RQ#95 - Online

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Quarterly Contest - enter to win a Reclaiming CD in this quarter's "Winter Solstice" contest

News from the Grassroots

Pagan Cluster actions, Grassroots Roundup, and much more

Moon Magic for the Fall

Dia de los Muertos - Day of the Dead

Water: An RQ Theme Section

Introduction

Hail, Hail - The Rio Grande Is Dead

The River, Living, Refuses to Be Held Back

Water Privatization

Water Awareness

Holy Waters: Water Deities in History

Thirst: A Documentary on Water

Water and the Moon: A Pop Quiz

Feature Articles and Poetry

The Magic of Moving by Kara Valkyrie
The USA and Neptune by Jessica Murray
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Magical Practice
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Moon Magic for Fall 2004

A Proposal to the Pagan Cluster

Part I: From Lisa

Delight Stone recently asked me about my reflections on the work of the Pagan Cluster at the Republican Convention in New York.

As I think about the different magical threads we worked at the RNC this is some of what I remember:

Opening space for people to step into their power and act
The crossroads - a choice beyond just Kerry or Bush, a choice about our future
Sacrifice - exploring what are we willing to give up for a green future
De-Hexing - making no room inside for the things that bind us - the paradigm in which most live
Working with Liberty and truth, that their lies be heard as truth
The spinning vortex - seen as an overflowing fountain

I believe some of the manifestations of our work may be:

The largest protest at a convention in US History - hundreds of thousands engaging in creative expression
Unprecedented voter registration - more than anytime throughout recent history
Which means - an unprecedented number of people have gotten off their couches - sacrificed their time and energy and money to get out into the streets to register and mobilize.
We see the debates - where much is being revealed - in the men - naked in their rites and to some extent - the truth - Kerry is speaking quite powerfully at time about the failure and delusions of the Bush Administrations
Unprecedented number of hurricanes (including tornados) hitting Florida. Some say they are hitting hard only in the counties with voter fraud, but I have no idea if there is any truth to this!

Part II: From Lisa and Juniper

We have no doubt that Witches worldwide are and will be working to shape the course of current events including the upcoming elections.

Inspired by the moon card as the outcome in our tarot reading, we'd like to offer an invitation to join us in a community wide spell over this next moon cycle.

The intention of this moon-long spell would be to "Manifest a world in which the visible and invisible structures of power are in service to the green world." (This is a slight re-working of the intention crafted at Dandelion which was to "Manifest, through visible action, our vision of The Greening and a 2004 that is free of Bush (and all that he represents)."

In the interest of synchronizing and continuing our collective magic, we offer this calendar of current, historical and astrological dates during the next moon cycle.

Calendar

Wednesday, October 13 - New Moon at 10:48 pm and a partial solar eclipse at 10:57 pm EDT - during the final presidential debate in Phoenix where our pagan cluster friends have been organizing activities!

Wednesday, October 27 - Full Moon at 11:07 EST and a Lunar Eclipse at 11:05 pm EDT. During Tejas Samhain Camp

Saturday, October 30 - Anniversary of the Vatican taking responsibility of the Inquisition (1998)

Sunday, October 31 - Samhain, (daylight savings time ends)

Monday, November 1 - Election eve, All Saints Day

Tuesday, November 2 - Election Day

- Wednesday, November 3 - Calls for Action have been issued on both the election and Iraq war - visit www.unitedforpeace.org

- Friday, November 12 - New Moon at 9:27 pm EST.

We are not experts in astrology, or anything really, and offer the following ideas as a beginning. We hope that people will add to and shape and suggest other rituals, actions etc that we can do during this moon cycle. This is definitely a work in progress but since the New Moon is upon us we want to get something out.

Possible Work

New Moon - Wednesday, October 13

If you can you may want to consider a trance to the Reclaiming Tree House to explore the DEEP anchors of the fortress, paradigm, hex that do not serve the green world. We want to learn more about those underlying forces that feed all that is manifested by Bush (war, greed, hate, lies, privatization, gmo's etc). Explore the anchors that speak most to you and if you can share what you learn with us afterwards. When you find the anchors - what do they look like, feel like, smell like, sound like, taste like? What is their vibration?

(As you learn more, if it feel right you might imagine planting crystals in the shape of a pentacle around the anchors. You might imagine threads of bright shiny light and/or deep rich green growing and wrapping around the steel cables of the anchors transforming them little by little - literally ãovergrowing, transforming the state.ä Imagine each thread or vine as a single step, imagine Kerry as president as one small step, imagine US troops leaving Iraq as one small step, imagine the earth covered in fields of green, ancient corn growing wild, trees tall old and strong, bearing fruit and nuts, imagine the air gently caressing the wings of bird, butterflies and babies, imagine the fire fueling our passion, our hearts our imagination--clearing the old for the new, image all water running wild and free, bathing, soothing, caressing our bodies, imagine the center full of mystery, creativity, possibility unfolding. See these cords as a beginning source of new energy and hope for the work ahead. )

Waxing Moon

This is a time to build, support and fuel the energy to sustain all those who are working to reclaiming the green world. Growing courage, imagination and truth. For some this may be a time of planting bulbs in the shape of pentacles to bloom in spring. Our work may include finding ways to support those doing the voter registration, education and mobilization. It may be increasing our call to end the war in Iraq. It may mean we ourselves begin speaking those who don't yet see what is at stake and what our green future could be.

Full Moon - October 27

Feel ourselves in our full power with a clear intention to manifest a world in which the visible and invisible structures of power are in service to the green world A world of beauty, balance, abundance and delight. A world rooted in community, cooperation, direct democracy, sustainability, dignity and truth. Feel how strong how courageous and how powerful we are. We can be stewards not owners, we can choose actions that liberate not oppress, we can create not destroy, we can act not sit by. We can vote and support others voting by offering to get people to the polls in early voting or committing to help on election day. We can be warriors for truth by volunteering to do poll watching and defenders of democracy by preparing to take action if there is fraud.

Waning Moon

This is a good time for us to harvest the fruit of our labor (on election day) as well as release or let go of all that does not serve the green world (including elected officials!) It may be a time for grief for all we are losing and a time for action to clear out what is old, decaying and obstructing the future.