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Rainbow Season is my kindred's end of summer ritual. Since summer is monsoon rain season the end of summer is rainbow season. We honor the mermaids in the summer and Heimdall at the end of summer. Heimdall was Tom Newman's patron. I don't know if we're going to keep doing that in future years but we're at least doing it one more time, this year, in honor of Tom. It's also 1 year since he died.
Heimdall is the Guardian of the Rainbow Bridge. The Rainbow Bridge is the path that leads from Asgard to wherever the gods want to go. When the end of the rainbow touches down on Earth (Midgard) it only goes one place, to Asgard. The gods can bring dead people to Asgard via the Bridge if they wish to select specific humans for that honor.
This morning my heart was breaking for the working dogs left behind at the airport in Kabul. The news about them is confusing because updates from different times all jumble together on social media. Speculation, memes, and even fan fiction crosses my social feed as often as actual news. The fan fiction is about what happens to the dogs after they die. People are imagining it because they don't know for sure and writing gives them comfort. Since I now possess a godphone, after my experience with writing the Fireverse opened me to the gods, I can simply ask the gods. What is my godphone for, if not to ask such questions and get answers?
I asked Odin, "Are there new war dogs in Valhalla?"
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A double rainbow with horizontal, cloud-to-cloud lightning between the bows.
How's that for an omen?
Sweetwood Temenos in southwestern Wisconsin. The Warlocks of the Driftless have foregathered to raise—finally—the one-ton megalith of pre-Cambrian limestone called the Bull Stone. On the eve of the Raising, we go down to do some site prep.
Thunder has been rumbling continuously in the distance for quite some time: longer non-stop thunder I've never heard before in my life. Clearly, something big is moving in. Well, the rain will be welcome. Here in the Midwest's Driftless Area, as elsewhere, it's been a dry Spring.
Just as we finish our work, the heavens open. Soaked to the skin, we stand there laughing. Some guys strip off. After the prolonged heat and drought, our skin drinks in the cool rain. So does the Land.
Singing a Thunder song, we trudge through the downpour up to the pavilion. The rain drums on the metal roof. We stand, watching and listening.
For a good half hour it pelts down, a good thorough soaking after a long thirst. The Storm rumbles off Eastwards as, nearing its setting, the Sun shines out in the West.
Then the culminating moment of grace when Rainbow spans the East, vast, accompanied by her twin sister.
We stand, marveling. Someone sings a hymn to the Rainbow Goddess, Daughter of Sun and Storm.
Suddenly that final bolt of lightning, brilliant, between the Bows. It's a moment of utter holiness, piercingly beautiful.
“Well, gentlemen, there's our omen,” someone says.
I've performed this curse removal spell the same way since I was in college. I didn't have any other heathens to consult with back then so it was designed in a more general pagan way than specifically heathen but I'm not going to change it now after 30 years of doing it the same way. In addition to telling you how I do this spell, including a short video, I'm also writing about why I did the curse removal and what happened after I did it.
I recently did this spell in my companion Tom's house. He's in the hospital and I noticed a string of odd glitches that led me to think there may be bad energy that needed to be dispelled in a more formal way than just gathering up whatever energy was around in my hands and tossing it towards the pyramid light saying "bad vibes away!" like I usually do.
...It must be the oldest gay joke in the world.
Q: Is it possible for two men to have a baby together?
A: Theoretically no, but they sure do keep trying!
But for gods, now: well, that's another matter.
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Earth's two Husbands, Sun and Thunder, have been together (so far as we know) nearly forever. You could say they're an unlikely couple. You could say they're well matched. Whichever it be, they're very different from one another.
Sun is hot and dry. He comes from the east, and he's always going west. Steady, predictable, he's all about the rational.
Thunder, now? Cool, wet, comes from the west, always going east. Volatile, unpredictable: with him, it's all about emotion.
Theirs is an explosive relationship: with all their differences, how could it not be? Oh, the fights. But, in the end, they always make it up.
They have a daughter together, born of their love: Rainbow, gentlest of goddesses. To see her is to love her, she's that beautiful.
In these latter days, they've named her the patron of same-sex love. Well, how could she not be?
After all, she has two fathers.
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These days, Twin Cities Pride is a matter of corporate sponsorship and hundreds of thousands, but back then it was just a few hundred of us, marching down Hennepin Avenue.
If you've ever had the opportunity to see Rainbows in a crystal, it is a beautiful thing!
You might have exclaimed "Wow! Rainbows in crystals!" and wondered "what are they and how do I work with them!?"
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