Yoinked from Ceridwen's Cauldron

"Magick is concentrated thought fueled by a need, assisted by a tool, empowered by Divinity, trusted by the self, and cast into the void of the Universe. If the thought is not focused, the need not relevant, the tool inappropriate, the belief not strong, or Divinity not infused, magick will not work; or if it does, it will work badly. It is also wise to remember that magick follows the least path of resistance and is purely natural in effect. Often it looks more like a coincidence than a shower of thunderbolts."

Silver Ravenwolf, Hexcraft, p. 38

Ceridwen's Cauldron Trackback

Deityapalooza Continues

Here we are, knee-deep in the Deity presentations (ie week 3). So far, we covered Prehistoric, Mesopotamian, Celtic, Egyptian, and Roman-Greek. Wowsers.

I think the next time I go through this course, I might try to start the Deity presentations after the first third of the course and spread them over the next two-thirds. Lumping them at the end of the course makes for alot of lecturing from us and listening for them. We're trying to break it up by allowing the students to research some deities on their own and present them in class, but it's still alot to take in.

Still waiting for my CD on mindfulness from the CBC...

Mindfulness and Meditation

I mentionned in class that I was listening to the Ideas program on CBC radio when they were interviewing Jon Kabat-Zinn. This guy had some really interesting things to say on meditation and spiritual growth (although he'd mock the use of the word spiritual).

So I went to the CBC's website and placed an order for that interview to be delivered to me on CD (I also bought the Steve the First radio play, but that was for my own amusement). Once I've had a chance to listen to it, I'll see about putting it out to the CMS students to have a listen to it.

You can listen to Jon Kabat-Zinn as he gives a talk on the benefits of medicine, meditation, and mindfulness at the ResearchChannel website.

Next Week and Related Resources

Caroline! We missed you this week!

I just wanted to post a couple of links I used for my presentation on Prehistoric Deities, although the conversation went way off-topic with my students this week (good discussion, but only a bit on-topic).

Mithras: http://www.taivaansusi.net/historia/mithraism.html
You can find many of the Prehistoric Deities on http://www.pantheon.org/
Millenial Gaia statue: http://www.akashanpathways.com/gaia_statue.htm
Gaia Theory: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaia_hypothesis

Next week, we'll be expecting your presentations on alternative healing methods and our guest speaker (Meri Fowler) will be doing her workshop on Therapeutic Touch.