Well, tis that time again. Hubby's got orders and we're moving out to the beaches of NJ. Now I was raised in NJ so I'm a bit excited to be moving back after 5 years and being near friends and family albeit I was known as a staunch Catholic when I left and I'm coming back an unswayable Pagan so things will get interesting I'm sure LOL The thing is I'm having an extra hard time trying to locate Pagans in the area. I know you're out there :::shading eyes with hands while peering in, nose pressed against glass::: Hellooooooo?

I'd come across a group called Mid-Atlantic Pagans that seemed to be going strong and I was getting excited to meet them after posting a few times with its members on their yahoo group. However, to my dismay they disbanded after Imbolc:( In my travels I've witnessed the rise and fall of many a group (and no I didn't cause any of them I promise;) and I know from experience usually the remnants of said group tend to spiral off into 2 or 3 new groups.

So I'm asking does anyone know of any decent Pagan groups in or near Monmouth County that aren't getting ready to self destruct (unofficially organized or unorganized groups of people work for me too:) or can you recommend a good shop, coffeehouse etc. where local Pagans shop, congregate, etc. as a jumping off point for me? If you don't wish to give me their information please pass on my request and information to them. I can also be found on myspace/aquawench and myspace/purplelephantcrafts

Thanks in advance:)

With Halloween/Samhain fast approaching I thought I'd get into the spirit of things by posting a myth featuring the Egyptian Land of the Dead.  Enjoy and a safe and blessed Samhain to all! 

The Land of the Dead

The one visit to the Duat of which a record remains was paid by Se-Osiris, the wonderful child magician who read the sealed letter, and his father Setna, the son of Pharaoh Rameses the Great.

They stood one day in the window of the palace at Thebes watching two funerals on their way to the West. The first was that of a rich man: his mummy was enclosed in a wooden case inlaid with gold; troops of servants and mourners carried him to burial and bore gifts for the tomb, while many priests walked in front and behind chanting hymns to the gods and reciting the great names and words of power which he would need on his journey through the Duat. - The second funeral was that of a poor laborer. His two sons carried the simple wooden case: his widow and daughters-in-law were the only mourners.

'Well,' said Setna, watching the two funerals going down to where the boats were waiting to carry them across the Nile, 'I hope that my fate will be that of the rich noble and not of the poor laborer.'

'On the contrary,' said Se-Osiris, 'I pray that the poor man's fate may be yours and not that of the rich man!'

Setna was much hurt by his son's words, but Se-Osiris tried to explain them, saying, 'Whatever you may have seen here matters little compared with what will chance to these two in the Judgement Hall of Osiris. I will prove it to you, if you will trust yourself to me. I know the words of power that open all gates: I can release your Ba and mine - our souls, that can then fly into the Duat, the world of the dead, and see all that is happening there. Then you will discover how different are the fates of this rich man who has worked evil during his life, and this poor man who has done nothing but good.'

Setna had learnt to believe anything the wonderful child said without surprise, and now he agreed to accompany his son into the Duat, even though he knew that such an expedition would be dangerous: for once there they might not be able to return.

So the prince and the small boy made their way into the sanctuary of the Temple of Osiris where, as members of the royal family, they had power to go.

When Setna had barred the doors, Se-Osiris drew a magic circle round them and round the statue of Osiris and round the altar on which a small fire of cedar wood was burning. Then he threw a certain powder into the flame upon the altar. Thrice he threw the powder, and as he threw it a ball of fire rose from the altar and floated away. Then he spoke a spell and ended with a great name of power, a word at which the whole temple rocked and the flame on the altar leapt high, and then sank into darkness.

But the Temple of Osiris was not dark. Setna turned to see whence the light came - and would have cried out in horror if the silence had not pressed upon him like a weight that held him paralyzed.

For standing on either side of the altar he saw himself and his son Se-Osiris only suddenly he knew that it was not his own body and the boy's for the two bodies lay in the shadows cast by these two forms - the forms of their Kas or doubles, and above each Ka hovered a tongue of flame which was its Khou or spirit - and the clear, light of the Khou served to show its Ka and the dim form of the body from which Ka and Khou were drawn.

Then the silence was broken by a whisper soft as a feather falling, yet which seemed to fill the whole Temple with sound: 'Follow me now, my father,' said the voice of Se-Osiris, 'for the time is short and we must be back before the morning if we would live to see the Sun of Re rise again over Egypt.

Setna turned, and saw beside him the Ba or soul of Se-Osiris - a great bird with golden feathers but with the head of his son.

'I follow,' he forced his lips to answer; then, as the whisper filled the Temple, he rose on the golden wings of his own Ba and followed the Ba of Se-Osiris.

The temple roof seemed to open to let them through, and a moment later they were speeding into the West swifter than an arrow from an Ethiopian's bow.

Darkness lay over Egypt, but one red gash of sunset shone through the great pass in the mountains of the Western Desert, the Gap of Abydos. Through this they sped into the First Region of the Night and saw beneath them the Mesektet Boat in which Re began his journey into the Duat with the ending of each day. Splendid was the Boat, glorious its trappings, and its colors were of amethyst and emerald, jasper and turquoise, lazuli and the deep glow of gold. A company of the gods drew the Boat along the ghostly River of Death with golden towing-ropes; the portals of the Duat were flung wide, and they entered the First Region between the six serpents who were curled on either side. And in the great Boat of Re journeyed the Kas of all those who had died that day and were on their way to the judgement Hall of Osiris.

So the Boat moved on its way through regions of night and thick darkness and came to the portal of the Second Region. Tall were the walls on either side, and upon their tops were the points of spears so that none might climb over; the great wooden doors turned on pivots, and once again snakes breathing fire and poison guarded them. But all who passed through on the Boat of Re spoke the words of power decreed for that portal, and the doors swung open.

The Second Region was the Kingdom of Re, and the gods and heroes of old who had lived on earth when he was King dwelt there in peace and happiness, guarded by the Spirits of the Corn who make the wheat and barley flourish and cause the fruits of the earth to increase.

Yet not one of the dead who voyaged in the Boat of Re might pause there or set foot on the land: for they must pass into Amenti, the Third Region of the Duat where the judgement Hall of Osiris stood waiting to receive them.

So the Boat came to the next portals, and at the word of power the great wooden doors screamed open on their pivots - yet not so loudly did they scream as the man who lay with one of the pivots turning in his eye as punishment for the evil he had done upon earth.

Into the Third Region sailed the Boat of Re, and here the dead disembarked in the outer court of the judgement Hall of Osiris. But the Boat itself continued on its way through the nine other Regions of the Night until the re-birth of Re from out of the mouth of the Dragon of the East brought dawn once more upon earth and the rising of the sun. Yet the sun would not rise unless each night Re fought and defeated the Dragon Apep, who seeks ever to devour him in the Tenth Region of the Night.

The Ba of Setna and Se-Osiris did not follow the Boat of Re further, but flew over the Kas of the newly dead who came one by one to the portal of the Hall of Osiris and one by one were challenged by the Door-Keeper.

'Stay!' cried the Door-Keeper. 'I will not announce thee unless thou knowest my name!'

'Understander of Hearts is thy name,' answered each instructed Ka. 'Searcher of Bodies is thy name!'

'Then to whom should I announce thee?' asked the Door-Keeper.

'Thou shouldst tell of my coming to the Interpreter of the Two Lands.'

'Who then is the Interpreter of the Two Lands?'

'It is Thoth the Wise God.'

So each Ka passed through the doorway and in the Hall Thoth was waiting to receive him, saying: 'Come with me. Yet why hast thou come?'

'I have come here to be announced,' answered the Ka.

'What is thy condition?'

'I am pure of sin.'

'Then to whom shall I announce thee? Shall I announce thee to him whose ceiling is of fire, whose walls are living serpents, whose pavement is water?'

'Yes,' answered the Ka, 'announce me to him, for he is Osiris.'

So ibis-headed Thoth led the Ka to where Osiris sat upon his throne, wrapped in the mummy-clothes of the dead, wearing the uraeus crown upon his forehead and holding the scourge and the crook crossed upon his breast. Before him stood a huge balance with two scales, and jackal-headed Anubis, god of death, stepped forward to lead the Ka to the judgement.

But before the Weighing of the Heart, each dead man's Ka spoke in his own defense, saying: 'I am pure! I am pure! I am pure! I am pure! My purity is as that of the Bennu bird, the bright Phoenix whose nest is upon the stone persea-tree, the obelisk at Heliopolis. Behold me, I have come to you without sin, without guilt, without evil, without a witness against me, without one against whom I have taken action. I live on truth and I eat of truth. I have done that which men said and that with which gods are content. I have satisfied each god with that which he desires. I have given bread to the hungry, water to the thirsty, clothing to the naked and a boat to him who could not cross the River. I have provided offerings to the gods and offerings to the dead. So preserve me from Apep, the 'Eater-up of Souls', so protect me - Lord of the Atef-Crown, Lord of Breath, great god Osiris.'

Then came the moment which the evil-doer feared but the good man welcomed with joy.

Anubis took the heart out of the Ka that was the double of his earthly body and placed it in the Scale; and in the other Scale was set the Feather of Truth. Heavy was the heart of the evil-doer and it dragged down the Scale: lower and lower it sank, while Thoth marked the angle of the beam until the Scale sank so low that Ammit the Devourer of Hearts could catch the sinner's heart in his jaws and bear it away. Then the evil-doer was driven forth into the thick darkness of the Duat to dwell with Apep the Terrible in the Pits of Fire.

But with the good man the Feather of Truth sank down and his heart rose up, and Thoth cried aloud to Osiris and the gods, 'True and accurate are the words this man has spoken. He has not sinned; he has not done evil towards us. Let not the Eater-up of Souls have power over him. Grant that the eternal bread of Osiris be given to him, and a place in the Fields of Peace with the followers of Horus!'

Then Horus took the dead man by the hand and led him before Osiris, saying, 'I have come to thee, oh Unnefer Osiris, bringing with me this new Osiris. His heart was true at the coming forth from the Balance. He has not sinned against any god or any goddess. Thoth has weighed his heart and found it true and righteous. Grant that there may be given to him the bread and beer of Osiris; may he be like the followers of Horus!'

Then Osiris inclined his head, and the dead man passed rejoicing into the Fields of Peace there to dwell, taking joy in all the things he had loved best in life, in a rich land of plenty, until Osiris returned to earth, taking with him all those who had proved worthy to live for ever as his subjects.

All these things and more the Ba of Se-Osiris showed to the Ba of his father Setna; and at length he said, 'Now you know why I wished your fate to be that of the poor man and not of the rich man. For the rich man was he in whose eye the pivot of the Third Door was turning - but the poor man dwells for ever in the Fields of Peace, clad in fine robes and owning all the offerings which accompanied the evil rich man to his tomb.'

Then the two Ba spread their golden wings and flew back through the night to Thebes. There they re-entered their bodies which their Kas had been guarding in the Temple of Osiris, and were able to return to their place as ordinary, living father and child, in time to see the sun rise beyond the eastern desert and turn the cliffs of Western Thebes to pink and purple and gold as a new day dawned over Egypt.

Perhaps the oldest telling of "Cinderella"

In the last days of Ancient Egypt, there was a Pharaoh called Amasis. To strengthen his country against the threat of invasion by Cyrus of Persia, who was conquering all the known world, Pharoah welcomed as many Greeks as wished to trade with or settle in Egypt, and gave them a city called Naucratis to be entirely their own.

In Naucratis, not far from the mouth of the Nile that flows into the sea at Canopus, there lived a wealthy Greek merchant called Charaxos. One day when he was walking in the marketplace he saw a great crowd gathered round the place where the slaves were sold. Out of curiosity he pushed his way into their midst, and found that everyone was looking at a beautiful Greek girl with white skin and cheeks like blushing roses who had just been set up on the stone rostrum to be sold. Charaxos caught his breath for he had never seen anyone so lovely. Consequently, when the bidding began, Charaxos determined to buy her and, being one of the wealthiest merchants in all Naucratis, he did so without much difficulty.

He discovered that the girl's name was Rhodopis and that she had been carried away by pirates from her home in the north of Greece when she was a child. They had sold her to a rich man who employed many slaves on the island of Samos, and she had grown up there. But as an adult, her master wished to make some money out of so beautiful a girl and had sent her to rich Naucratis to be sold. Charaxos listened to her tale and pitied her deeply. Indeed very soon he became quite besotted about her. He gave her a lovely house to live in, with a garden in the middle of it, and slave girls to attend on her. He heaped her with presents of jewels and beautiful clothes, and spoiled her as if she had been his own daughter.

One day as Rhodopis was bathing in the marble-edged pool in her secret garden, the slave-girls guarding her clothes and the rose-red slippers she was particularly proud of, an eagle came swooping down out of the clear blue sky as if to attack. The slave girls dropped everything and fled shrieking to hide amongst the trees and flowers of the garden while Rhodopis rose from the water and stood with her back against a marble fountain, gazing with wide, startled eyes. But the eagle paid no attention to any of them. Instead, it swooped down and picked up one of the rose-red slippers in its talons before soaring up into the air again on its great wings and, still carrying the slipper, flew away to the south over the valley of the Nile.

Rhodopis wept at the loss of her rose-red slipper, feeling sure that she would never see it again, and sorry also to have lost anything that Charaxos had given to her. But the eagle seemed to have been sent by the gods for he flew straight up the Nile to Memphis and then swooped, down towards the palace. At that hour Pharaoh Amasis sat in the great courtyard doing justice to his people and hearing any complaints that they wished to bring when down over the courtyard swooped the eagle and dropped the rose-red slipper of Rhodopis into Pharaoh's lap.
The people cried out in surprise when they saw, this, and Amasis too was much taken aback. But, as he took up the little rose-red slipper and admired the delicate workmanship and the tiny size of it, he felt that the girl for whose foot it was made must indeed be one of the loveliest in the world. Amasis the Pharaoh was so moved by what had happened that he issued a decree:

"Let my messengers go forth through all the cities of the Delta and, if need be, into Upper Egypt to the very borders of my kingdom. Let them take with them this rose-red slipper which the divine bird of Horus has brought to me, and let them declare that her from whose foot this slipper came shall be the bride of Pharaoh!"

So they set forth from Memphis and went by way of Heliopolis and Tanis and Canopus until they came to Naucratis. Here they heard of the rich merchant Charaxos and of how he had bought the beautiful Greek girl in the slave market, and how he was lavishing all his wealth upon her as if she had been a princess put in his care by the gods and they went to the great house beside the Nile and found Rhodopis in the quiet garden beside the pool. When they showed her the rose-red slipper she cried out in surprise that it was hers. She held out her foot so that they could see how well it fitted her; and she bade one of the slave girls fetch the pair to it which she had kept carefully in memory of her strange adventure with the eagle. Then the messengers knew that this was the girl whom Pharaoh had sent them to find, and they knelt before her and said,

'The good god Pharaoh Amasis - life, health, strength be to him! - bids you come with all speed to his palace at Memphis. There you shall be treated with all honor and given a high place in his Royal House of Women: for he believes that Horus the son of Isis and Osiris sent that eagle to bring the rose-red slipper and cause him to search for you.'

Such a command could not be disobeyed. Rhodopis bade farewell to Charaxos, who was torn between joy at her good fortune and sorrow at his loss, and set out for Memphis. When Amasis saw her beauty, he was sure that the gods had sent her to him. He did not merely take her into his Royal House of Women, he made her his Queen and the Royal Lady of Egypt. And they lived happily together for the rest of their lives.

As you may, or probably may not, be aware I've got a nice little craft business I'm fiddling with called Charismatic Designs. Well upon discovering we were being confused with some Christian group called Charismatic Ministries we opted to change our name to Purple Elephant Crafts. We took a hiatus from the brutal Floridian summer sun and are coming back with a vengence in September:-D

We launch with our "Not Just Candles" Party on Saturday September 29th from noon - 4pm at the Preserve @ Longleaf Apartments Clubhouse in Melbourne. Here you'll get to see, pre-order and buy our bath and body products, candles and dolls in new scents and styles for the upcoming holiday season. You can also make reservations for a "Not Just Candle" Party of your own (with a minimum 2 week notice of course) should you so choose!

Also, we're awaiting final confirmation but it looks as if we will in fact be vending at the Cocoa Village Arts and Crafts Fair in mid-October and early December. Whoo hoo! More details to come but for now check out our myspace page: www.myspace.com/purplelephantcrafts

We will have an actual real life website up and running as soon as I can find a reliable web host that doesn't cost an arm and a leg and doesn't have a long and confusing address but if you'd like to check out our previous website (from which we are still taking orders btw) and does actually have a nice long and confusing address go to: http://charismaticdesigns.tripod.com/index

... see what I mean?:-P Have a great weekend everyone:-)

Sorry I haven't blogged much lately.  I know I promised to bring a new Egyptian myth and info about the gods and goddesses each month but who knows where the time went:-P  So to make up for lost time, I bring you three Egyptian myths courtesy of Time Life books:)  Enjoy!

The Wandering Eye

Atum created his children Shu and Tefnut to alleviate years of solitude as the only beings in the waters of chaos. But they drifted away in time and could not be found. Atum was alone once again, but he was determined to find his newly created offspring, and so he removed one eye from his face and filled it with his own power, elevating it to the status of a goddess. He then called the Eye his daughter, manifested as both Hathor and Sekhmet. Atum then commanded Hathor-Sekhmet to scour the universe for signs of his children. Eventually, she discovered Shu and Tefnut and brought them back to their father. Atum, weeping for joy, embraced them. The tears fell to earth and were transformed into the first human beings. As a reward for her services, Atum placed th Eye on his forehead in the form of a cobra. In this position, he promised, she would be feared forever by gods and men alike.

The Destruction of Mankind

Re, as ruler of men, was past his prime. As he grew old his bones turned silver, his body gold, and his hair as blue as lapis lazuli. But his age did not prevent him from hearing that men were mocking him and plotting to overthrow him. Calling the gods to a secret conference, he asked their advice. Nun, as the eldest, was the one to whom he listened most avidly.
Nun advised Re to punish the blasphemers by scorching them with his blazing heat. However, when Re did this, his victims ran for shelter to the rocks and escaped his fury. Frustrated, Re reconvened the conference. The gods were unanimous: Re should send his Eye in the form of Hathor-Sekhmet (who had previously done Atum good service in finding his children in the cosmic waters; to punish mankind. "No eye is better for this task than yours, concluded Nun.

"Let it go forth as Hathor-Sekhmet." Hathor did as she was bidden: she perpetrated a savage slaughter, taking the form of a lioness. By the time that she was recalled by Re, she had acquired an insatiable taste for blood and was determined to return to earth to destroy the rest of humankind. Re was alarmed. He had meant only to each people a lesson, not to wipe them out.

WHile Hathor rested, he sent messengers to Aswan to bring back a consignment of local red ochre. He order the High Priest of Heliopolis to pound it. As this was done, the god ordered servant girls to brew barley beer. The two elements were mixed together to produce seven thousand jugs of an intoxicating drink that looked like blood. Re ordered the jugs to be emptied over the fields were Hathor planned her next day of destruction. Hathor was taken in by the ruse.

Flying over the fields, she saw what she assumed to be blood and swooped down for a drink. She drank too much and fell into a stupor. On regaining her senses, she had forgotten her original aim and set off home again, once more the benevolent goddess. As a gesture of his gratitude, Re decreed that the Egyptian people could drink as much as they liked at Hathor's festivals.

The Birth of The Year
Originally, the year had only 360 days. This changed the day the great god Atum (also known as Re/Ra in some circles) discovered an illicit passion between his two grandchildren, Nut (earth) and Geb (sky), whose union deprived the world of its atmosphere.

According to a Greek version of this tale, Nut and Geb were so closely intertwined that there was no room for anything bewteen them. This angered Atum, who ordered their father Shu, god of air, to seperate them. Shu did so by standing on Geb and hoisting Nut above his head so that they could not touch each other. Nut, however was already pregnant. In his wrath Atum cursed her: she was allowed to give birth, he announced, but she was forbidden to do so on any of the 360 days that made up the year at that time.

Among the gods whom Atum created was Thoth, god of wisdom. Thoth loved Nut and decided to help her by challenging the other gods to a game of draughts in which he gambled for more time. He won five days, and by adding them to the existing year he created time for Nut to give birth on successive days to her five children: Osiris, Horus, Seth, Isis and Nephthys and created the 365 day year we know today.