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“I've never been to one of those kinds of rituals before!” the little girl enthused.

What she meant was a ritual with offerings and prayers. Clearly, the experience had come as something of a revelation.

We'd just completed our annual Offering to Minnehaha Falls. The priestess stands at the head of the Falls and makes the traditional threefold offering of water, meal, and flowers, while praying for life, sustenance, and inspiration for the People, for the year to come.

I don't know about where you live, but around here pagan ritual tends to involve casting circles, calling quarters, and raising cones. There's nothing wrong with that, but there's more to pagan ritual than summoning, stirring, and pointing knives at.

A lot more.

It's still one of the best opening lines that I've ever heard.

A buddy and I had gone over to 'Saint' Paul to check out the new Ethiopian restaurant.

While we were there, I noticed at a nearby table a woman with very intense eyes, giving the waiter a hard time.

Tough customer, I thought.

About halfway through the meal, I looked up to see the tough customer standing at our table. Those intense eyes were on me now.

“I like your pentagram,” she said, then paused. “I have one too.”

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.

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.

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

Okay, I have a Witch's message to share. I'm talking to the Pagans and any sympathetic spiritual paths who care to listen.

I am not prone to making public commentary like this because I often feel that people who do so are being arrogant and pretentious. Nevertheless, this is the vision I was given so I will share it as it was given to me. I'm not telling anyone what to do, but if you care to listen, this is what I feel I was asked to share. If this isn't something you're resonating with at this time, you won't hurt my feelings. But I'll thank people not to crap all over me about it. I'm doing this because if I believe in my faith, my faith moves me to do it, whether I look a fool or whether or not it's popular.