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September 2004 Newsletter

  1. Judith's Ramblings
  2. Product Spotlight
  3. Book Review
  4. Ritual Workings
1) Judith's Ramblings
*DRINK**DRINK**REST* Wow - I've just been through a horrible experience. The experience was trade shows and there were several to attend all during the same week. Blech. Mind you, I saw some STUNNING things that I'm so eager to bring to you! We've got lots of new sterling silver coming, BLACK PILLAR CANDLES, oil burners, Scrying Mirrors, Triple Moon Mirrors, Clocks, Chalices in metal and pewter, leather purses, voodoo charms, crystals of all sorts, and lots more fun stuff on the way! FUN or what? Weehee - it'll be a huge newsletter next time I think!

Boy I'm really looking forward to the walk for London Chocolate Week http://www.chocolateweek.co.uk/ It's been all I can think about while I'm setting up the new website. Yes, you read that correctly, I'm building another website. It isn't finished yet but I'm working on it at http://www.MoonCharms.com and it's hard going. Getting the images together and the various charms from all the different suppliers.... *sheesh* but what I think will be excellent is the ability to offer custom made charm bracelets for anyone.

Weight loss? Slowed to a crawl. I am losing but it was so much better when I was able to watch pounds drop off in days *grins* I am within 20lbs now of my goal - the thinnest I ever was during my adult life and it was a battle to get there when I did. I am still on Atkins though I'm cycling it with eating just fruit. For the trade shows I have to admit I had to give up a bit and I had a chili and cheese potato with lots of Jordan's cereal bars but they were the lowest in sugar of them all so I went for the lesser of the evils. Gift shows just really take it out of me. However I'm pleased to announce at my last weighing and measuring I had lost over an inch from around the middle and about 2lbs so I'm still shifting that fat. My arms are more toned and my sides are less flabby too so all in all a good outcome so far with lots of work (exercise 3x/week).

GOOD NEWS of a sort. The business trading in those illegal cauldrons - The Rock Warehouse - has called in the receivers and so there should be no more of these illegal cauldrons on the market. Remember - the fakes had ugly, poorly made solid stars on them so no star or a properly made star and you've got the real thing. Remember, if you email us an image of the 2 sides of the cauldron, we can check it for ya so never hesitate to ask or check.

The autumn equinox is coming up FAST so if you need something for before then, please do be sure to order it soonish. I'm looking forward to the open ritual again. As we do each one, I'll get people to take part in calling the quarters and stuff so there is more participation with everyone. However first I thought I'd run them along so people could get used to how they worked before getting other folk to do things. After the Autumn equinox is Samhain which we will be doing on Samhain I think - or perhaps the weekend after Witchfest. More likely Samhain as after that things get busy.

I was thinking about doing some sort of gathering in April next year. There used to be something at the end of April but not anymore so I thought that might be fun in late or early April. What do you guys think? Would you like something where there were talks and whatnot maybe shopping and a chill-out space to hang and chat with friends? It just seemed like a fun thing to do. Something small though!

Dave is still working on the new shopping cart. As we've signed up to Paypal (but I really don't trust it) we're going to see if we can work it in to the shopping cart system that if you choose Paypal it sends it to the PayPal system however there may be a processing fee associated with that and only verified addresses would be allowed. I'm still not really convinced by Paypal but we'll also see how it works on the Moon Charms site.

Would you like to help us win "best online shop" again? Please do. Please pop over to http://www.witchcraft.org/polls/fillsurvey.php?sid=10 and vote for all your favourites and I'm hoping that New Moon Occult Shop will get your vote for best online shop. Please - THANK YOU!

As a result of the pub moot, we have been left with this question: What colour do smurfs turn when you strangle them? As you can see, many great, in-depth conversations of a deeply philosophical nature result from our moot gatherings. You are more than welcome to join. Our next moot discussion will be about different forms of divination and then in November we will be likely discussing Samhain traditions and lore. If you want the tarot-reading hand-out from the last moot, please let me know before the next one and I'll bring extra.

2) Product Spotlight
Each month I pick a product and put the spotlight on it. I try and vary the theme of what I choose to make this section as interesting as possible.

I've chosen divination as my section this month and chosen the tea leaf reading set called the "Cup of Destiny"

The thing with the Cup of Destiny that I like is that you can use it with coffee grinds or tea leaves plus you can either look at where the leaves fall within the symbols (and use the book to help you interpret them) or you can look for images made from the leaves or grinds and the book has excellent illustrations about this as well.

Tasseography or Tasseomancy - A divinatory form of fortune-telling by reading tea leaves or, more recently, coffee grinds left in a cup. It is said that Tasseomancy originated in the Middle Ages, stemming from ceroscopy which is the older method of divination by using wax and molybdomancy which is a similar method of divination based on the interpretation of the meaning of shapes that have been produced by dripping molten lead or tin into water. In the 17th century, the West Dutch Indies merchants introduced tea from the Orient. Tea drinking became a popular custom which gave rise to the divination of tea leaves that remained in the bottom of the cup.

I'd have to say that, Harry Potter aside, tasseomancy is largely dependent on psychic intuition. Yes the tea or coffee produces images but they aren't clear and sharp edged so I feel that you need to trust your inner voice to guide you to the correct symbol to interpret. The way to actually read tea leaves or coffee grinds is by using what is left after drinking a cup. The one I experienced was a horrible cup of tea but a good reading. There are some standard symbolisms which are observed when interpreting the patterns: snake (enmity or falsehood), spade (good fortune through industry), mountain (journey or hindrance), house (change, success).

Italians, in the 18th century, claimed they invented the coffee-ground form of the divination. Also being a Catholic country, they believed the prophecies came from demons so the diviners had to recite incantations during their practices such as: "Aqua boraxit venias carajos," "Fixitur et patricam explinabit tornare," and "Hax verticalines pax Fantas marobum, max destinatus, veida porol." It was believed that if such incantations were done incorrectly, the reading would be inaccurate.

3) Book Review
What am I reading right now? I'm on book 6 of the "Sun Sword" series (I'm always tempted to say 'trilogy' as most fantasy novels seem to be written that way but six is well more than three!) by Michelle West and while slow to start, it did develop well.

Occult-wise, I'm reading nothing at the moment as I'm just so busy and I haven't had any review copies I've accepted lately.

4) Ritual Workings
After great discussion at the pub moot, we have come up with the following solutions for student dorm ritual life:
(please read with some mirth)

At the gift show, they had great sets of 3 dragons with small lights that are battery operated that are illuminated by pressing down on or 'clicking' the dome top. We thought for the ritual set-up, you'd need 2 sets of 3 - 4 for the elements and 2 for the god and goddess candles. You would paint each dome the required colour (leaving the god white) and then as you invoke each element you just 'click' the element on. Same for invoking the god and goddess (trust me, we were in stitches over this - the mental imagery of saying "I invoke thee" while clicking a coloured UFO light was priceless).

For incense, we felt room spray the best bet but avoid magnolia as I understand some deep level demons are summoned that way.

For the athame, the plastic knife from the cafeteria and for the chalice, the plastic cup.

The book of shadows can be a filo-fax of shadows as one person had (and was quite cool and in all seriousness if you want a hidden book of shadows you can take anywhere, a filofax of shadows can't be beaten for being hidden as an everyday object.) and there you have it. A biscuit and cup of ribena later and you have yourself a dorm-room friendly ritual although the looks you might get as you invoke each element with the click of a coloured dome light might earn you a place in the looney hall of fame.

We have great fun at the pub moots so do join us and know that nothing will be expected of you at all - just join in the fun!

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