Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in queenofillusion's LiveJournal:

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Sunday, December 6th, 2009
4:11 pm	Next Saturday is the Sabbatic-Shamanic Journey class at Eye of Horus. I dropped down there yesterday and got a rune reading from Kari Tauring (she had a beautiful set of runes and a big flat basket to hold them, very keen!) and set up some scheduling for 2010: We're now planning on doing a Sorgitzak Spring Equinox ritual. Also, in February, we'll be doing an Intro to Sorgitzak class at Eye of Horus. Details to be posted soon. Lastly, a Charms Workshop in April is in the works. Veronica is a busy girl? Now, why would you say that... ;) Current Mood: creative (Comment on this)
Thursday, December 3rd, 2009
3:01 pm	Please copy the topics below, erase my answers and put yours in their place, and then post it in your journal! Please elaborate on the questions that would benefit from elaboration. One-Word-Answers seldom help anyone out. NAME: Veronica Cummer (writing name) AGE: Not telling, but old enough to know better (though I don't always go with it!) LOCATION: Twin Cities, Minnesota OCCUPATION: Quality Assurance during the day and writing at night. Guess which one I'd prefer was my full time job? PARTNER: None at the moment. KIDS: Nope. I like em, but have none of my own. SIBLINGS: Two brothers. PARENTS: Both my parents are alive at present. I also have one grandma left who is 94. PETS: None at the moment. My beta fish died about a month ago and I haven't picked out another one yet. I do have plants. LIST THE 3-5 BIGGEST THINGS GOING ON IN YOUR LIFE: 1. teaching classes 2. writing more books 3. buying Yule gifts for friends and family Current Mood: accomplished (1 Comment |Comment on this)
2:51 pm	Planning A Party My weekends are booking up fast. It's that old holiday season. My favorite holiday besides Halloween. Which is why I'm planning on a mix-and-match party sometime in January: "Nightmare After Christmas." I can use both my Halloween and Xmas decorations, napkins, etc. I should get a copy of the soundtrack from "Nightmare Before Christmas." Does anyone have any good munchie and/or drink recipes? Something with a Xmas or Halloween theme would be nifty keen. Current Mood: energetic (Comment on this)
Tuesday, December 1st, 2009
3:02 pm	Tuesday, Tuesday... Woke up way tired. Still recovering from Thanksgiving weekend. Moved some bookshelves around last night and got more books to get rid of at the Half Price Bookstore (that makes almost 3 bags of books/DVD's). Want to not only make more room, but specifically make room to put my tree up and be able to fit folks in for an after the holidays party. Theme? Hm...how about Nightmare After Christmas? Heeee... (I have a nice combo of Halloween and Xmas plates, etc I can use) Current Mood: sleepy (Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 24th, 2009
1:33 pm	2010 not that far away now Holiday!!!!!! Argh!!!!!! I really really need to get away and do nothing but eat turkey (and mashed tatters, 'cause mashed tatters are smackalicious) and pumpkin pie and drink some decent wine and R.E.L.A.X. Okay then... Of course, I have an essay to edit and provide constructive commentary on, but that's not too bad a job for an entire long weekend. Other than that, it will be telling myself to do more of that relaxing. Today has been Hell On Wheels and all I could do was console myself with going to Amazon and commenting on reviews or commenting on comments on reviews. Not on my books, of course, because I don't think that's right. Speaking of coming up on the end of 2009, what was accomplished? 3 essays accepted for publication and 1 poem several articles and poems published half a dozen classes/workshops taught and more planned Masks of the Muse came out in March 2009 attended 3 gathers in all, one of which I was a guest at did some open circles 2010? Hmmmm...off the top of my head... finish next book teach more classes do more open circles figure out what gathers/events to attend write more articles sell a story? Does anyone else have writing goals for 2010 they want to talk about? Current Mood: aggravated (Comment on this)
Monday, November 23rd, 2009
1:18 pm	I know this is Thanksgiving Week and I should be grateful and happy and all that...but, honestly, I want to crawl into bed and pull the covers over my head. Yargle, the holidays!!!!! Why do you have to get pulled in so many directions by well-meaning people you normally care about? I WANT to spend the holidays with people, but travel arrangements drive me batty. Thank goodness, I have a bottle of a nice red wine at home. Current Mood: annoyed (Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 17th, 2009
12:35 pm	Well, today is starting off blechy at work, but seeing that Sorgitzak has gone to #13 on Amazon helps out a bit. :) Amazon.com Sales Rank: #59,634 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books) #13 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > Earth-Based Religions > Paganism #69 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > Earth-Based Religions > Wicca #71 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > Earth-Based Religions > Witchcraft "New Moon" opens on Friday and I must admit that I will likely go and see it. Other than that, my plans for the weekend include cleaning and writing. I'm trying to clear out stuff and either take it to Good Will or sell it. Yes, I know, normally this would be considered "spring cleaning," but I'm seriously considering moving next summer and that requires a good clearing out of things that I don't want to have to move again. Sometimes, I miss the days of only having as much stuff as would fit in one room. I can't imagine having a whole house's worth of stuff and face moving... Current Mood: crazy (Comment on this)
Monday, November 16th, 2009
12:07 pm	Just heard that one of my poems and an essay have been accepted for another anthology--whoot!!!! Now that's how every Monday morning should start. The workshop on Spirit Familiars, Guardians, and Guides this past Saturday night at Eye of Horus was well attended. This is the second time I've done that one, but the next workshop on the Spirit-Sabbat Journey for December 12 is brand, spanking new and I'm both excited and nervous about teaching it. I'm thinking about offering an Intro to Sorgitzak class at Eye of Horus. There would be no charge for that class (just donations to help cover the cost of the room). The other idea mulling around is a much-expanded Charms workshop based off the one I did at Pagan Pride. That one lasted just an hour, but could have easily gone longer...we never did get to creating verbal charms. Finally, got around to creating a WitchVox account this past week. Did more writing. Took a nice walk in the woods. Had coffee. Attended a ritual with old friends. Cleaned. Took stuff to Good Will. Where did the weekend go again? Current Mood: giddy (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, November 12th, 2009
1:56 pm	Speculations on Time Its hard, I think to get past the concrete idea of time/calendars...I read this book once by John Broomfield (wonderful book, btw!!!!) about how other cultures view time very differently than the Western world does. One culture had "slow" time and "fast" time, and it had nothing to do with the time on a clockface, but with important events. I mean, we can pretty much all relate to that idea, considering having experiences about being bored and having time be slow and being really into something and having time go fast. Yeah, in the Western view, that's just an illusion...but I know I've been on the road many times and somehow time gets bent and I get there far quicker than would seem possible (and, no, I wasn't speeding). ;) I know I think of time in a more fluid way than most people I know. So far as I'm concerned, the past and the future are all happening at the same time (pardon the expression). We just are brought up to think that the past is all done and set in stone and can't be changed and that the future is unwritten. I think that they are both equally set in stone and yet unwritten. If we can get to the "center," (seeing the Web of Wyrd) then we can effect not just the now, but the future and the past. Ain't saying that's easy, especially when you are trying to influence what thousands or millions of people believe...but its possible, IMHO. Yeah, it may sound strange...but how many times have we heard about the power of Faith. And, yeah, that is a bad word to many of us due to the idea being abused and misused. I guess that's one of my beefs with historians...some people believe history is set in stone, yet what is it based off of? The memories and opinions of those who were there (maybe), or those who heard about it afterwards--either by a few months, years, or even longer. Its all colored by experience and memory and opinion. Yeah, you can use written records (if any), but someone had to write those down and rely on data given to them for that. Objects are useful, too...but in the long run, its all still theory and conjecture. Maybe, some is pretty damn likely to be true and to have happened that way, but some is not. Look at the recent discovery of those "hobbit" bones...it threw what had been believed before all out of whack since this very primitive hominid had existed until a good 10,000 years ago. Not that I don't enjoy history books and doing historical research, because I do. But I take it as just one aspect of research, especially when it comes to mystical and esoteric matters. Just because something is in a much-acclaimed history book doesn't necessarily make it so. There was always more going on that we may never know about or that we simply don't understand. In some ways, the past is a foreign country as much as the future is, and those who live in it are rather alien to us in some ways. Current Mood: thoughtful (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, November 11th, 2009
2:05 pm	A Pause for Tea Thoughts I've been thinking today of missed opportunities. In particular...well, it may not seem like a biggie...but I didn't get to have a tea party out on my porch this summer. I have an assortment of a real and actual bone china (no two cups match, but that's part of the charm and, yes, I intended it that way) and a teapot and loads and loads and loads of tea. I have a table outside and a tablecloth and chairs. I even had napkin holders, even if my napkins are just paper and not cloth. I guess what I was missing was the time to set one up and to ask those I think would be into a tea party. Still, I suppose I could schedule a tea party inside, but it won't be quite the same. When I got this place I was thrilled by the porch (I've had them before and love being outside in the summer, potting plants and herbs and flowers, listening to windchimes) and even considered a card party some evening, with a set of friends coming over to play and drink and chat under the soft overhead light. The card party didn't happen either. I guess, on those nice nights, I just decided it was more fun to jump in the pool... I have next summer, true...so I guess I just need to remind myself that if I really want to do it that I should just do it. After all, someone's gotta drink all that tea. Green Jasmine Tea and Oolong and English Breakfast and flavored black teas of all kinds and...oh, well, I guess I'm out of my favorite tea in all the world: Yorkshire Gold. Gotta get some! Current Mood: groggy (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 10th, 2009
7:26 pm	Going home now. Got caught up on LJ...uploading pics. I might have to spring for a paid account. I want more pics! There's just too many good icons to choose from! Current Mood: creative (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, November 9th, 2009
1:22 pm	CONvergence 2010 Attended the open panel discussion for CONvergence 2010 on Sunday afternoon and made a few suggestions that I hope will make it to the con. That will depend on getting enough folks to volunteer to be on them, of course. ;) 1. Erotic Fantasy (writing it, reading it, trends, what not to do with a shapeshifter, etc) 2. Angels vs Demons-The Ultimate Smackdown (from movies, tv, books, etc) 3. Cool, Quirky, and Creepy--Joss Wheden's Villians (villians is next year's theme) 4. Magick and Spells in Fantasy and Reality (this is my favorite and I really really want to see it happen!!!) (real life magick and spellwork vs what you see in books and movies, the rules of magick and if writers know them enough to make it believeable, etc) Current Mood: ditzy (5 Comments |Comment on this)
1:17 pm	After getting a couple of books from the library and reading them I find myself even more confused about Steampunk. Yes, I get the Victorian thing, but then does it have to have science fiction elements (like flying ships, laser-like guns or other oddball technology) or does magickal-fantasy count? Or can it go both ways? Can anyone recommend the most excellent Steampunk book ever? Current Mood: confused (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, November 4th, 2009
3:47 pm	Some days you just wonder...how bad its all gotten and if human beings will pull through the mess we've made of this wonderful planet. Last night, PBS started a 3 part program on how human beings got from apes to us. The theory is that we got big thinking brains (our best asset) because of change, specifically having to deal with and survive rapid climate change. I sure hope that theory is right, because our big brain thinking adaptablity power might be the only thing going for us after the greedy suckers out there have wrecked the environment just to make a few million-billion bucks with no care for the future. Change?!?!?! Its here, boys and girls, and its only going to get more extreme as time goes on. Makes me want to take classes on old tyme know-how that has all but been lost in today's world. Current Mood: worried (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009
1:54 pm	Happy November to One and All November is a bit less crowded (at least so far) with things to do...thank goodness! I've still got some events to attend--birthday parties and the like--but should have more time to write this month. Yeah! This weekend is the panel discussion for next year's CONvergence that I want to attend. Next weekend, I'm doing the "Spirit Guides/Familiars" class at Eye of Horus at the new and improved time of 4-6 pm. "New Moon" opens on 11-20. (yes, I know, sparkly vampires...but I kinda liked the first movie) Last, but not least, is Thanksgiving Weekend and I hope to visit with some friends then--eating the required amounts of turkey, dressing, mashed taters, and pumpkin pie while discussing Craft stuff and watching cool movies as we lay on the couch and wonder at how much we managed to eat and if anyone might be able or willing to get up and go make some coffee. Someone recently suggested to me that I should write articles for commercial magazines not related to the Craft. This is the second time I've been told this...clue? Current Mood: amused (Comment on this)
Monday, November 2nd, 2009
3:22 pm	Sovane Recap We did a Sorgitzak Sovane ritual at Eye of Horus on Saturday night. All told, there were 24 people there. We pretty much packed the room. Some folks were in street clothes and others came in the Witch Color of Choice, basic black. The owners of the Eye attended, as well, one of them wearing a fab pointy hat. The ritual went well, though we had to make some last minute alterations due to the amount of people in the circle. We created the circle and then all chanted together to call the God of the West, Hehren, to the ritual. He was hooded and stood before the cauldron where everyone put a dried oak leave in remembrance of their loved ones who have passed to the other side. The God opened the gate in Vaska and then spoke to everyone as they came around. After this, we called upon Hekahtah and She carried a copper plate around the circle as everyone placed a cake on it. We had invested the cakes with joy and happiness, basically all good thoughts and feelings intended for the ancestors and the land and the Fey. The owners of the Eye gave a small goblet of heavy cream as an offering. Finally, we all pulled candles of different colors out of a basket and lit them. Concentrating on the flame, we took it inside in order to keep and protect it through the dark times until Yule. The Quarters were dismissed and then we all blew out the candles at once, leaving the room in darkness. Afterwards, we feasted and talked for a good while and then those of us who were still hanging out went into the labyrinth outside and burned the leaves in the cauldron and made the cakes and cream offering. The God also showed up again for that, leading us into the heart of the maze. The theme of the evening was definitely reciprocity...that the dead are hungry and our ancestors and the land have not been properly cared for of late. That we must give in order to receive, but not to give out of the desire to get. It made a lot of sense to me. That we take from the land and the land holds our dead and that if we do not give, that is disrespectful both of our ancestors and of the Earth who has given and given to feed us. The word for this reciprocity and this relationship in Vaska is "gobah." Current Mood: hungry (Comment on this)
Saturday, October 31st, 2009
1:01 pm	Sovane Tonight is the Sovane (Samhain) ritual at Eye of Horus... I've got some supplies yet to buy and to load up in the car and then make it to a friend's house to carve pumpkins beforehand. Am getting excited about the ritual. A good All Hallow's Eve-Sovane-Samhain to everyone!!!!!!!!!!!! Current Mood: bouncy (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Friday, October 30th, 2009
12:15 pm	At this time of year I sometimes get pensive. Well, better pensive than melancholy. I love the leaves and how the wind whirls them around, the costumes, the decorations, the pumpkin carving and the ritual. This is the one time you get to "come out" as a Witch and still stay firmly in the broom closet. Yet...pensive...thinking back at the past and the All Hallow's rituals I attended years ago with a whole crew of people, some of whom are still close friends of mine and some who slipped away to other lives and some who went nasty-crackers and had to be walked away from. I owe even some of those nasty-crackers people something for being there at the right time and the right place, to furthering my education and evolution as a person and as a Witch. Which doesn't mean I owe them my life or loyalty, though, not anymore. Sadness that sometimes things just happen that way. Both the good and the bad lies in the past of each of us and we must make of that what we will. WILL...yep, that's the word. Not how we react, but how we choose to react. Choice--it does a Witch good. Current Mood: thoughtful (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, October 29th, 2009
2:31 pm	Sovane ritual Saturday night!!!!!!!!!!! I lurve this time of year. Not sure I can wear a costume to work tomorrow...but at least I can wear black. Favorite costume ever? As a kid, the black cat outfit my mom made, complete with ears and tail. As a grown-up, my pirate outfit with the wonderful Captain's coat that so many people desire. Yours? Current Mood: amused (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, October 28th, 2009
10:48 am	Halloween Cake and Junk Tired. Stayed up too late the last couple of nights and today work is seriously in Driving Me Crazy Mode. Yargh... I found a lighter weight black dress at Ragstock which can be used for ritual. Thank goodness for Halloween sales! Its sort of "witchy," but not so witchy it stands out as a Halloween outfit. I could wear it in other contexts. Still slogging through my stuff and sorting into Sell, Donate, and Throw Away in case I move next year...and, well, because I just need to get rid of some stuff! I saw something once which said to take a number (such as 70 or 100) and give up that number of items you own, doesn't matter how large or how small or if you sell it, give it away, donate, or throw out the items. That way you make a start. I've done it once already, but I think another round is in order. Question for everyone--does no one make layer cakes at home anymore? Current Mood: bitchy (3 Comments |Comment on this)