  Making him/her happy by being calm and doing our work is the most important thing we can do for him/her.  Reading what we see and conveying it the best we can is simply an extension of that....

Blessed be!

Ooooh, baby! I found out someone actually reads these posts (^_^)

That said, anyone who really knows me knows I love food, even though I don't have the biggest repertoire of recipes or the greatest culinary imagination.

THAT said, anyone who truly knows me knows I love curries and pizza.  On the topic of curry, Zan, Amma and I spent some of the day in Town looking for a pipe for P, as well as just walking around Shortmarket Street for a bit and popping into the Golden Acre Mall to see the ruins of the original reservoir.  Nice little piece of history.

On the walk back up from Golden Acre we stopped, as we are wont to do, at a stall with shiny things.  The stallholder's name is Myroenesa (may-rrho-nee-sah) and when asked for a suggestion for a lunch spot sent us to the Eastern Food Bazaar.  That involved walking all the way BACK DOWN Shortmarket, crossing the road, and following the smell of curry to what we were told would be an Indian restaurant.  Well, the smell of curry certainly led us to Indian food.

Bunny chow - Amma was rather surprised when she saw the men at the next table eating this.  When she asked for a photo, he looked at her funny, but let her snap one anyway.

We all had the 405 from the Madras Dosa House:  a Chicken Masala Dosa.  It.  Was.  Stunning!!  And so filling, too, that we all brought most of it home and had it for supper.

The menu for the Madras Dosa House.  You order and pay at the far right end of the counter (out of shot - obviously), then hand the (apparently arrogant) Indian chef your slip for your order.  In the silver bowl to the right (also out of shot) is a bowl of coconut chutney - amazing, but f***ing hot!

a)  This is the nice gentleman that let Amma take the photo of his food.

b)  The chandeliers are pretty, aren't they?

The whole bazaar was fitted into this one corridor in the... well, some building in Town.  The decor was provided mostly by beautiful old Indian doors, with "typically" Indian music playing in the background.  The whole feel of the place is one of relaxation and simply enjoying an incredible meal.

And this is Myroenesha.  She gets full credit for the amazing lunch we had (^_^)

Lately I've been stuck on old, medieval / middle-aged instruments.  Now, let it be known I can't play an instrument to save my life (I can barely hold three notes on a recorder), but I so badly would love to learn to play a citole.  The reason for this is that I quite honestly find guitars, pianos and even Western-style violins overplayed.  I don't find them as exciting as I did before, and since importing a Pipa isn't very financially viable (never mind getting new strings or finger plectra).  With a citole, strings are made of the normal nylon/gut we use on classical guitars, and other types of gut strings are also easier to get hold of.  As it is, a gentleman by the name of Paul Butler has greatly inspired me to at least try and make a citole.  Also, having a guitarist and former instrument repairman in my life isn't hurting my chances of (at least partial) success.

Let's all hold thumbs and see what happens, eh?

On to tarot (my greatest love).  I've been listening to Dan Pelletier's "The Process:  The Way of the Tarot Reader" and can quite honestly say that it's only the second piece of tarot "literature" I've truly enjoyed, the first being Christine Jette's "Professional Tarot".  As whacky as it sounds, his voice is comforting, and I can honestly say he regularly has me laughing at things that wouldn't make sense to other people.  He makes you listen, even if you don't immediately absorb the information, and though the best idea is to sit and take notes, it's easy enough to listen to while you're busy and still be learning something.  What's nice about it - since it isn't a paper-and-ink book - is that you can rewind something if you've missed it, and where you might sometimes not understand something written down, Mr Pelletier's voice immediately makes any meanings clear.

The entire audiobook starts with him speaking to "you" on the phone and making an appointment for noon the next day; from there, he takes "you" through rose-garden related activities and likens the tarot to his roses, people and experiences in his life.  He often speaks of his friend Dutch and his cats.

As a teacher he is stern and to the point, but also funny and aware (constantly reminding "you", actually) that his path in the tarot isn't "your" path in the tarot.  Besides constantly telling "you" to get rid of your LWB and giving you general tips and pointers in regards to the cards, he doesn't try and teach you meanings or how the cards "should" be read.  All of this he leaves up to "you", and rather enjoys "shooting down", for (current) lack of a better description, authors and experts on the history and interpretations of the cards.  One example that springs to mind is from the "Interpretations" section of the audiobook, where he quotes an author on his/her interpretation of the Empress in combination with three other cards:  pregnancy, pregnancy, pregnancy (in summary).  He shoots these "interpretations" down and justifies this by mentioning hysterectomies, barrennes and a lack of an active sex life.

The best way to experience this audiobook is to get hold of it for yourself.

All in all, "The Process:  The Way of the Tarot Reader" is an incredible audiobook and well worth acquiring.

Blessed be!!

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!