A Study in Bast

Welcome to the Eleventh House of Thoth 5. We’re glad that you could make it here! Do check out the other Eleventh House of Thoth groups on the other networks. Something struck me a little while ago. Do you know what the Eleventh house is astrologically? It’s Aquarius. Aquarius rules the 11th House. In the Tarot it is the #17 Trump; the Star. Uncle Al said that “Tzaddi is not the Star.” He was partially right, partially wrong on that one. Ellen Cannon Reed said in her book The Goddess and the Tree (the name of one of our other groups, coming soon to this network.) “Tzaddi is the Stars.” I agree with that. It just doesn’t make sense to have path 28 be the Emperor, Heh. This is a controversy that has raged on ever since Uncle Al first uttered that statement. But then ol’ Uncle loved to stir up controversy. What do you folks say? Do you agree or disagree with Uncle Al? Do you agree with me and Ellen Cannon Reed? Do you agree with Stephen that Tzaddi is the Star? Why do you feel the way you do? Please post here your thoughts on the subject.

I feel especially close to that because I am an Aquarius, and my significator is the Star. The Star represents meditation, contemplation, and concentration. That’s what Stephen says, but what I say about the Star is that it’s what you aspire to, what you Will to attain in your incarnation. So another hairpull begins. A hairpull is Druidspeak for a spirited discussion. By the way, Ellen Cannon Reed is dead. She died a few years ago of cancer. She left a big hole in Jewish Wiccan tradition. There are others who are both Qabalistic and Wiccan. Since her death, we haven’t seen anyone who has come out having done the kind of research she did. I think that Uncle Al and Ellen Cannon Reed are probably even now having a hairpull themselves about where they stand on the subject.

I went out to get a drink, and besides the drink brought in a putty, because we were stymied about what direction this post should take. Right away the putty energy stimulated an inspiration for a theme. Let’s talk about Bast. She has several names: Bubastis, Pasht, Pa-Bast, and Pi-Beseth. She is sometimes seen as a subset of Hathor the cow-headed goddess of fertility, in which case she was also a goddess of childbirth. But I see her as a separate goddess in her own right. She is at times confused with Sekhmet the lioness headed goddess. Stephen invokes her when cats are missing, sick, or if there is a cat he hasn’t seen for a long time, it seems to help the situation. One of the reasons that we love the Khemetic tradition so much is that cats had such high status in ancient Egypt. They were worshipped as deities, and have never forgotten it. So it’s because of Bast that we love ancient Egypt. Many putties in the putty conspiracy want to bring back this worship of putties. This is their main agenda.

I’m in favor of this because I have my own agenda. Bast also rules over women’s sensuality. Bawdy women singing bawdy songs. I’m all in favor of that. For one thing, it’s like the putties in that it’s funny, and anytime you laugh, it lowers the stress level, and thus your blood pressure, and other health factors. It’s slightly off-topic, but it reminds me of the time that the Japanese Sun-Goddess Amaterasu was depressed and angry, hiding in her cave until this other Japanese Goddess, who appears as an older woman, lifted up the skirts of her kimonos and sang bawdy songs until Amaterasu laughed and came our of her cave to better enjoy the show. What was the name of that other Japanese goddess anyway? Please post here if you know the name. One of my favorite Pagan songs is “My Heretic Heart is my Authority.” I just love to hear Glenn Turner sing it. It isn’t especially bawdy, but it’s guaranteed to rile up any nearby jesoids. But if you like bawdy songs, you can’t do better than “Roll Me Over”. It’s a collection of songs “that should not be sung.” I love them all. There’s all the naughty songs that your high school or college friends taught you when you were wasted. My favorite is still the “Jolly Tinker,” which, by the way, was featured in the original “Wickerman,” which makes the remake look sick and pallid by comparison.. For one thing, there’s no music.

One of the things we want to do with this group. We will post all we know about a certain Khemetic deity and today’s appropriately enough was Bast. For example did you know that not only was she the cat goddess, and of childbirth but also a war goddess and protectress of cities, protecting her cities from its enemies? She was more or less mild, but when riled would transform into Pasht the lion headed goddess with solar disk and uraeus. Her sacred instrument was the sistrum. She was also the goddess of music and musicians. The uraeus serpent with the solar disk had many Khemetic scholars identify her as an earth goddess (see what I said about her association with Hathor above). According to the amazing Gertrude Jobes, her chief seats of worship were Bubastis and Memphis. GJ also does not see Bast as having connection with Maat the goddess of justice, or Sekhmet.

Donald Tyson in his Secrets of the Necronomicon, has Bast as the High Priestess: Trump #2. In fact, he uses Bast in all the other Trump cards in the background of the action. I am reminded of a painting of a young woman in a wig and rather transparent skirt worn low on the hips playing a lyre, and another young woman wearing her hair in a ponytail who is nude except for a hip band and collar playing a flute. I’m sure you’ve all seen it. It’s a rather famous painting. Actually I think the one in the pony tail is me in an earlier incarnation.

Don’t forget to rate me when you call me on KEEN 1-800-275-5336. Ask for Teiweth ShadowDancer ext.#03877627 and don’t forget to rate me after the reading. Also read my blog, both on KEEN and on Blogger. I’m on Adsense now, so please click on the ads with my blogs. Stephen is still waiting. He’ll probably find out he’s on tomorrow (today, if you’re reading this on Monday, October 26th). Do read his blogs on Blogger too. I’ll be participating in NaNoWrimo again. This year I’ll be working on a novel I’ve already started: La Voisin is the story of Catherine Deschayes Monvoisin, a 17th century French Witch, who was executed in 1680 for diabolism and witchcraft.

And of course you know that Isaac Bonewits is in the hospital with colonic cysts. Yesterday he should have gotten them removed. We’re hoping that he came through with flying colors and is recuperating well.

Yahoo has been revamped completely. I got the new Yahoo toolbar, and added a bunch of our stuff to it. The new Yahoo has retooled both the toolbar and the home page, where you can add your own stuff. Also Yahoo has improved its messenger in the video talk aspect. We are still dissatisfied with their policy of deleting certain groups after just 6 weeks of inactivity. It would be ok if they were even handed about it, but they seem to only delete certain groups, while others they leave alone. For this reason, and because of their draconian categorization process, we will not be putting any more groups on Yahoo. Google has also revamped their toolbar and googletalk.

Do not do business with IMVU. The new management of IMVU is a bunch of right-wing Republican Puritans who are utterly anti-Pagan, anti-women and anti-sex. I had my bank disallow IMVU from deducting money from my checking account. Fully 40% of the people on IMVU are Pagans. If all the Pagans left, we might not put the network out of business, but we could definitely make it feel the pinch. I think that even the Pag-Symps would leave after the Pagans left, especially the ones interested in cybersex. Charles, the new CEO is a conservative Baptist, who has no business running a network like IMVU. In the name of “making the Internet safe for kids”, he and his henchmen are making IMVU no fun for anyone. I feel that having an age restricted section is protection enough for the little nippers, and that adults should have a section where they are totally free to do as they will. Stephen is furious, but I am indifferent. IMVU was nothing to me but an exercise in frustration that I spent way too much money and time on. I think it’s a waste of time and money, but Stephen lives most of his life on IMVU, and so is really bummed out by these developments. They have blocked out all the cool body enhancements and furniture Stephen got from Twinkle so they can’t be seen by anyone but him. IMVU is being investigated by: the FBI, Better Business Bureau, FCC, and FTC for its fraudulent and unethical business dealings. If you have any fraud complaints, contact the FBI Fraud division and the Better Business Bureau. .

I have just joined Stephen on KEEN. I still have a few kinks to iron out before I am a full-fledged reader, but I think that by next weekend I will be. I am also doing readings. I charge $15 for a fifteen minute reading. I got a webcam, and a mic/headset, so will be able to do readings on Yahoo and Windows Live as soon as they get hooked up. I am hunting for a publisher, since FireDrake’s Weyr unfortunately got closed down. I also need to get on Skype. If you can talk me through getting on Skype you get a reading. Readings and classes are our currency. I am also helping Stephen promote our friend Walter Rhoads’ art, their art gallery Gallery 14 and Julie’s tax service. I’m doing everything to raise money except sex. I refuse to get involved in porn, and I don’t have a very sexy voice.

Stephen wants to thank all of you for calling him at (land-line) 916-455-2267 or
(cell) 916-612-2504 and ordering either a divination reading or a class for just $31.95. With webcam and voice on Yahoo IM, Windows Live Msgr, or Skype, it’s almost like being here. For the reading, you got to choose a deck, method, or tool from a vast array of decks/methods/tools. For the class, you got to choose from a myriad of topics in the vast area of magick. Some of you couldn’t decide between a reading and a class, and so for just $59.90 you knew you could have both.a reading and a class; how perfect is that? You can have a reading then in the class find out how he did it. Or you can have two classes, or two readings as long as they are on two separate and different topics/questions. And thank you too for using and spreading around his Zodiac referral number 1-800-280-8496. You told your friends, relatives, in-laws, neighbors, coworkers, colleagues, teachers, kids’ teachers, fellow parents in your PTA, bus drivers, beauticians, and anyone else we might have left out. If you know of any other categories I may have omitted , do tell me. We would like to have other sites where we can have our groups.

So basically what we want is some action from you people. We want your feedback. We know we can always count on Dylan to give feedback, but he’s a partner in this venture. How about the rest of you? This is supposed to be a cooperative effort here. For those of you who are on Red Light, Stephen is doing readings for the cost of 10 rays, and classes for 20 rays. Red Light is a network that is more liberal than IMVU has become, since that Charles guy took over.
Tegwedd ShadowDancer
Stephen Abbott
Inky
Bailee Beasley Beastly
Oreo
Little Boy
Frikki & Frakki
Dr.Livingston I. Presume

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Four Books: What They Are, How to Do Them

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I am going to be doing my 1^st love: writing, because November is NaNoWriMo: National Novel Writing Month, where we each write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. Do go to www.nanowrimo.org. If you’ve always wanted to be a writer, and wanted to find out what it’s like, this is your chance. Sign up, and get going on your pet project. I will be working on finishing a novel I started about 8 months ago about a real historical woman. La Voisin was a French witch of the time of Louis XIV, popularly called “the Sun King”. Everything flourished during his long reign, including scandals, and my main character, Catherine Deschayes Monvoisin, was involved in one of the French court’s worst scandals: le affaire des poisons. Will me luck, everyone. I just hope her spirit will dictate her story to me all month. I’m even willing to get up at insane times of the morning to write this very important story.

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Madame Tezra's Easy Psi Training Techniques

Sorry it took so long for us to get back here, but we’re here now. This post has two parts: the first part is going to be Madame Tezra’s Psi Training Program. First of all realize that psi, the sixth sense, ESP, whatever you want to call it, is like any other talent, be it artistic, musical, writing, or athletic, to name but a few, everyone has at least a little. There are those who have a lot, it’s obvious, and they have had the opportunity to develop it to its utmost. Many animals have it too. It’s how our prehistoric ancestors survived to become our ancestors. It’s just that with the advent of Christianity, such talents were viewed as suspect and were suppressed. All the senses of primitive humans were heightened, vision, hearing, smell, touch, and taste. If they weren’t, you got dead in a hurry, and didn’t survive to become an ancestor.

But among certain insular tribes of people, the Talent was developed and encouraged, especially among the girls. For these wandering nomads, the Rom, the Romani, the Gypsies, the Tzigani, it was seen as a way of making money from the gaje who furtively came to get readings from the fortunetellers. Unfortunately, in many cases, they use the Talent to swindle their clients, and so gave the whole area of divination a bad reputation. In many localities, any sort of divination for pay was illegal, until Z Budapest came along and challenged the laws. Now divination is strictly regulated. But there will always be a few bad apples who spoil things for those of us who are honest diviners. Stephen was in on this protest. Does anyone know how many days Z Budapest was in jail for on that divination beef? Please post here, and tell us how many days she was in jail for, and other details about the case..

What is required to develop and train your psi are three things: determination, persistence, and a willingness to play around and look a little silly. The playing around is necessary, because that is the way that children learn, through play and experimentation. When I say experimentation, I am not suggesting the methods used by the parapsychology labs at your local university. Their methods are almost guaranteed to kill any psi before it has a chance to develop. They use anti-psi, which is a psychic power in itself, really. The thing to do is to try different combinations of things. Telekinesis: There is one exercise that requires a bit of concerted effort, and for this you will need either a small match box, or book of matches, such as you might find in a bar or restaurant. Sit comfortably with the matchbox or book out of your reach. Gaze at the object and try to get it to move. For the first two weeks do this for no more than five minutes at a time. Make sure that you do this consistently for five minutes every day. Do not skip a day then try to make up for it by gazing at the box for twice as long. It won’t work, you’ll just strain your brain. In this kind of exercise, it’s not true that no pain equals no gain. After two or three weeks, increase it to 10 minutes at a time. If you have powers of visualization, visualize the box raising up a few inches, then gently settling back down to the chair, table, or whatever piece of furniture you had it resting on. Keep it up for 6 months or until you see results. You can make it do different things, once you’re raised it a few inches.

Clairvoyance: When riding in a car or bus as a passenger (do not ever try it if you are driving, as that would be dangerous) close your eyes and mentally move your consciousness ahead down the road or street a few blocks or miles. See what the traffic is doing. This is especially useful if there is a clog in the traffic. I have a finger technique for clearing traffic, but that’s something either for another post by me, or for you to develop on your own and post here with your results. Scrying by whatever means, from crystal ball gazing, to scrying into a bowl of water, is a way of focused clairvoyance. What I like to do is turn a light on in another room, light a dark blue candle, and burn some Psychic Portal incense to open your psychic centers and third eye (ajna) chakra. Once you have the lighting right, and your incense going, you can gaze into your crystal ball, or scry into the bowl. Some say that you will see fog. I never do. I just see an image in my mind. Don’t do this for very long at a time. Don’t strain your brain. Keep it in the area of fun and experimentation. Once I did a Samhain ritual where every one in the coven gazed into my crystal ball, and told what he or she saw. It was most interesting what the two kids saw. My daughter tried her hand at bowl Scrying when she was five. That was interesting. All the adults were impressed by what she saw. Then there is black mirror Scrying. I want to make one. Black mirrors are something that Dr. John Dee did. Take a mirror and tape around the edge with black electrical tape, then paint the underside black. Then douse the lights, light your candle and scry away. Scrying is an ancient practice that goes back thousands of years. In Lord of the Rings, Galadriel is shown Scrying into her crystal well. Please post with your result of your experiments..

In other news, Isaac Bonewits, a Big Name Pagan of our acquaintance, is in the hospital
with big colon cysts. Do send him healing energy. He is a Pagan Elder who has written several books, started the ADF, and starred in several Chick comics. We can’t afford to lose him to the Summerland just yet, so pray for him to pull through. By the time you read this email, he will have been through surgery to remove them, and will likely be in recovery. I have many memories of Isaac, but my fondest one, was when he welcomed me to Reformed Druidry more than 35 years ago. I’ve already had to say goodbye to 2 great Druids, don’t make me say goodbye to a 3rd. Stephen has known Isaac for nearly 40 years. The two men hit it off almost immediately, and collaborated on many different projects. When Isaac became editor of the Llewellyn publication The Gnostica News, he gave Stephen and Bill Heidrick columns about the Tarot in the publication. We’re also concerned about Oberon Zell-Ravenheart. We haven’t communicated with our old friends in a long time, and that isn’t right. I’m concerned about Morning G’Zell-Ravenheart, and her medical issue. So we’re planning on contacting our friends. Does anyone know if you can do blogs on Facebook? Isaac and Oberon are both on facebook, and we’d like to contact them that way. Stephen, who is still on that @#$%^&*! IMVU, will contact the Pagans in his groups, and let them know about Isaac. He’s at ibonewits@neopagan.net, so write him there and tell him you care. Stephen is going to examine his Yahoo groups to see if he can find Isaac’s group. He’s going to invite me to the group, too, aren’t you Stephen? “Of course I will,” he says. I own copies of 3 books by Isaac: Real Magic, Essential Druidism, and Neo-Pagan Rites. I like his writing style. If he writes more, I shall acquire them.

I am now on Keen, and will be writing my 2nd blog later on today. The number for KEEN is: 1-800-KEEN and ask for extension 03877627 or pin #8342. Thursday I worked on Stephen’s Niteflirt listings, and just went nuts. The one I had the most fun with was the fantasy roleplaying.. I portrayed him as a pirate captain. I hope they get approved. Stephen is going to wonder whether it was such a good idea having an erotic fantasy romance writer write his listings for him. I just went completely off. I took his sexual resume, and went to town with it. Stephen is a complete whore. He will do anything to pay his rent, including getting women in their 60s sexually off. I warned him that a good share of his calls will be by 400 pound women. It will be on the phone, so he can’t see them, they can’t see him. .

It’s near the end of the month, and Stephen hasn’t been able to pay his October rent yet. YOU could contribute majorly towards his paying his back rent. His SSI check went to pay utilities. For $32, you can have either a divination reading or a class in your choice of deck, or topic, in the case of the class. For just $60, you can have both a reading and a class. How perfect is that? I can even assist, if you want. You can have a reading, and a class in divination to find out how he did it. Your reading or class will be with Webcam and voice on Yahoo IM, Windows Live Msgr, or Skype, so it’ll be the next best thing to being there. Call him on 916-455-2267 (landline) or 916-612-2504 (cell) to arrange for a reading or a class. You can send donations to his Paypal account at abbottsinn@gmail.com. Thanks for calling his Zodiac referral number 1-800-280-8496, and telling everyone you know about it. He gets a whole dollar per minute, and you get directly to him, instead of taking your chances, and it being the luck of the draw and his only getting 32 cents per minute.

I am in the process of changing publishers, and so will not list where you can buy downloads of my books. I shall keep you posted about where you can purchase my books. It is almost November, and so, almost time for NaNoWriMo. This year I am going to finish La Voisin, an historical fantasy about the notorious 17th century witch of the court of the Sun King, Louis XIV. Her voice came to me early one morning, when she commanded me to tell her story as it should be told. I have books about the garb, and all the music, so I’m going to do it this time.

In our next post, we’ll be covering four books that every witch or wizard should have and keep up to date: the Book of Shadows/Grimoire, magickal diary, dream journal, and divination journal.

Tegwedd ShadowDancer
AD Stephen Abbott
Dr. Livingston I. Presume
Frikki & Frakki
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