A dream achieved… and a new start!

p1010091I fulfilled a lifelong dream recently… I am now a professional writer!  I hadn’t wanted to blog about it until the issue came out… but I got the check in the mail the other day… it’s happened and it’s real and each and every person who has read this blog and who has commented on my posts here and who has allowed me to comment on their blogs has had a part in my growth over the last couple of years as a writer.

Thank you!

I have been graciously invited to write a regular column Building Pagan Community, for Thorn Magazine.  This offer came entirely out of left field as a result of some of the blogging I have done in the last few months and some of the comment’s I’ve made on some of the blogs I read a lot.   I found the whole editor/author process to be challenging and a little frustrating… I’m used to just splattering my thoughts and feelings all over this blog and occasionally working and editing and crafting a particular piece.  Over all, though, I liked it.  I feel like I can learn a heck of a lot about writing and about myself as a man, a witch, and a writer, by working with an editor on projects.

Please, subscribe today!!!  I mean it, because by subscribing to our communities magazines we encourage our community and our quality magazines and publishers!  (there is an additional link to Thorn‘s website at the bottom of this article, as well as the one in the sidebar)

I recently got a big box of papers and photographs that my father had been holding onto.  He recently moved into a Seniors apartment complex near my brother’s house and my brother helped dad clear out a bunch of stuff.  This box included School photo’s, school assignment’s from when I was a small kid…

I had always been a reader, and from the earliest assignment in my First or Second grade I mentioned wanting to be a writer.  Somewhere along the way I had let go of that dream, much like the huge collection of half finished stories and writings that I let go of years ago when I moved into my first place of my very own.

But now, now I am a writer! …. even if (as I have been joking with friends) in my dreams writing involved gobs more money!  Of course I also realize that I’ve only made one sale so far… Danielle Steele didn’t get to flout the San Francisco parking authorities until she’d been a successful author for years… so for now I will bide my time and keep writing!

Having achieved one dream, I can achieve others.

This is SO cool!

Witchery…. or, I have an altar again!

“Witchery ~ witch*er*y/ n. 1 witchcraft. 2. power exercised by beauty or eloquence or the like. ~Oxford American Dictionary of Current English New American Edition (2000)”

This quote, which you should be able to see… among a great many other things along the right side of this blog, has always delighted me.  I think the basics of this definition should hold true for any spiritual or religious path…. that whatever path you follow should be empowered through beauty and elloquence… I just like that… it rings true on that deep experiental level that can be so hare to articulate in every day conversation.

I have had a lot of conversations about this, and about the power of creativity with my friend Laurel…  she’s this fabulously talented artist I know.  She is actually the one who gifted me the marvelous painted silk scarf of which part makes up the banner of this little blog.

Here, is an image of it against another fabric as background in my ongoing feeble attempts to capture the image as a banner for this site!

Anyhow, Laurel and I have had many a delightful conversation about the power that can be exercised and the potentially healing and transformative nature or creative arts and artwork.  One touches and experiences the Creatrix and Creator most intimately in the act of creation.

This is why the Great Rite, in symbol and in act, are one of the most sacred rites of religious Witchcraft after all.  Out of the act of creation, results all of creation.

All of this meandering about creativity and the Divine is to say that one of the many delightful results of our recently acquired house guests is that in all the rearranging I have managed to craft myself an altar!p1010086

It comprises a small square bookshelf and my bedside table, said table doing double duty as my nightstand and a secure spot for currently read books and an alarm clock on occasion.

p1010083 As you can see I am using the top drawer of said nightstand for assorted altar supplies and tchotske’s.

The bottom drawer is reserved for diverse potentially naughty items and various sordid sundries of a personal nature, I shant bore you with the details.  Love and Pleasure and all of that…

~

I need to get a small box or two… and perhaps a small shelf to use against the window… to hold a few notebooks tarot cards and cloths…  but I once more have an altar and have taken advantage of that fact to pray at it an use it a bit in the recent retail madness of my new job and my misadventures seeing if two part-time jobs can actually equal a full time one.

Now that I have an altar again, though, I feel a bit more like I can handle whatever mischief life throws at me!  Silly, I know, but it’s true.

cropped-collage.jpg

I have also changed the photo on my computer desk-top to a collage that I used to use part of as the banner here at Chrysalis, and may again.  I have also changed the themes on my computer to match.

I am also contemplating, inspired by some recent conversations on the Pagan Community Builder’s list, of bringing special and subtle observances of my spritual path into my life maybe finally breaking down and using the Witches Date planner in my personal organizer… and finding other ways to blend the magickal and miraculous with my mundane.

more later,

Pax

3/03/2009

So I am working another part time job, this time in retail.  Here’s hoping two part-times make a full time and perhaps add up to something more!

The new part time is at a soon to open retail store dealing in discount clothing, home furnishings, bed and bath items; we are part of a larger chain and part of being the opening crew is working like a dog getting everything set up and ready for our customers.  There is nothing like a few days of ferrocious labor to make you realize how out of shape you are.  It’s been a long time since I worked that hard… but it’s been getting easier and I am determined to find a way through the challenges of my present economic and work circumstances to move towards my goals…

These goals include persuing my writing on the professional level and someday opening my own business.

Look for a few more wordy and thought filled posts Friday when I have my one day off for the week and can just hole up in front of my computer!

Peace,

Pax