March 2006 Archives

Sunday, I ended up going over to the POC again. Originally, I figured I'd just stop by for a bit of "face time" and then leave after a few minutes. Well, as it turns out, I ended up staying for quite a while. They were sanding furniture to get it ready to be repainted. I'm not big on sanding and it's certainly not one of my strong points, but I decided to stick around and help out a little. After all, it meant being social and hanging out with other people. I've wanted a lot of that lately. And it was fun.

After working, a group of us decided to go out to supper together. We went to Denny's and had quite a good time. Of course, once again, I decided that I really wanted to skip the food and just take our server to go. His name was Jason. He must've been in his mid-twenties and let me just say that he was fine. Both of the women I was with agreed that my taste was impeccable. In fact, they pestered me about asking him for his phone number. I decided against it.

It was a tempting thought, if I could've ever gotten up the nerve to do it. I don't know, I'm still too afraid of rejection to ask a perfect stranger for his phone number or if he'd like to go out sometime. Of course, I also just feel I'm not ready to date someone. I realized the other day that there are just some things about my self-perception I need to change. Otherwise, I run the risk of expecting any boyfriend I have to make up for those issues, and that's not right. I'll probably write more about that sometime.

At any rate, it was a good day.

The last few months, I've been involved with starting up a Pagan Outreach Center. Today, we started to set up the office space we're renting at Village Gate Square. A couple of us made trips to the various homes of people who offered furniture and other items to furnish the office.

One of the things I learned today while helping move heavy furniture is that contrary to what we sometimes think, there are still perfect strangers willing to lend a helping hand. While another volunteer and I were unloading a large and rather heavy display case from the truck, another delivery man walked over and helped us get it unloaded. Then as we were rolling it through the building on our way towards the elevator, we had to go through a closed door. As we were halfway through the door, a shopper passing by offered to hold the door for us to make our job a little easier.

Finally, a shopkeeper near the elevator saw our slow progress. We were moving the display case using a couple of old rollers off a printing press (a moving trick I learned from my father, who actually services such machines). It's a workable solution -- and certainly easier on the back than trying to carry such a heavy piece of furniture -- but it makes for slow progress, as you have to stick a roller back under the front of the item you're moving every six to ten feet. As we went by the one shop, the proprietor saw us and offered us the use of his cart. This more than tripled the speed at which we could finish the move, and both of us were quite thankful.

Each of these events reminded me that our society isn't quite as filled with the self-absorbed and unhelpful individuals as we sometimes think. In a moment like this, there still are those people who are willing to offer a helping hand like the good neighbor we all wish we had. And it gave me a smile.

Of course, I immediately suggested that we send a thank you card to the shop-owner. (I'd love to send one to the other two a card too, but I have no idea who they were or how to find them again.) It seems that the right thing to do is for us to show that we can be good neighbors and properly show our appreciation for our "neighbor's" kindness.

This experience certainly has made me feel pretty good about our choice to set up shop at the Village Gate. If everyone there is as friendly and community minded as the people I met today, it should be a great environment. And you can never have too many friends.

I decided I really needed to post a blog entry tonight. I've been way too quiet. I also decided to check out The Witches Weekly, and discovered some interesting question. I'm not answering all of them, but I figured I'd put out a few thoughts on some of them.

Is it possible to curse someone?

Absolutely. In fact, I feel quite strongly about this. The belief that magic can be used for harmful purposes is something I consider essential to witchcraft. As the saying goes, "if you cannot harm, you cannot heal." A belief that magic will only be beneficial is antithetical to the the dual pillars of self-empowerment and personal responsibility that support most of magical philosophy and witchcraft in particular.

How often do you think it happens?

I'm sure I can't even begin to quantify this in any meaningful way. I think it happens more often than the "white light brigade" would have the world believe. But at the same time, I think that working effective magic is hard work, more hard work than most people (including myself some days) have the discipline to follow through with. Truth be told, people expect it to be easy: a matter of saying a pithy phrase, using the right color candle, and/or the right herbs. As such, I also think it's less common (at least in our society, we won't talk about other societies where magical practices might get more disciplined attentn) than the average "scary evil witch" would like everyone to think, too.

What would make you believe that someone was working magic against you, and how would you handle the situation?

In order for me to suspect such a thing, I'd have to experience a concerted string of misfortunes that either have no "rational" explanation or are just too amazing to be considered coincidental. Even then, I'd have to do some thinking, some divination, and possibly even ask for the insight and advice of a trusted other party. Personally, I just have a hard time imagining there are people out there that'd hate me enough to go through the effort required to do that sort of thing.

As for how I'd handle the situation if I found out someone was working magic against me, it really depends on the situation and the numerous factors involved.