School Rant

Not to turn this blog into an outlet for ranting or all my baby-wanting pre-pregnancy research I did want to post this to try and get it off my chest as it still is bugging me after hearing about it almost a week ago.

My cousin, who is like my little sister as we were raised together in the same house, has recently started going to a Christian academy in her city. I have no issue with this as I went to a Christian (Baptist) Academy and the education was excellent even though I disagree with some of their teaching techniques (specifically paddling).

When I asked why they were moving her to the academy I was given 2 reasons by my grandmother
1 her public school was teaching homosexuality in sex ed classes - I rolled my eyes at this but decided not to cause an argument with my fundamentalist Christian family so I said nothing about it

2 the schools are overstepping their boundries in raising children
The example I was given was one of my cousin's classmates brought a lunch from home, which consisted of a turkey sandwich, a fruit cup and some juice. The school took her lunch away because it didn't have all the food groups represented, gave her a school lunch and tried to make her mother pay for the school lunch given.
When asked what of the school lunch she ate, the little girl said she had a couple of chicken nuggets but didn't like them or anything else on her tray...so she went hungry.

I was in shock.
I knew things were getting crazy in the schools today after reading an article about a teacher cutting off one girl's hair in front of the class because she kept playing with her braids, another teacher having her students write Christmas cards to her imprisoned boyfriend (who was charged with child pornography), and more.
But I had assumed that these were isolated incidents and I had never imagined they'd hit so close to home as the school decided to the letter how a parent should feed or even raise their children.

As I look into my pre-pregnancy planning I cant help but look ahead to when my child or children are of age to be placed into the school system...and the more I learn about that school system the more I feel that I don't want my offspring in it.

So there's my rant...sorry I know it has nothing to do with witchcraft at all but now that its off my chest maybe I can put it off my mind as well.

Separation of Church and State

I normally don't get political on my blog but I am gonna rant a wee bit for now...

There's a church at the end of our little area of the country and other than some light traffic on Sundays and Wednesdays, I've had no problems with them at all. Lately, the area of woods across the street from the church has been cut down, burned and uprooted. It looks like a wasteland now and it makes me sad every time we pass because it was once very pretty.
Today I found out why it's been destroyed.

The church owns the land on both sides of the road and they were apparently tired of the road going through it...so now they're using County tax dollars to re-route the road and expand their parking lot (which isn't needed from what I've seen by their turn out). I can't help but be saddened by this whole issue. What was once a pretty little woods and pasture is now mud and charred wood - and all this was paid with the tax dollars of the rest of us living here - I would certainly not have wanted my money to go to this. Doesn't the church take up offerings? Tithing and what not being very important from what I remember of church growing up.

The whole situation makes me agitated.
Sorry to be all ranty lately, probably the stress of moving doing this to me.
I'll be sure to post something pleasant soon.

Love and light,
Dawn

I'm Leaving Witchbook

I'm leaving Witchbook.net
You might have noticed, if you read my blog often, that I was super excited about joining Witchbook as I love being part of a community of like minded people. I even posted a banner for them at the bottom of my blog when I joined so as to promote them.

I'm now leaving because as my husband was reading a post about Human Spammers by Digital Magick I read something that disturbed me somewhat:

"I have access to the database, and it's a rather obvious spike in one (rather 3) of my spam-catcher graphs, when a single user sends out 100 messages in under an hour.  (Legit members fear not!  If I do suspect something with your mail, I'll peek at a couple of messages, and if they don't look spammy, I stop looking, forget what I read, delete it from my brain, and get drunk to ensure the deletion took. Your privacy is safe with me)."

Sorry Digi but I don't care how drunk you get, my personal messages are not for your perusal because you think I MIGHT be spamming. How lame of an excuse. I totally understand if someone reports an email for the so-called "lead geek" to look at the reported e-mail but not to go through anyone's e-mail for what I consider illegitimate reasons. Whats to keep Digital Magick or any of the admins of looking at the personal messages of anyone and posting them somewhere just for shits and giggles?

His excuse is lame, the statement of getting drunk to forget the pm is lame...so I'm leaving rather than ignore something as irritating and ridiculous as this.

Perhaps I should just stick with Witchvox...

Intuition?

Ever feel like you have the lamest super power ever?

I start humming a song, turn on the radio and it just started playing or hear the phone ring before a bill collector calls.

I'm no fluffy bunny but man wouldn't it be awesome if some of the powers of Charmed, Harry Potter, etc were real? At least then I could do something useful...

Feeling a little blah lately, sorry.
My past is catching up with me just like my 2012 horoscope said it would. Everything from ex boyfriends to people I never slept with, wish I had, and now am, to friends confessing their love for me...
Really tired.

Can't wait for the part about how my career is gonna take off and I'm gonna be a monetary success...when is that gonna come to pass Mr. Dragon Horoscope?

Blogging Schedule Change

Hello all,

I'm just posting a brief apology and notice that I'm going through some schedule changes at work and until things are worked out there (if they ever are), I'm going to be a little absent from the blog or my posts are going to be very short and to the point.

For those of you who are wondering what is going on:
I went into work yesterday and was deviated for breaking my scheduled time. When I looked at my schedule (which is normally 9-6 m-f) I found it had been changed over the long weekend to 11-8 without warning. My boss and the woman who makes the schedules informed me the only way to get my schedule changed back is to trade with someone else (the only people requesting trades that I've found work 1-10). The same woman who makes the schedules knew about the change Wednesday of last week...but I got deviated with several others for not knowing about it and coming in at the wrong time.
To top it all off, the woman who makes the schedules knows very well that my husband and I share a car and need to work the same schedule as we live an hour away from town and there's no logical way for him to drive to work and then back to get me.
At this point, I can either go in at 9 and get my full hours and be deviated until they fire me or not go in to work at all because I have no way of getting there...I'm not sure how its going to work out.

Saying a little prayer to the calendar and work gods and hoping that my applications at the hospital and at a few bars for bartending will be accepted and I'll be able to make the choice to leave my current position.

Thanks for listening to my little rant and again, sorry if I'm a lil MIA here in the next week or so. I promise to catch up on my 31 days of Samhain and on the other magickal craziness going on this month.

BB
Dawn

Listen to Your Instinct

So remember the reading I did that was related to finding a new job?
I didn't jump on the offered job when it was available and now, first day back after a long weekend, I learn that my current job has dropped from kinda sucky to worst hell hole ever!

I could write page after page of rants but suffice to say that the management is disorganized to a point that its making working there unbearable.
Of course, now, the aforementioned job is no longer available to me.
However, a friend of mine might be able to get me a job bartending,which I am certified for.

So, I'll be doing some divination and maybe a 'find a job' spell in the week to follow. Stay tuned for more info later.

31 Days of Samhain Day 3 (belated)

Day 3: What do I want to Teach people about Samhain?

That its not a commercialized party but a true religious holiday...

Remember in the movie, Hocus Pocus, where the boy was talking about how Halloween was created by the candy companies? Well, it seems that this is the accepted belief by many and is encouraged, sadly, by the chuches around me as they discourage people from going to parties and taking their children Trick or Treating. I hear most churches are doing "Harvest" celebrations at the church, which involve candy and food and a little bit of preaching for your immortal soul. It just makes me a lil sad.

And then theres this little anecdote:

I'm sitting at work earlier this week and learn that I get Monday off for Columbus Day...a day celebrating a person who did not do anything. He did not found the Americas, they were already found by Europeans, he did not even set food on American soil!.
I playfully asked, what were we supposed to do on this day, apologize to Native Americans?
Another pagan I work with asked if we got Halloween off.
Answer: No...we work overtime that Monday...
So we get off for a holiday celebrating someone who didn't really do anything to warrant celebration...but we don't get off for a holiday that is thousands of years old...has a religious background...and is actually celebrated?

I would like to teach people that Halloween isn't just some excuse to get candy, dress up and party. Its an actual religious celebration, the most important holiday for many.

Sorry for my rant, I try not to do many of those.

Covens and Cults

I want to take a moment to post about a problem come to my attention today.
I met a girl at a local ecclectic shop who explained that she was pagan and in a coven almost right after giving me her name. I have no issue with people who identify themselves predominately by their belief systems, don't get me wrong, and I do find this very common among younger pagans.
I asked, with interest, what path their coven followed. She seemed quite confused so I rephrased and asked what religious beliefs the coven followed. She replied matter-of-factly, Wicca. I paused then asked, well, which path of Wicca? She continued to seem confused and then said, mostly just wicca and pagans.
I gave up on this line of questioning but the girl continued. We plan on getting a temple eventually. Our High Priest wants to make us wide spread, at least through Tennessee. First we have to get a coven house.
I asked what a coven house entailed.
She explaiend that one of her coven members was getting a large farm house, out away from town with hardly a neighbor that was large enough for the whole coven to live in.
At this point Damon had grown interested in the conversation and asked the girl how long she had been practicing.
She said she had been in paganism for only 3 months and that her High Priest had brought her into it by helping her get in touch with her abilities as an empath.

Now, I'm trying not to be critical of any coven or their practices but it seems strange to me to
1. initiate a young girl
2. collect and seclude the whole of the coven
3. concentrate, at an early stage of coven-hood, on widespread outreach for the coven
4. have a coven member who seems confused on the coven's basic doctrine

This seems bordering on cult-ishness. Maybe I'm wrong and have a skewed view as a solitairy pagan but the whole situation seemed uncomfortable to me.