WTF?

I don't usually jump on to the protest bandwagon. In fact if I am asked to sign a petition, or send a letter, 90% of the time I decline. The truth is that often these types of things, while stemming from good intentions, get befuddled in misinformation or miscommunication. A quick look into most 'causes' will show that there is a big difference between what is being protested and what is actually going on. So when I read about Miss Toronto Tourism slighting someone for being a witch I rolled my eyes and thought "Oh, not another one." Unfortunately, it seems that indeed we have a case of discrimination on our hands.

Here's the jist... Reigning Miss Canada Plus was asked to act as a judge for the Miss Tourism Toronto pageant. When the officials read her bio and saw that she listed reiki and tarot cards on her hobbies list they un-invited her witchy ass!

The Toronto Star article quotes Karen Murray, Miss Toronto Tourism pageant director...

"Our board of directors has eliminated her as a judge as tarot card reading and reiki are the occult and is not acceptable by God, Jews, Muslims or Christians. Tarot card reading is witchcraft and is used by witches, spiritists and mediums to consult the dark world."

The letter went on to quote a couple of passages from the Bible, including one from the book of Leviticus that warns, "Do not turn to mediums or seek out spirits for you will be defiled by them."

"We hope that Stephanie Conover will turn from these belief systems and will repent from her practice of them," the letter reads.

When did we all jump in a time machine?

Here's a couple of little snippets taken directly from the Miss Toronto Tourism website...

"Miss Toronto Tourism and The Runner Ups are chosen for their interest in charities, intelligence, persomality (sic), love of Toronto and goodwill towards others. Miss Toronto Tourism is chosen for her charisma, personality and inner beauty."

and

"Miss Toronto Tourism 2007 is represented by our present title holder, Jessica Barone who helps promote different Events and Charities in the City of Toronto. Miss Multicultural promotes Multiculturalism, as Toronto is the City of all cultures."

Me thinks that these people don't quite understand that Wicca is an religion and that witchcraft has it's place in many cultures. I wonder if they know what reiki is? The whole thing is all sorts of sad.

Anywho, here's links if you are interested...

Miss Toronto Tourism
An article from the Torontoist
The Star article

Boy Scouts

We've been thinking a lot about having the little one enrolled in Boy Scouts. It's a real conundrum.

There's the whole 'gay scout troop leader' thing from a few years back. The Knickertwist's have a few gay friends and we just don't get all the hubbub. What does it matter what people do in their own bedrooms so long as no one is getting hurt? I care about what my gay friends do sexually as much as my straight friends... very little. One thing I do care about is the treatment of all of those that I call "friend". Should we just forget that incident or should we remain wary of an organization that showed intolerance?

Then there is the oath...
"On my honor I will do my best
To do my duty to God and my country
and to obey the Scout Law;
To help other people at all times;
To keep myself physically strong,
mentally awake, and morally straight."
On the scouting site it says that a scout should respect the beliefs of others but I'm still a bit leery about the 'duty to God' and 'morally straight' bits. What about the Goddess'? and using the term "Gods" instead of God? and what do they mean by 'morally straight'? Whose morals? Perhaps I'm making a bigger deal out of this than is necessary but we care about our beliefs and in no way want the wee one to feel that what we believe is wrong or bad. We also don't want to compromise and perhaps confuse the kiddo. We want him to be as proud of his path as we are.

That said, the scouts promote being a good person, kindness and healthy living.

Any fellow pagans with kids in this organization out there? I'd consider Spiral Scouts but I don't think that there is a circle near us.

Santa's Coming!

Hurrah! It's snowing outside, lovely crunchy snowball making type snow, and I am very excited. It seems like ages since we had a wonderfully white Christmas.

My co-worker thinks that it's hysterical that someone who is proudly pagan gets so overly excited about all things Christmas. Being pagan doesn't mean that we have to exlude all the Christmassy goodness just because we aren't Christians or aren't celebrating the birth of Jesus. The parties, gift-giving, cookie making, Santa, old Christmas movies, feasting... I can't get enough of it. We celebrate Yule but that does not mean that we can't fit in the Christmas hubbub too. Our beliefs and practices are something that we share as a family in our home. We create a Yule log from a cutting from our Christmas tree, we have a feast to celebrate the coming of the light. It's nice to have beliefs that are important to us and the freedom to celebrate them. Christmas is about the spirit of the season and not about what god or gods people believe in. It's a time to show your joy and your love for family and friends, no matter what their beliefs.

I think I'll go home early and make a snow goddess :)

Gifting

Being the craft enthusiast that I am I usually make a few gifts around the holiday season. My goal this year is to make almost all of the gifts that I am giving and those that I do not craft myself I'm doing my darnest to buy handmade.

Here is some of what I have made so far...

I'm really excited about making everyone on my list something that they will truly like. I know that there will be people who will be disappointed that they are not getting store bought (like my 9 year old cousin who when asked what his hobbies and collections were said "money") but I decided after last Christmas that I am the giver and that means I get to pick what gets given. Those people who are disappointed wouldn't be happy with what I bought them anyway. At least if I craft my Yuletide gifts then it means something to me.

Still have quite a few items on my list but I feel like I have made a nice little dent in the crafting department. When it's all done (hopefully around December 1st) I will take new/better pics of my beautious mound of glorious handmade goodies.

Ah the good ole' days

Ah, I used to paint loads of these little eggs. The idea came to me when I was really into fertility magick and I just loved making them. People seemed really pleased with them too. I had quite a few custom orders for these wee things. Here is one of the last ones I painted, and one of my favourites.



This fella is listed on my esty site if your interested in horney naked guys :)

Nifty Linkage

My friend sent me this link yesterday. I'm generally not a big photography fan but these photos are so well done and imaginative. I think that they really embrace what childhood play should be. It's wonderfully low tech and dreamy.

Click here to see the beautiful work of Jan Von Holleben

Ho hum

We weren't as successful at the Craft Fair as I had hoped. We still sold a few things and that is better than a kick in the head. I was really surprised how freaked out some people were about my Spirit Dolls. Sometimes I forget that people have different tastes and see things differently. I certainly find beauty in places that others might not. I really should know better. My family members are often weirded out by some of the things I think are nifty. Ha! My granny is always saying how much talent I have and what a shame it is that I don't make "nice" things. Although she also thought that my paintings were copies of someones elses originals and was shocked to learn that they come from my own apparently twisted little mind.

Anywho, I've opened up an etsy shop since I'm building up quite the collection of crafted goods. It seems like it may be a nice fit for the types of things I've been working on lately. Ebay was good fun for a while but the fees are a killer and the sellers, unfortunately, are not as supportive of each other as you'd hope. We've never bad mouthed other sellers or their wares. We figure that different people have different ways of doing things and that buyers should decide for themselves. It always makes me giggle a bit when I see people selling magickal herbs and saying "These are not ordinary culinary herbs". Aren't those just as important in magick making? I certainly consider rosemary and basil as two of the most versitile and potent herbs in my witches cupboard. Also the whole "these have been blessed by our high preistess..." gets me too. I don't want other peoples magick getting in the way of my own work. Ah well, as I said, we all have our preferences and I'm sure those things are important to someone.