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The good news: there's finally a good (i.e. historically trustworthy) book about the Grail.

The bad news: if you're looking for deep pagan mysteries, there aren't any. The Grail is entirely a product of the Christian imagination.

To put it differently: in the seething cauldron that is the human imagination, Grail lore is a stew made from Christian ingredients, with only the merest hint of pagan seasoning.

In medievalist Richard Barber's masterful The Holy Grail: Imagination and Belief, Barber traces the origin of the Grail, term and motif, from its entirely orthodox Christian beginnings in late 12^th century northern France to its transubstantiation into a secular (and, latterly, new pagan) symbol in the 20^th and 21^st centuries. It's a fascinating ride.

To say the least, this has been a rough time, GLOBALLY. The negative energies have been building and building. Leading up to now; we've seen a frightening escalation of war, strife, political discord, division and hate, and now the extreme weather, floods, and fire...

I won't go on because to do so would be overstating the obvious.

Eclipses are said to be a closing of one door and an opening of a window. At this past full moon on 6th September I did some Tarot queries using Joanna Colbert Powell's Gaian Tarot. The results were a bit counter-intuitive. A full moon is a culmination, but all the cards were pointing to beginnings and letting go so the new could happen. So eclipse season ain't over yet. Nope! The weather happening globally is the narrative set by the eclipse.

Fire and water are duking it out all over the USA. Here in Ireland, after a relatively dry (for us) winter, spring and summer, Lunasadh has brought the monsoon season upon us. In our boggy, heavy clay laden west of Ireland the water tends to pool. There is only so much land can hold and then it just lies on top. In winter we have these naturally occurring lakes called turloughs that evaporate in summer. Well, the turloughs are arriving early! And our car engine was killed when some local flooding on our lane turned out to be deeper than estimated.

Greetings PaganSquare readers! I am honored to be starting a blog here and sharing my perspective on sacred Goddess practice. I’ve been blogging at Goddessing From the Heart. My writing centers on affirming trauma survivors on their journey through Goddess Spirituality. I received my Ph.D. in Psychology from a university in the Midwest and work as a full-time college professor. You can connect with me at my page on Facebook (Goddessing From the Heart) and follow me @goddessingheart on Instagram and Twitter.

The Cold-Blooded Ones are called that because they lack the ability to keep warm by using their bodies. Since these animals need to regulate their body temperatures, the Cold-Blooded Ones use their environment to help them do this. A turtle will find a sunny spot to bask in. A salamander will move under a rock for warmth. Toads will bury themselves in the dirt. Snakes prefer living in rocky dens for warmth and under leafy bushes for coolness.

Reptiles are one of the most ancient forms of life, and also one of the most adaptable. Both the turtles and crocodiles have survived the dinosaurs, while remaining the nearly same today as they were in the past. In addition, crocodiles are distant relatives to birds and dinosaurs. Snakes and lizards have expanded the ways that reptiles adapt to their environment. Snakes lost their legs, while lizards adapted to life in the ocean. Meanwhile, worm-lizards (ringed lizards) have evolved to burrow underground by using their heads.

I was in my mid-20’s when the accumulated stress of my experiences of childhood trauma finally broke through and nearly broke me. Along with the classic PTSD symptoms like flashbacks, emotional avoidance and heightened vigilance, I started to have a host of physical issues like migraines, digestive problems, and muscle pain. As you’ll discover in this post, the connection between traumatic experiences and our bodies helps to explain not only the outcomes of trauma but also the potential treatments for it.

Title: Mad Lizard Mambo (The Kai Gracen Book Two)