Z’s House Oakland , CA
Aug. 21, 2010 1-4pm
Price: $65
(limited to 15 women)
Enjoy tea and sweets at Z’s house!

Location details given after you’re registered.
Fund raiser for the Women’s Spirituality Forum

Go to www.TarotSocial.com to register.

What is a TAROT SOCIAL?

It is a joyful coming-together of the Women’s Tarot community … a Revival of
the 70’s TRAVELING MAGIC SHOW by a FOREMOTHER of GODDESS SPIRITUALITY, The QUEEN
of TAROT READINGS, and the woman responsible for LEGALIZING TAROT in California
… Z BUDAPEST.

What will it be like?

The Women’s Tarot community comes together… experienced and newbies alike.

Practice and deepen your own tarot skills… witness others’ readings in an
intimate setting helping you to hone your own skills rapidly.
Query the Fates together in Circle of Community… learn from The Queen of Tarot
Readings!

You arrive as beautiful Goddesses and all is in readiness for your amazing Tarot
experience ….

Entering into CIRCLE with (or without) YOUR TAROT DECK, you become ONE with YOUR
SISTERS through breathing, humming and chanting …
Together we invoke BINAH, the Goddess of Wisdom – as the tarot is based on the
kabbalah.

Lighting our candle on the altar to the FATES, we sit in circle with our
personal decks before us as … we receive a WONDERFUL and ENLIGHTENING TEACHING
on the TAROT from Z – the tarot’s origination and evolution through the ages to
now.

Dropping deeper, Z takes us to the CAVE of the FATES, where fortunes are created
and measured … The PSYCHIC SELF OPENS …
Now the READINGS BEGIN … feel one with the group, feel the community as ONE BODY
seeking answers together, often sharing the same fate … witnessing each other
… as loving, caring and supportive sisters in Goddess … QUERY The FATES for
each other ….

We, the QUERENTS, ask our questions as Z allows the ANSWERS to COME THROUGH from
the UNSEEN WORLD … YOU, the witnessing souls of The Tarot Circle, have MANY
INSIGHTS from which we can all benefit and learn … Along the way, Z TEACHES More
about each card as it comes up … keeping us sharp and feeling alive.

And we ENJOY and share lovely refreshments together.

Z GIVES A YEAR’s PROPHECY, with SONGS and SPIRAL DANCES to The FATES and more ….

FOR the EXPERIENCED and the INTERESTED BEGINNER alike!

You need have no experience in the Tarot to attend … even if you do not own a
Tarot deck, … be part of the circle, learn and experience! Welcome the Fates!

Blessings Sisters in Goddess!

We are pleased to announce our Goddess Festival Special for the the month of August 2010.

In the month of August only!
We are offering women who register for the Goddess Festival a FREE one year membership into the Susan B. Anthony Coven #1 … the world’s most famous coven!

Membership into the Susan B. Anthony Coven #1 is $50. So you’re getting a savings of $50! Plus, once a member of the SBA, you will find savings on classes worth more than the cost of your membership!

It’s a WIN-WIN!!! You get to come to the Goddess Festival and become a Susan B. Anthony Coven #1 Sister in Goddess … and you help raise funds for the Women’s Spirituality Forum.

The Women’s Spirituality Forum is an IRS 501(c)3 non-profit. Your registration fees and your membership are tax deductible.

* SBA Special pricing ends Sept. 1, 2010

Abundance (To Gain): waxing to full moon.
Addictions (To End): waning moon.
Artistic Creations (To Bring Forth): waxing to full moon.
Bad Habits (to break): waning moon.
Bad Luck (to reverse): waning moon.
Beauty: full moon.
Bindings: waning moon.
Blessings: full moon.
Career Advancement: waxing moon.
Communication: full moon.
Curses, Hexes (to break): waning moon.
Divinations: waxing and full moons.
Energy Raising: waxing moon.
Fear (overcoming): waning moon.
Fertility Rituals: waxing and full moons.
Forgiveness: new moon.
Friendship: waxing moon.
Garden Planting Spells: waxing moon.
Goals (attainment of): waxing to full moon.
Good Luck: waxing moon.
Growth (of an kind): waxing moon.
Harmony: waxing moon.
Happiness: waxing and full moons.
Healings (to increase health): waxing moon.
Healings (to end sickness): waning moon.
House Blessings: full moon.
Inspiration: waxing and full moons.
Intuition: full moon.
Judgment: waxing and full moons.
Liberation (to free oneself from something): waning moon.
Love Magick: waxing and full moons.
Love Spells (to reverse): waning moon.
Lunar Goddess Invocations: full moon.
Money Matters (to increase wealth): waxing moon.
Negativity (to banish): waning moon.
Nightmares (to banish): waning moon.
Obtaining (things and goals): waxing and full moons.
Omens: full moon.
Overcoming: waning moon.
Peace (to end hostility, war): waning moon.
Power: waxing and full moons.
Prophetic Dreams: full moon.
Protection: waxing moon.
Psychic Powers (developing, strengthening): full moon.
Quests: new moon.
Real Estate (to buy): waxing moon
Real Estate (to sell): waning moon.
Sexual Desires (to stimulate, increase): waxing moon.
Spirit Conjurations: full moon.
Strength: waxing moon.
Teaching: waxing and full moons.
Transformations: full moon.
Travel: waxing moon.
Unions (marriages, business partnerships): waxing and full moons.
Weatherworkings (to bring forth): waxing moon.
Weatherworkings (to quell): waning moon.
Weight Gain: waxing moon.
Weight Loss: waning moon.
Wisdom (to increase): waxing and full moons.

Pagans love a good Fall festival and there are a couple of upcoming events worthy of mentioning.

Some call it a pagan festival. Some say it’s a witch festival. Either way, there’s a lot of fun to be had and interesting new friends to be made. Some festivals are high end with lots of creature comforts, like our Goddess Festival. While others are grassroots camping with little or no amenities; most fall into this second category. Still, there are some high end camping festivals like Wisteria’s Autumn Fires.

Wisteria’s Autumn Fires is happening from October 15-18, 2009. Wisteria is situated on 620 private and rural acres in beautiful southeastern Ohio. They are in the rolling foothills of the Allegheny mountain plateau region of the Appalachian mountain chain. Scattered throughout this enchanted land are forests and fields, winding trails and streams, rocky outcroppings, caves, and lush plant and animal life.

Our friend Diana Paxson is part of this organization of pagans who put on a respectable and well organized festival. The Wisteria event site and campground, provides a transformative, safe place for gatherings, festivals, special events, and concerts. And, it’s a free Wi-Fi hot spot campground!

For more information on the Wisteria Autumn Fires festival, visit their website at www.wisteria.org.

Pagan Festival Campground

Another festival that has a nice feel to it is the GreenSong Grove’s 2009 Mabon Celebration in St. Petersburg, FL. It’s a day time event instead of an overnight event. The celebration is sponsored by GreenSong, an eclectic non-profit Pagan church in St Petersburg, FL, who hold open Sabbats, Workshops, Weekend Events, and Drumming Circles.

For more information about the GreenSong Grove’s 2009 Mabon Celebration, visit their website at www.greensonggrove.org.

Do you have a well organized large scale pagan festival, goddess festival, witch camp, faery camp, etc. that you would like us to know about? Send us a full description of your event, include location, costs, its website and your contact information. Title it “Pagan Examiner Event.”

We don’t make promises to mention every event we receive, but we will have a look at it and the best of the best are what we will mention here. We have started a special listing page for your festivals at www.pagansearch.net.

The last witch indeed. Bravo for the person who chose this play as enlightenment, but who put this moron in charge of the media for it? It’s completely a play written by a woman for other women, and it clearly does have a feminist theme to it. And hello! There’s nothing wrong with that!

Here’s a reprinting of the article by the BBC Scotland news (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/8213946.stm).

Kathryn Howden and Andy Clark in the Last Witch, part of the Edinburgh International Festival

A play about the last woman in Scotland to be killed for witchcraft would not appear to fit with the Enlightenment theme of this year’s Edinburgh International Festival.

Festival Director Jonathan Mills said the Last Witch, by Scottish writer Rona Munro, was an example of “endarkenment”.

While 18th century Scotland led Europe in science and reason, there still remained an attachment to pagan and supernatural ideas.

The play explores the case of Janet Horne, who was killed in Dornoch, a coastal town in the north west Highlands, in 1727.

The facts are scant, even her name is one often given to witches in Scottish folklore.

She had a daughter who was supposedly born with a deformed hand.

Personal story

It was claimed that Janet rode her daughter like a pony and the deformities were what remained of hooves.

On being led to the fire where she would be burned, she is said to have held out her hands and said: “that’s a bonny warming”.

From such fragments, Munro has written a tale that imagines the circumstances in which a woman could be condemned to death for witchcraft.

Dominic Hill, artistic director of the Traverse Theatre where the play is staged, said prosecutions for witchcraft should have been referred to the high authorities in the church and law, which were based in Edinburgh.

He said: “That did not happen in this case. For some reason, the local sheriff convicted and executed her the next day.

“So Rona has asked the question ‘why was it never referred to Edinburgh?’

“She turned it into a very personal story between the sheriff and Janet Horne.”

He added: “In the play the sheriff is sexually attracted to Janet and they have a relationship.

“Because of his own sense of guilt and shame he has her executed.”

It is a play by a woman in which women play a central part. But at the core it is about attitudes to gender and sexuality Dominic Hill

Mr Hill said witchcraft was often used as a form of attack on women who were seen to be sexually “non-traditional” in activities and outlook.

In the play the sheriff argues he could not possibility be attracted to the woman in a natural way and therefore she must have “charmed” him in some way.

“It is interesting the way men in this play express a fear of the woman and the way she sexually arouses them,” he said.

Mr Hill rejected the idea that it was a “feminist” play.

He said: “It is a play by a woman in which women play a central part. But at the core it is about attitudes to gender and sexuality.”

The Scottish Enlightenment, characterised by an outpouring of intellectual and scientific accomplishments, is often said to have begun when Francis Hutcheson took up the chair of philosophy at the University of Glasgow in 1729.

The Witchcraft Act, which allowed Janet Horne to be given the death penalty, was finally repealed in 1736.

It had not been a capital offence in England since the previous century.

The Dornoch case, which came decades after the previous witch burning, was one of the last in Europe in which someone was condemned to death for witchcraft.

Mr Hill said: “In 1727 in Edinburgh they were founding the Royal Bank of Scotland, while 300 miles away they were burning witches.”

He said the beliefs of Scotland’s pagan and Celtic past came to be seen as old-fashioned, irrational and unenlightened in age of reason.

People no longer believed in the power of the supernatural.

But Mr Hill said there will always be matters we do not understand.

“There is an idea that something was lost,” he said.

“The Enlightenment was a great thing. The age of rationality put-paid to things you can’t explain and maybe something was lost in that process. ”

The world premiere of The Last Witch is Sunday 23 August.

It runs at the Royal Lyceum Theatre until Saturday.

Halloween will be here before you know it. The local stores are putting out the decorative wares for the season. The Dollar General had the most adorable Ravens in stock. There are glittery pumpkins on shelves. Costumes have been put at children’s eye level. The festivities will soon begin!

How does a Witch celebrate Halloween?

Like any other person she welcomes the turning of the wheel. There is excitement in the children which is always a blessing. There are treats to be made to share with children who go door to door, and friends and family who gather to honor the solemnness and sacredness of the day. And then there is the house, most of us probably enjoy decorating the Sacred Temple. There are Ravens, Pumpkins, Skeletons, and Spiders. It is amazing isn’t it? All of these things speak to our beliefs yet the average person isn’t aware of the symbolism. Ah, but something stirs them at the cellular level. There is the attraction, everybody likes to participate. On some deep level everyone rejoices during the celebration of the old ways, they just don’t know it.

The symbols are representative of the turning of the wheel. Take the pumpkin, sometimes carved into a Jack-O-Lantern sometimes used as a table top decoration and very often a festive food source. The pumpkin represents the harvest that has just come and is now waning. It is the fruits of our labor. The skeletons represent the change coming the destruction, clearing, and ultimately the regeneration. They may seem scary to some but not those who embrace and understand the Goddess. The tales of Demeter and Kore tell us of the mother who loses a child but it is not permanent. She will return and love will be again. The wheel will turn. Hecate is there she takes away our fears. She is often represented in the form of three. She faces behind for she was with us before, she faces ahead because she guides us to the next realm, she faces forward because she is with us during the here and now. There is the Raven who represents the sacred watcher, the messenger who travels and communicates between the veils. Ah so many of the symbols displayed it warms the heart. The heart will absolutely glow as more and more women embrace the Goddess and teach her ways to their children. The old ways will come back slowly but surely they are returning. Thank you to Witches everywhere!

This sacred season is also a time to honor the women and loved ones who have gone before us. It is sad to see the great crone displayed in such a way as to attract ridicule from the unenlightened and just plain cruel. As a society we should honor the crone. Embrace the time we have left with her. She was a daughter, a maiden who grew perhaps into the mother whose sacred body was the vessel that carried your soul into this world, she is now a crone who is preparing to begin the cycle again. There is nothing to fear here for the crone represents the ultimate expression of love. She has experienced it at all levels. The passion and lust in youth, the compassion and nurturing during the mothering years, the ability to treasure and love and understand the fragile value of life as the wheel turns during her crone years. The season of Halloween marks the beginning of the time of the crone for it is not an ending but a beginning a time of preparation to reenter the cycles. Love and cherish your crones sisters, their wisdom has value beyond measure, their love a depth that never ends. They are sacred. They are also warriors as they have struggled through the turning of the wheel and experienced the highs and lows that life brings. They are the survivors.

An excellent way to honor the crone aspect of the season is a family altar. The altar doesn’t have to be limited to strictly blood family it is a place to start. Add pictures of those who our crones love and remember and yearn to embrace again. Add objects that are sacred to them and the ones who have passed. Add photos or mementos of those who passed without reaching the age of the crone. They are sacred and loved by all. That is the message of the Goddess to honor, value, appreciate the gift of life in all forms. This is how love grows. Love and compassion are the greatest gifts of the Goddess. When you receive them pass them on and they will return to you ten fold as your wheel turns.

This is a very busy time for the modern witch. She often works, mothers a family, cares for the home, furthers her education with classes, tends to the less fortunate in the community. Remember the lesson Goddess gives us in the form of Bast also. It may seem odd with the season being a solemn one but it is important to remember to play. Your body will ultimately grow weary it is the way of the turning of the wheel but your soul doesn’t have to. Incorporate play, remember to share with and enjoy those you love as you do what witches do. Witches carry on the traditions and teach them while remembering to have fun. Enjoy this time sisters, decorate, cook, dance, while honoring those who have passed and the sisters who suffered mercilessly at the hands of the patriarchy in the burning times. It is what a Witch does! Blessed Be!

Hekate’s Prayer features the voice of Z Budapest from 1978 as she prays to the Goddess Hecate over the airwaves of an All Hallows Eve radio show. I’ve mixed  in all the other sounds, including ravens and wolves sacred to Hecate.

Summer Solstice, Witchlet Musings … and Sharing Sisterhood with My Niece in Crystal Beach

On the Summer Solstice of 2009, my Dianic mentorship took on a new dimension. I have been meaning to share this picture below with my Lunar Kindreds. It is of my 13 year old Niece Sophia and I- sharing togetherness time as we stand kissed by the waters of Great Lake Erie. Sophia had been asking very Spiritual questions of me, and on the Summer Solstice, as I went to visit  family, she inquired “what my favourite Harry Potter Spell” was. Much to her dismay, I expressed truthfully that I had never read Harry Potter….. but to her Infinitesimal excitement, this opened the Great Door of Our Soul Talks to Witchcraft Spirituality 101!  I taught her that every womon can create her own Rituals to Connect with the Great Cosmos as She aligns Her Life With the Sacred Purpose that the Universe has granted to Her Life through being born into this Realm.

We talked about showing gratitude for our “becoming” by being Devoted to having our lives aligned with an important cause that reflects how we live our talents in the here and now with Discipline, Devotion and  Love. She has been prodding to unearth answers to her Spiritual Questing. I shared our familial, arcane pagan ways with her.  Here we are as I teach her the art of Healing poppet making through found natural objects- such as the seaweed I hold here that drifted up to our feet as we stood within the Wondrous body of Great Lake Erie (Crystal Beach). We spoke of Sacred Intent and Self Love. We spoke of Showing Reverence and Gratitude to Mother Nature. We mused about The ethics of Witchcraft and Spell Casting… Cultivating Wholeness and Love before all else can be Balanced… Expressing Gratitude for the Gift of Life and Immanent Nature, and Acting with Reverence whilst finding our being within and through Gaia…. and so on. I have always felt Sophia to be the one to whom this knowledge would be passed, and at an extremely early age, her psychic gifts were evident.  She came to me of her own volition this day. Bless-ed Be! I love Beyond Love Her.

I give thanks to the ones who share Sacred SISTERHOOD Musings with the little ones of our family tribes!

Remember, Thou ART GODDESS!

Our Young Ones can stand to have us rise to the occasion of facilitating “Re-membrance” so that our Collective Sisterhood Rises sooner like the Phoenix from the Flame that SHE is!

All HAILS!

LADY RO!

In PRAISE of Sisterhood, I post the following cyber-entry to disclose the MAGICK of  Technology’s ability to tear down the “supposed barriers” of Geographical limitations to the Women’s Spirituality Movement!

Shared below is a testament to the power of Wimmin’s Desire to Unite Community and Spirituality no matter what the obstacle may seem to be! Eclecta and I had been corresponding for many moons before finally meeting in person! This article is a testament of our times bringing witches together from all over the world in their quest to further the Cause of WomanSpirit RISING! Rosmarinus (yours truly) and Eclecta (ghislaine) are Sister Lunar Kindreds of the 21st Century’s Reincarnated Susan B. Anthony Coven #1 -initially Envisioned by Z Budapest in 1971! The SBA Coven lives on! SHE BREATHES! SHE EXPANDS! SHE AWAITS YOU  AS SHE GROWS! Technology is Midwifing  our Dianic Vision into the Future! This article is dedicated to the Deeper Dreams of Womankind- their Visions and Will to Unite Sisterhood……. with Will and Passion, we can Create New Realities…. Dream New Dreams.. and have the pleasure to bask in each other’s Sacred Realms for a sweet moment of Wholeness! Reach out SISTERS! The World is indeed your Nectar of Bliss if you Dare to use the technology out there! May Love be your Guide! BB Lady RO.

Reviewing the Momentous Meeting

Eclecta Shares her experience of two Souls Meeting in the Flesh for the first time:

“Monday evening, June 29th, souls who have known each other across time met again consciously and recognized each other at the deep soul level. The air around us was crackling with magical energy, light sprites, firecrackers, fairy bubbles and the sound of laughter and yes, giggling like five-year-olds let loose at Disneyland!

We were meant to meet! In fact, we believe we have met several times in this lifetime, without actually being aware of it. Both Ro and I attended the Goddess 2000 Gathering in California, nine years ago. And we both frequent the same part of Toronto, what is called “Greektown”, a relatively small area along the Danforth, going into the same restaurants, certainly shopping and browsing the same bookstores, most likely bumping into each other. And my last year living in Toronto in my son’s house, we were just a few blocks away from each other! Who knew?!!!

I had actually noticed Lady RO on the Z-list a bit earlier, and was curious about her because of her unusual writing style. So I asked my friend Tinne who told me she’d met her at the last Gathering (which I was supposed to have attended), and what a sweetheart she is! Ro and I noticed on the SBA Forum that we were both from the same part of Canada, so we resolved to meet; we talked on the phone and oh, the energy was amazing! And the rest is now history!

Ro met me with her Divine Twin Flame, David, at a wonderful Greek restaurant and they treated me to dinner, the darlings! She even knew when I walked into the restaurant without being able to see me – she felt it! And oh, the joy, the hugs, the bubbling energy, the laughter, the LOVE! David is SO amazing, and Z is right, he is truly an ancient Kouretes! a true lover and supporter of the Goddess!

What an honour to have met these two beautiful souls and what a deep feeling of contentment and peace that these two are once again in my life. We are already planning events together, including a workshop which we want to present at a WomanSpirit Gathering in Ontario in the Fall.

My cup runneth over, with joy and love!

Blessings,
Ghislaine/Eclecta

Rosmarinus Responds:

“SACRED SIGS!!!!

The Bliss I felt in the above evening’s “Present-Lifetime Reunion” defies description!  I have counted the days to this Sacred Moment of Bliss!

Sister-Witches…..

Even before Eclecta walked through the door, it is true as she expressed- I felt her because my Heart Chakra exploded with Serene Joy-I closed my eyes and smiled- a feeling of being lifted into the air came over me with a radiating Lotus Spinning at my sternum- sending out beams of rose-coloured light!

TRULY!

This feeling was followed by uncontrollable Laughter of Joy!

I was overwhelmed and screamed out, “SHE’S HERE!!!?!?!?!!?!!!!!” to my Belov-ed David.

We had a momentous LOVEFEST THENCE-FROM!

Staring into each other’s eyes… Hugs… kisses… giggles…. the name of the Restaurant described the vibe:

************** ASTORIA***************

- we were traversing the Starry Skies of OUR SPIRITS TOGETHER!!!!!!!!!!!

I have to say that my Divine was Honoured to meet Our Sweet Eclecta… and vice versa!

My joy to have our Spirits meet again was strong, Sweet Ghislaine! Now, I have to take this moment to express my Reverence for Eclecta’s Sensitive ability to Intuit “character” as she pegged specific Shamanic energies within both David and I which, Secretly, we recognize as our Karmic bond as a couple over many a-lifetime!!

Eclecta and I intend to attend a WomynSpirit Festival this October in Orangeville, ON together where we wish to bring the Wisdom of Dianic Witchcraft to the Festivities via a presentation and Workshop. This will be the vehicle through which Z’s Holy Book of Women’s Mysteries shall be shared, and Dianic Witchcraft shall be mused about with guidance from Z and this sacred forum!

May the Goddess Bring us together in the Realms of the Flesh more often- We are the Living Temple of Love- We are GODDESS!

ALL HAILS!
BB
)O( Lady RO!”

There is nothing like self-blessing as Z Budapest teaches, but there is another, more simple way as close as nature herself.  Witches from time immemorial used to anoint themselves in the buff, naked, or as we goddessy womyn call it, skyclad, with flying unguent, and take off on astral trips into the night sky. . . the proverbial witch on her broomstick.  Besom, bosom??

As a skyclad goddess witch, I bless myself daily by being comfortable in my own skin.  I can remember nothing more freeing than doing the vacuuming naked in my own living room with the curtains drawn, letting my body breathe as I felt the workout of the perspiration and the soft air pour around my body.  I always cleaned in the buff, and then, when all the dirt was done, took a long hot bath cleansing my body and dressed in a drafty Muu-Muu to keep the air circulating around myself.

I live with two men, one my brother, one my friend.  It is HOT in the town I live.  So, I close up the house, and walk around skyclad.  My brother found it unusual at first and now it’s nothing to him.  Not threatening, not unhealthy.  It is So Healthy to be comfortable in one’s own skin.  Our body skin is the largest organ we have, 75 percent in size compared to others.  She needs to breathe as much as the lungs.  I jump at the chance to live in my skin. My boyfriend does not find it a sexual thing, or unusual.  He sees me as happy and relaxed, as much as him in his suspenders bare chested on the couch in the living room.

Skyclad Blessings!

Yes, I swim naked in the local spa at my gym.  The reactions I get from other women, especially the crones, are of delight.  They accept my explanation that I’ve saving my suit from wear and tear.  Imagine the freedom womyn would have if we were free to be in our own bodies, various sizes, shapes, and weights, and we could use water, earth, air and sky to cleanse ourselves.  Yes, we would take up more space!!! Yes, we would be happier!!!  No, we would not need flying unguent.  The trip to loving oneself as one comes into the world and as one leaves the world is the best self-blessing of all.   Skyclad Blessing!

As a skyclad Goddess Witch, I have personal love, freedom, and space.  My body is beloved, my very own living altar to the Goddess.  I only wish that if I walked into my backyard in the raw, I would not be arrested as a sex offender and registered by the police.  To feel the loving air and sun and moon and sky on my own flesh is to feel the kiss of the living Goddess.  To walk barefoot is the first step for most of us, perhaps.  To sleep under clean sheets with clean skin is another.  Here is my field of clover.  I invite you to join me, take a dip, toes first, wiggle a bit, there, it’s easy peasy, now you’re in!!! You’re a skyclad Goddess Witch too!!!