Did a very heavy duty healing working for my father this past week. I started it on Sunday, performing the ritual each night, and ended it on Thursday, the night of the Blue Moon.

We've been seeing positive results from day one. On Tuesday, when he got to come home from the hospital, he said, "My ankle has done more healing in the last two days than it has in the past six months!" Not to mention that it was half the size it was when he was admitted.

His speedy recovery has come as a surprise to everyone but me.

On Sunday, a few of us got together at a local park and had our first official Pagan/Wiccan barbeque. From what I observed, everyone got along famously and had a great time socializing, exchanging books and eating potluck. As one woman said, "This is the first time in a long time where I've been around a group of people that I really LIKE."

The only weird thing was a strange pair of women's shoes left next to a tree just outside the pavilion. They were there when we arrived, and we left them there more or less undisturbed. A couple of us played Paranormal Investigators and wandered the edge of the park next to the fenced-off forest, but there were no CSI (or XFiles, or 6th Sense, for that matter) moments, thank goodness.

The BBQ was just what I needed, too, after spending the last five days at my parent's house taking care of my father and doing wound care (blech) on his ankle until my mum got back from her trip. Not that it was that bad... except for the part where I pitched a Mount Vesuvius style hissy-fit when I found out that he'd been up walking around while I was at work. I love my father, but he can be damn stubborn and occassionally downright belligerant at times. I was definitely feeling drained by the time Sunday rolled around. The get together was just the re-charge that I needed. Thanks guys!

Finished the book this afternoon. In the last chapter the author states that during her quest for the magical...

"Nothing happened until I took some action. Action and results - the two go together. You can call it religion, you can call it spirituality, you can call it magic. Maybe what you call it doesn't matter. What matters is that you don't settle for being cut off, that you take the power, that you demand the completeness of human experience. To taste fully of all that we perceive, to expand our hopefulness beyond the heavens is our birthright. We aren't here only for confusion and disillusionment. We aren't born merely for death. We are here also for transcendence, to savor the numinous, to wander through the shifting corridors of meaning, and to follow them wherever they take us. If we go too far, we can stop. We can backtrack, we can recant, we can be inconsistent, illogical. What we must not do - no matter what the scientist tell us - is allow ourselves to be cut off from our own experience of life as it presents itself to us. If we do, we have lost the very ground beneath our feet."

All in all, an interesting read.

Anyone read the book "Not in Kansas Anymore: A Curious Tale of How Magic Is Transforming America" by Christine Wicker? I'm about halfway through, and so far it has been a fascinating read.

Wicker is an award-winning, former religion reporter for the Dallas Morning News who was once referred to as "a well-manner atheists".

A portion of the inside flap of the dust cover for the book reads:

"Magic has stepped out of the movies, morphed from the pages of fairy tales, and taken root in the modern mind. Soccer moms are getting voodoo head washings in their backyards, young U.S soldiers send chants toward pagan gods of war, and a seemingly normal family has determined that they are, in fact, elves. Hundreds of thousands of Americans are turning toward the supernatural in new ways, blending the ancient and the modern for a hyper-charged spirituality. They are reaching back in time to powers that have sustained the human imagination for thousands of years.

For many of us, magic is taking hold in less obvious ways. Almost unconsciously we find ourselves noting mysterious synchronicities that point to a plan for our lives. We are heeding premonitions, marking good omens, scritinizing our dreams, and interpreting visions as direct communications. Thinking we might be called crazy, most of us never utter a word to anyone.

But others of us are bolder. The community of Wiccans, witches and Pagans is growing faster than any other religious group in America..."

I'll let you know what I think once I'm finished. But if you've read the book, and you have an opinion, I'd like to find hear your take on it. Post a comment.

I was tagged by TygrzByte a while back so here it is...

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These are the rules: Answer the four questions in your blog. At the end, choose 6 of your friends to tag. Let them know they've been tagged in the comments section of their page or send them a message...

1. List five things in your bedroom.

A homemade quilt, my altar, a vase of bluebells, about 20 books, and lots of clothes

2. List 4 things you like about yourself.

I'm good with people, I have nice legs, somehow I've managed to retain a group of the best friends a person could ask for, and I'm extremely independent.

3. List 3 of your favorite pastimes.

Reading, writing, gardening.

4. List 3 of your favorite quotes.

"No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." Elenore Roosevelt

"Life is either a daring adventure or nothing." Helen Keller

"You must be the change that you want in the world." Mahatma Gandhi