Influential/controversial psychotherapist, orginator of rational emotive behavior therapy, Alfred Ellis dies. 

Rational emotive behavior therapy, defined.

There’s no health care crisis in the U.S–well, at least not for the corporate/politcal elite…

50 SIMPLE CHARMS
by Victoria Martyn

Who says that magick has to be complex? Here are fifty simple charms that
utilize many different common items, herbs, fruits and vegetables.
Note: Please do not use any of these charms in place of medical treatment,
or when outside help is obviously advisable.

1. Lay thorny branches on your doorstep to keep evil from your dwelling.
2. Eat a pinch of thyme before bed, and you will have sweet dreams.
3. Place chips of cedar wood in a box with some coins to draw money to you.
4. Carry an anemone flower with you to ward against illness.
5. Hang a bit of seaweed in the kitchen to ward evil spirits.
6. Keep a jar of alfalfa in your cupboards to ensure the prosperity of your
house.
7. Burn allspice as an incense to draw money or luck to you, as well as
speed healing.
8. Cut an apple in half, and give one half to your love to ensure a
prosperous relationship.
9. Carry an avocado pit with you to let your inner beauty shine outwardly.
10. Avocado is an aphrodisiac.
11. Strawberries are an aphrodisiac.
12. Place a piece of cotton in your sugar bowl to draw good luck to your
house.
13. Celery is an aphrodisiac.
14. Place almonds in your pocket when you need to find something.
15. Scatter chili peppers around your house to break a curse.
16. Carrying a packet of strawberry leaves will help ease the pains of
pregnancy.
17. Scatter some sugar to purify a room.
18. Throw rice into the air to make rain.
19. Carry a potato in your pocket or purse all winter to ward against colds.
20. Eat five almonds before consuming alcohol, to lighten the effects of
intoxication.
21. Place a pine branch above your bed to keep illness away.
22. Chew celery seeds to help you concentrate.
23. Carry a chunk of dry pineapple in a bag to draw luck to you.
24. Ask an orange a yes or no question before you eat it, then count the
seeds: if the seeds are an even number, the answer is no. If an odd number
yes.
25. Eat olives to ensure fertility.
26. Toss oats out your back door to ensure that your garden or crop will be
bountiful.
27. Eat mustard seed to ensure fertility.
28. Place lilacs around your house to rid yourself of unwanted spirits.
29. Eat lettuce to drive lustful thoughts from your mind.
30. Rub a lettuce leaf over your forehead to help you sleep.
31. Add lemon juice to your bathwater for purification.
32. Eat grapes to increase psychic powers.
33. Carry a blade of grass to increase your psychic powers.
34. Smell dill to get rid of hiccups.
35. If you place a dill sachet over your door, those who wish you ill can
not enter your home.
36. Place cotton on an aching tooth, and the pain will ease.
37. Buy cotton to cause rain.
38. Place pepper inside a piece of cotton and sew it shut to make a charm to
bring back a lost love.
39. Carry a small onion to protect against venomous animals.
40. Eat grapes to increase fertility.
41. Place a sliced onion in the room of an ill person to draw out the
sickness.
42. Place an onion underneath your pillow to have prophetic dreams.
43. Place morning glory seeds under your bed to cure nightmares.
44. Walk through the branches of a maple tree to ensure that you will have a
long life.
45. Mix salt and pepper together and scatter it around your house to dispel
evil.
46. Smell peppermint to help you sleep.
47. Hang a pea pod containing nine peas above the door to draw your future
mate to you.
48. Eat a peach to assist in making a tough decision.
49. Carry peach wood to lengthen your lifespan.
50. Carry a walnut to strengthen your heart muscle.

A set of Pagan Prayer Beads is similar to a Rosary (indeed, in some
circles they are known as the Witch’s Rosary). This project is perfect for
customization. I will give you a set pattern. Feel free to follow or
create your own! Likewise, I will give you set prayers for each bead, but I
will also include variations. As always, your spiritual practices are as
unique as you are. Take what suits you from the following guidelines, but
please make this your OWN set of Prayer Beads.

Creating Your Own Witch’s Rosary

My set of Prayer Beads was created to remind me of the forest. I knew
that I wanted to have nine sets (3 x 3, number of the Divine Mother) of
three beads for the Maiden, Mother and Crone and eight single beads in
between the Goddess sets for Earth prayers.
I purchased thin leather cord; a set of green, dark green and amber
beads; a set of varying sized wooden beads and small silver beads for
spacers.
When stringing the beads, I kept this pattern in mind:

Three spacers
Earth bead (soft green bead)
Three spacers
Amber bead
Dark green bead
Small wooden bead
Large wooden bead
Small Wooden Bead
Dark green bead
Amber bead
Three spacers
Earth Bead, etc.

Some variations might include a simple large bead in place of the Goddess
sets of three, or, even simpler, alternating different color beads. When
you think of a pattern you like, write it down before you begin. It always
helps to have a simple chart to work with to start.
Depending on which deities you invoke, the colors will change. For example,
if you worship Brigid, your set of Prayer Beads would probably be made up of
red, gold and white. If you worship Diana, you would use blue and silver.
But please don’t get carried away with “traditional” color meanings! The
colors themselves have deeper magical meanings, so choose your colors with
intuition and heart.
Once you have your pattern and beads chosen, string the beads onto the cord.
As you place each bead onto the cord, say something that binds it to you.
A good chant to keep up the rhythm of the stringing is, “Goddess come and
bless this art, merry meet and merry part.”
Once the pattern and desired number of beads is strung, it’s time to knot
the cord. Bring both loose ends together and tie a knot, double-knot it and
triple-knot it, saying the chant firmly and with conviction for the final
three times. Your set of Prayer Beads is ready to be consecrated!

Consecrating your Beads!

A simple consecration ritual to dedicate this magical tool involves a white
candle, sandalwood incense and no interruptions! Sit comfortably with the
candle in front of you — the incense should be close but not distractingly
so. Place the string of beads open in a circle before you and set the
candle in the center of the circle. Notice what a perfect circle it forms.
It never ends. It is the spiral, it is the sphere…it is part of the Goddess
just as you are. Take some deep breaths and place your hands over the
beads. State your intention, words full of heart:

“Woven in an endless sphere,
These beads become a string of prayers,
Full of hope and dreams to be,
Goddess bless and please hear me.”

Prayers for your Beads

Now individual prayers need to be assigned to the beads. They can be
as simple as a “Thank you” to a full-fledged recitation of the Charge of the
Goddess. My advice? Keep it simple. If it’s too complicated and involves
too much pageantry, it might not remain a daily practice, no matter how
firmly you wish to include it.
For ideas, look at the many beautiful Pagan songs and chants that have
been created over the years. Take lines or couplets (two lines) from these
songs to create your prayers — or write your own!
To get you started, here are the prayers I use on my set of forest
beads.

Spacer beads:
“For She says: All acts of love and pleasure are my ritual.”

Earth bead (soft green bead):
“The Earth is our mother, we must take care of her –
Her sacred ground we walk upon with every breath we take.”

Amber bead:
“Ancient Mother, I hear you calling,
Ancient Mother, I hear your song.”

Dark green bead:
“We all come from the Goddess, and to her we shall return
Like a drop of rain, flowing to the ocean.”

Small wooden bead (MAIDEN):
“Maiden, sister, lover, friend,
I am grateful without end
For all.”

Large wooden bead (MOTHER):
“Mother mine, I have been blessed –
I thank you for all of this.”

Small wooden bead (CRONE):
“Crone, wise one and dearest sage,
I thank you for all that I have
Or will.”

Further Ideas

If you absolutely do not have enough time to devote to this in a day,
here’s an idea that I’ve used in a pinch that has certainly helped me!
Create a small set of prayer beads — a string that’s only long enough
to be a bracelet. Use a pattern and the appropriate beads, but make it in
miniature. Once tied, it certainly looks like a bracelet and could be used
for such. Consecrate and dedicate it as you normally would and wear it to
work or school. There are precious free moments in every day, even if it is
among a large group of people. Fingering the beads and saying your prayers
silently does just as much good as in your own home or behind closed doors.

You are The High Priestess

Science, Wisdom, Knowledge, Education.

The High Priestess is the card of knowledge, instinctual, supernatural, secret knowledge. She holds scrolls of arcane information that she might, or might not reveal to you. The moon crown on her head as well as the crescent by her foot indicates her willingness to illuminate what you otherwise might not see, reveal the secrets you need to know. The High Priestess is also associated with the moon however and can also indicate change or fluxuation, particularily when it comes to your moods.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

Water “holiday” in Armenia mixes Pagan and Christian traditions, cultures.

Nepalese “living goddess” gets the pink slip for travelling to U.S.

THE SEASONS
The powerful effects of the seasons can also, according to some Earth
magicians, subtly affect magickal workings. Traditionally, these types of
magick are performed during these seasons:

SPRING: A time for healing; purification spring cleaning is one survival of
this); psychic awareness; paying bills; fertility; planting magickal
gardens; & ecological rituals. Air magick.

SUMMER: A time for love, marriage, friendship, beauty, protection, courage,
magickal energy, physical energy, & strength. Fire magick.

AUTUMN: A time for money, employment, new possessions (including cars &
homes). Water magick.

WINTER: A time for banishments of disease, habits & addictions, seeking past
lives. This is a time for introspection, meditation, reading, & magickal
exercises designed to renew the magician for the coming spring. Earth
magick.

SPECIAL TIMES

LIGHTNING STORMS: are periods of intense energy. All spells cast during
storms will be empowered by them, and may prove to be more effective.
Protection rituals are ideal at these times.
RAINSTORMS: are fine for purification, love, compassion, friendship, beauty
rituals, & releasing guilt & jealousy.
SNOWSTORMS: are the time for gentle magick, purification, & stilling
emotions. release unrequited love.
HEAVY WINDS: empower rites designed to break addictions, assist study, &
travel spells.
SEARING HOT DAY: charge rites of protection, courage, & energy.
SOLAR & LUNAR ECLIPSES: are dramatic moments both for their observers as
well as for magicians. In the past, magicians were urged not to perform
magick during eclipses. Today, many natural magicians use the suggestive
power of
an eclipse to fuel spells involving banishments, including the destruction
of
disease. These have been some timing suggestions. Let them be guides, not
shackles!
THE SUN
Some magicians may wait months for the sun to enter the proper sign of the
Zodiac. This is fine for major workings but unrealistic for those who are
working everyday magick. However, there are other solar cycles worth
following… if you have the time. If not, don’t wait.
SUNRISE: Day begins as light stretches out from the eastern horizon. This is
an excellent time to perform rituals involving purification, business
success, study, employment, breaking addictions of all kinds, travel,
releasing guilt & jealousy, healing diseases, & the conscious mind.
NOON: The sun shines far above at full strength. This is fine for all
sunrise ritual purposes, as well as those that involve magickal energy,
physical energy & strength, protection, money & courage.
SUNSET: The sun slips below the western horizon, signaling the time for
breaking addictions, weight-loss, banishing misery & pain, transforming
anguish & negative habits.
NIGHT: The sun is out of sight. This is the drowsy time for beauty, dreams,
psychic dreams, psychic awareness, spirituality, sleep, sex, purification,
love, friendships, peace, releasing stress, healing wounds.
THE MOON
The moon waxes & wanes each month, rising an hour or so later during each
twenty-four hour period. When it is full, it rises as the sun sets. There
are different types of spells traditionally performed at the phases of the
moon.
More complicated patterns exist, relating to the specific day of each lunar
month, but these methods are rarely followed today. The Moon’s phases & the
types of magick appropriate to them are:
WAXING MOON: (From New to Full) When the Moon is waxing it is a time for
beginnings, health & healing, psychic awareness, beauty, fertility & all
positive magickal workings.
FULL MOON: All positive magickal spells are performed beneath the potent
glow of the Full Moon, including protection, love, healing, purification,
psychic awareness, money & travel.
WANING MOON: (From Full to New) This is the time for banishments of habits,
addictions, disease & negative thoughts. jealousy, guilt, & hurts are
released under the waning Moon. The old is swept away to make room for the
new.

I’ve known that purple has been long associated with themes of royalty.  Which was pretty clever of Prince, now that I think of it–get it– “Prince” (a royal persona) and his reign of all things purple? 

For those who are either as enamored by purple as I am, or know someone who is, you’ll be relieved to learn there is actually a store which boasts nothing but purple merchandise sold here. 

Finally, proprietors who understand that “purple is a lifestyle”. 

Purple and Indigo

Describing and colour in words is not easy, let alone those shades which
result as a mix of red and blue.

But if you consider purple to be a straight mix of blue and red, with no
whiter included, then indigo is a darker and bluer colour, as close to black
as the deepest blue of the night sky. Purple stones include dark amethyst
and suglite, whereas indigo is represented by sodalite. Both colours
represent the colour of Spirit and are associated with spiritual and psychic
development. However, whilst purple is associated with magic for healing,
indigo is more useful in money and success spells. Purple, because of the
difficulty in creating it from plant dyes, has long been associated with
royalty and high office in male-dominated systems, whereas indigo is more
often associated with Wise Women and more matriarchal belief systems such as
the Craft. This subtle difference means that the two colours are very good
in enabling us to access, and hence balance, our male and female aspects.

To create a balancing meditation aid, draw and colour in a purple circle
inside an indigo square. Make it as large as you can. Place it upright in a
place where you can comfortably sit and contemplate it. Burn a purple candle
on the right and an indigo one on the left. Extinguish all other lighting
and focus on the image. Do this every evening for a full week for at least
10 minutes per time. Alternatively, create a necklace of alternating purple
and indigo beads, with an equal number of each, and wear this under your
clothing next to your skin.

Taken from “The Real Witches Year” by Kate West

By: Emely Flak

Llewellyn’s Spell-a-Day

Independence? That’s middle class blasphemy. We are all dependent on one another, every soul of us on earth. ~  George Bernard Shaw

USA Today examines the experience of distress when providing care to loved ones with Alzheimer’s Disease.

Changes in blood pressure may indicate early signs of Alzheimer’s Disease and/or dementia.

Innovative approach to health care:  The Minute Clinic

Federal funds help patients who need long term care receive home-based services in Hawaii.

“Flight To Freedom” by Josephine Wall

One of the themes covered in my History of Social and Welfare Policy class last fall was the ongoing issue of gender inequality that creeps up in policy analysis.  This is especially becoming more evident in health care policy.  Women outlive men, that’s a statistical reality.  Another reality is the fact that on average, women earn less income than men.  So it should come as no great surprise that it is women who often find themselves either without health insurance at some point in their lives or struggling to get by with public assistance.   Even with a college degree, men continue to earn more:

“By 2004, college-educated women aged 45-49 earn $36,842 (or 38%) less per year than their college-educated male counterparts.  In their 20s, the gap was $11,001 or 25%.”

Many women are also at a greater risk for losing their health insurance coverage when they rely on the benefits of their spouse.   We’ve already established that females outlive males; what happens to their medical benefits if/when the spouse dies?  Other circumstances such as divorce or a spouse’s unexpected unemployment place women in an increasingly susceptible position.

“Women are more vulnerable to becoming uninsured because they are often covered as dependants under a spouse’s plan. Divorce, death of a spouse, spouse’s job loss, or the loss family coverage can cause women to lose coverage.”

With women already bringing home a lower wage than their male counterparts, imagine how this is compounded by those who work part-time or at a low wage full time position and need to obtain health insurance benefits for their children/family.  Even when an employer provides medical benefits, the costs of family health care insurance premimums are absurd.  

“The cost of family health insurance is rapidly approaching the gross earnings of a full-time minimum wage worker,” said Drew Altman, President and CEO of the Kaiser Family Foundation. “If these trends continue, workers and employers will find it increasingly difficult to pay for family health coverage and every year the share of Americans who have employer-sponsored health coverage will fall.”

And here is what California is proposing in an attempt to increase accessibility to health insurance for all.

The health care debate is not a new one and is certainly receiving more attention these days, especially with the upcoming release of the latest “controversial” expose offered by filmmaker Michael Moore.    Is a form of universal health insurance truly the answer?  Initially, I  tend to support a movement towards a more socialized version of medicine, but at the same time, I don’t really believe that government mandated health insurance is going to solve anything…in fact, I fear once the government does become directly involved in the service, delivery and accessibility of medical care coverage, we might just find ourselves in a worse predicament than already is the case. 

This becomes something of a philosophical debate.   Do we have the “right” to good health in America?  Or is this a privilege?  The US Constitution talks about the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness…can these objectives be achieved if some people are just not fortunate enough to receive optimal health care? 

Yeah, that’s pretty much a rhetorical question. 

Your soul is painted the color orange, which embodies the characteristics of balance, heat, enthusiasm, flamboyance, playfulness, aggression, over-emotion, danger, desire, strengthens the ability to concentrate, attraction, adaptability, and stimulation. Orange falls under the element of Fire, and symbolizes glory and fruits of the earth.

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