Travels With Branwenn

Econo Lodge, Marion, VA

2011-03-30T12:26:00.000-04:00

Jamey and I travel a lot back and forth between Lynchbuurg, VA and Marion, VA where Jamey's Mom is in a nursing home and where his brother lives. We stayed at one of the four small hotels in Marion this past weekend with my mother, who came along for the ride and to meet her son-in-law's family. It was a dump--in a word. No wonder this area of Southwest VA has such a bad reputation for hotels and dining. We plan to stay at and review each of these small hotels over the course of the many trips which we will be making to Marion, VA this year.

The Econolodge at 1420 N. Main Street in Marion, VA was terrible. We reserved two rooms. Thank goodness it was only for one night! There was only one handicapped room in the entire motel that we could find and there was no handicapped sign on the door. My Mom is 81 and cannot climb over the tub enclosure to get her shower. She is doing very well, but needs a handle to lift herself up now and again. The room that she stayed in had a huge bathroom into which you could roll a wheel chair, but no roll in shower and no useful bars for getting up and down. Other than the extra floorspace in the bathroom, that was the only concession to the handicapped individual in her room. So, Mom never got to have a shower.

The heat was impossible to regulate. The thermostat in the window-units in both rooms was obviously not working correctly and the hot air became cold air, then hot air and this continued all night long. The TV in my mother's room was not working correctly and had snow in the picture on just about every channel. The rooms were old, worn and dirty. The lamps were controlled by the switches on the walls and the turn buttons on the lamps themselves were non-functional. The telephone had to be fine-tuned by banging it on the dresser to get a working dial-tone.

Surprisingly, the Internet worked just fine. The coffee in the morning has got to be some of the worst I ever tasted. While we were looking mournfully at the meager offerings of the free breakfast, we asked what time checkout was and the male at the desk told us 12 noon. We went back to the room to get ready to leave and since we no plans until a Sunday family brunch at 1 PM, we were glad for the 12 noon checkout. At 15 minutes to 12 noon, the phone rang and the man on the other end (the manager?) informed us curtly that we only had another 15 minutes to get out of there.

Not surprisingly, there were only three cars in the parking lot all night long. I would never return here or recommend this place to anyone. A full scale remodeling is called for at this motel and a crash course on customer service. I give them a one star rating.

Comfort Inn in Grantsville, MD

2010-12-02T15:49:00.001-05:00

2541 Chestnut Ridge Rd
Grantsville, Maryland
301-895-5993

Branwenn from Lynchburg
December 2, 2010
My family and I had a wonderful, relaxing night here. Our main complaint was that they didn't have any handicapped accessible rooms available that night. We had two King linking rooms on the third floor and both were very comfortable. All the amenities were working and the lobby had a lovely Christmas tree just put up by the Front Desk attendant and her son. The lobby area would be ideal for a Christmas party with a fireplace and a snug area of couches and chairs for conversation. This is a fairly rural area just off Interstate 68, Exit 22, on the PA-MD border. It is in the snow belt and even then day we were here in late November, there was snow and ice, not a lot, but it was there. The hot water can be an issue in the mornings. At 9:00 AM, several people were complaining that there was no hot water when we were enjoying the Breakfast Bar which was very good. The Front Desk attendant said to be patient and give it a chance to heat up again. We opted for a late checkout at noon and by the time we got our showers, the water was very nice and hot. This might be a problem for a businessman on a tight schedule. The Coffee Bar was very good and open all the time. There were carts for loading and unloading luggage and an elevator. The area seemed pretty safe and we didn't worry much about parking our heavily parked van in the lot. There is a local pizza place featured by the hotel with incredibly good pizza that delivers, so we didn't even have to go out in the rain and light snow to get our dinner. All in all, this was a great night for our family.

I'm Back and Will Remain Here--Goodbye Examiner!

2010-11-24T14:04:00.001-05:00

Well, I am leaving the Examiner.com group of writers and striking out on my own. I have been so busy taking care of Mom lately that I haven't been writing anyway and this is bad. I love to write, to travel and to write about the things that I see that would interest the overall Pagan/ Earth-centered communities. Examiner.com now wants exclusive rights to my/our work and has reduced the pay to a fraction of a penny a hit. This I cannot do, so on I go to a new home. I will most likely settle here again and work to publicize this blog with other green travel and Pagan groups. Stay tuned and pass on the good news. The Pagan Travel (Examiner) is back! I will begin publishing several times a week after Thanksgiving. I am thankful for Examiner.com pushing me out of the nest to fly on my own. I will soar like the White Raven that I am.

Rev. Alicia Lyon Folberth

2010-06-12T14:32:00.002-04:00

"All artwork copyright 2010 Alicia Lyon Folberth. Do not use without permission."

Rev. Alicia Lyon Folberth is a multi-talented, multi-faceted Pagan artist, writer and festival organizer. She is a Visual and Digital Illustrator, Painter, Graphic Designer, and Photographer, Alicia grew up in rural North Salem, NY behind the old Keeler Farm at the top of Hunt Mountain, and in the shadow of an ancient Celtic dolmen. She moved to Connecticut in 1988 after attending the Philadelphia University of the Arts. She has lived in the Valley for the past 7 years and currently resides in Derby. When she received the children’s book "Ma Lien and the Magic Brush" accidentally in the mail at age four, she would not let her mother return it.

After that, her focus was always to become an artist, breathing life into her artwork just as the character Ma Lien has done in the story with his magic brush, and this concept would later also magically color her life spiritually as well.

Although her focus was Illustration, she became a Graphic Designer, and has worked for Fortune 500 companies and Advertising Agencies.

As an entrepreneur Alicia ran a small business in the 90’s, Centaur Illustration, exhibiting her work at Renaissance Fairs, and creating commissioned fine art and graphics. She also privately instructed local children in art and drawing while living in Bridgeport.

"All artwork copyright 2010 Alicia Lyon Folberth. Do not use without permission."

Most recently, she ran her own magical book and gift shop in East Haven, SubRosa Magick, for three years, and is a talented tarot reader giving spiritual advice to her clients. The recession forced its closure last year. Rev. Alicia still reads by appointment, and over the phone. She has always had the second sight, as well as other spiritual gifts, and employs these during her readings. Her customers tell her that her readings are highly accurate, and the manner in which she reads is caring, honest and straightforward. She was a long time reader before she first began reading for the public thirteen years ago, and has been a spiritual advisor to many in her capacity as a priestess. She enjoys reading and she has found it to be one of her callings in helping others on the path.

Now, running a magic shop might sound unusual, until you realize that Alicia has put her talented hand to many different creative pursuits. Alicia considers life to be the greatest canvas on which to paint. She is not simply a visual and graphic artist, but deeply spiritual woman of the Goddess as a Priestess, a teacher, a feminist, a writer, an activist and advocate, a psychic, a Reiki Master, and a student of the Afro-Caribbean hand drum.

She also teaches Reiki Classes and offers Reiki treatments. She first received Usui Reiki Level I training 27 years ago from David Jarrell, she began working with animals, and later treating people who were ill. She completed the Essential Reiki Level III Master/Teacher Training in January 2005 with Morganna Davies, who was trained by Essential Reiki author Diane Stein.

Rev. Alicia came to the path 25 years ago, after she was introduced to Wiccan religion through Zanoni Silverknife. For many years she has devoted herself to Celtic traditions as a votary of Rhiannon. She was introduced to Odyssean tradition thirteen years ago, which is the tradition of the Wiccan Church of Canada, and has now resumed her studies with two wonderful teachers, Elders Tamarra and Richard James.

Rev. Alicia founded the first Wiccan and Pagan Temple in the state of Connecticut in 1995, the Panthean Temple, formerly known as the Pagan Community Church and runs its large Beltaine festival every May in Oxford (http://www.PaganOdyssey.com/). She is no stranger to the media, having co-hosted a Wiccan cable access television show for several years, and has been interviewed on television, radio, the internet, and in newspapers and magazines.

Her writing has been published in two books to date; Cakes and Ale for the Pagan Soul edited by Patricia Telesco, and Voices of Survivors edited by Namid, both are available on Amazon.com. Her advice tarot column “It’s in the cards” has been featured in Finer Things Magazine and on PaganPages.org. She is in the process of writing and illustrating her own first book, which is a series of guided meditations and journeys.

Having matured as an artist, she is beginning her career now as a visual artist and writer full time, and is excited about this new journey under the new name of ‘Fly by Night Studio.’ To this end, she has recently joined the Valley Arts Council in Derby Connecticut.

Her favorite medium is oils, but she happily works in any, on or off the computer.

Links to learn more about Alicia and her many hats in the Pagan community

* web site coming soon: http://www.flybynightstudio.com//
* old store web site: http://www.SubRosaMagick.com/
* Facebook-Alicia's FB Page: http://www.facebook.com/alicia.folberth
* Facebook-Fly By Night Studio page: http://www.facebook.com/FlyByNightStudio
* Facebook-Panthean Temple Page: http://www.facebook.com/PantheanTemple
* Web site-Beltaine: A Pagan Odyssey site: http://www.paganodyssey.com/
* Facebook-Beltaine: A Pagan Odyssey site: http://www.facebook.com/PaganOdyssey
* My Space: http://www.myspace.com/aliciafolberth

Related articles
More fun at the Beltaine 2010: A Pagan Odyssey Festival in CT:Slideshow

Beltaine 2010: A Pagan Odyssey in Oxford, CT is a wonderful festival

Sacred Sites of Northeast USA: Connecticut: Gungywamp, near Groton CT

**Author's note: I recently met Rev. Alicia Lyon Folberth at the Beltaine 2009: A Pagan Odysey Festival in Oxford, CT. Alicia was kind enough to offer me complimentary admission to the festival in return for several articles previously published about the festival. I fell in love wih the work of this enchanting artist and knew I had to feature her artwork and her story on this column. PLEASE comment on her astonishingly talented work and check out all the links. She is a powerhouse of talent. Enjoy!

Barefoot Bernie's in Hagerstown,MD

2010-05-02T19:17:00.000-04:00

I've been to the Barefoot Bernie's in Kittyhawk, NC and I was so hoping to hear and feel the incredible music and ambience of the islands, but no way, mon. This place looks OK from the outside--a little kitschy, but that would be fine if they could pull it off. Island time can be lots of fun. Inside would probably have been better with the Beach Boys heading to Cocomo or Jimmy Buffet wasting away somewhere, but there was no music or it wasn't very loud if it was there.

The waitress was just plain unfriendly and she looked wore out and unhappy too. I was there on a Monday night at about 6 PM and the place was--well--dead. The food was OK. Nothing fabulous, but the food was the star here when I thought the atmosphere would/should be.

At least they had a Margarita special on Mondays. Margaritas were 3.76--$4 with tax. They call them Monday $4 Margaritas. The Margarita packed a pretty good punch for a small one, too.

I had an order of cheese sticks which were pretty normal, nothing incredible. The crab melt sandwich was great and inexpensive too, only $10.99 and since both sides were covered, it had a good quantity of fresh tasting crab. The house crab sandwich is $13.99 and there is a special of two smaller crab sandwiches for $12.99 on Mondays. With the very good fries, I think I made the right choice.

I hope this place livens up in the summer time. If it does, it could be a lot of fun. The waitress really needs to learn to smile though.

Rathskeller Restaurant & Bar: A fabulous find in Southbury, CT

2010-05-02T18:37:00.001-04:00

This is a small, but wonderful restaurant in the basement of a beautiful house near Exit 15 of interstate highway 84 in Southbury, VT. The food is incredible. The service was also fabulous possibly because the owner waited on me herself most of the time. Since I was sitting alone, she talked with me quite a bit and both she and her husband were super sweet. I loved the great hat that the owner was wearing with Mayday flowers on it.

The bar put me so much in mind of "Cheers" that I kept waiting for someone to shout, "Norm!" when the various regulars walked in the door to shouts of greeting. It wasn't quite as overly familiar as "Cheers," but the environment was that hometown friendly, but with wonderful food.

I had one of the best appetizers of my life. They call it the Mozzarella Carozza. It is the size of a piece of bread. The menu describes this work of art as sliced mozzarella lightly breaded and fried with house marinara for $6.99. That doesn't begin to describe the wonderful chunky, chewy goodness of this concoction. Wow! That is all I can say.

I also had the Cooper's Chicken Sandwich which was a crisp chicken cutlet, cheddar cheese and bacon with Ranch dressing. This was served with a choice of side and luckily, I chose the homemade potato salad. It was one of the best restaurant potato salads I have had over my lifetime. The sandwich was served cut in half to make it a bit easier to manage. There was also a half a pickle. I so miss New England.

I chose my meal off the sandwich menu which is always available. The dinner menu is adventurous and features things like Pumpkin Ravioli in a white wine cream sauce with crispy sage and Jack Daniels steaks in a peppered cream sauce.

I saw a desert go by which was huge and looked like it would cause a chocolate orgasm. I couldn't finish my meal after the filling appetizer, so I loaded half of everything into my doggie bag and resolved to stop back again on my way back home. I will definitely go back to this little gem.

Nice, but not perfect

2010-05-02T16:40:00.000-04:00

Hotel review of:
Crowne Plaza Southbury
1284 Strongtown Road
Southbury, Connecticut
203-598-7600

The outside of the hotel does not look as upscale as you would expect a Crowne Plaza to look. Inside was very nice, but the elevators were hesitant to open their doors when you reached your floor and this made for a few nerve-wracking moments. Nothing was free or discounted and the fact that I was a Priority Club member didn’t seem to register with them even though I gave them my Priority Club card at registration and they took a copy of it. I had made my reservations on Priceline.com for half as much as the going rate at this hotel, but other times I had still been given my Priority Club benefits.

The room was small. The plug in the bathroom sink did not work and so when I tried to wash out some delicate items, I could not. The shower made a horrible shrieking noise and the water as not ever really hot, hot. It was ok for a shower, but not really hot.

Room service was quick. I ordered room service the first two nights but got rather nauseous to my stomach after both meals. I am not sure why. It could just have been me. I did not go out on Thursday as I had planned because I was still not feeling well. The food was very good-expensive as room service always is. ($10 for a burger and fries plus $3 for the room service—$2 for the server and 60 cents tax.) I had a lot of stuff with me since I am working at a festival while I am here. The second young woman who brought my meal on Thursday night stared around her and exclaimed, "You sure have a lot of stuff!" She seemed quite young and naive.

A maintenance man came to fix my telephone which wasn't working and discovered that the plastic thing that plugs into the phone was broken. He was quite nice and quick, very efficient.

I stayed 5 nights while I was working at the festival. For some reason after my first night there, I had to go down to the lobby to get my door entry card re-activated. I was sick on Wednesday night and Thursday and did not leave the room. For some reason, they had checked me out of the room and listed me as a no-show for Thursday. When I went to get my key reactivated, there was a lot of stuff that had to be done and managers to be called to fix the situation. They were nice, but I still don’t understand how they could have not known there was someone still in the room. I had room service and a repairman both on the day they said that I was a no-show. I was already there. Weird. They fixed it and everything was fine. I am waiting to see what happens when I check out on Monday morning.

Sometimes perfect and sometimes, not so good

2010-05-02T16:36:00.000-04:00

Hotel review of:
Holiday Inn Hotel and Conference Center
542 Route 9
Fishkill, New York
845-896-6281

This hotel was a mixed bag of perfect and not so good. The people at the front desk were excellent both at registration and check out. They treated me like a Priority Club member even though my reservation had been made on Priceline.com. I still showed them my Priority Club card when I registered and they treated me like I hadn't paid half as much as everybody else there.

The bed was very comfy--I could have slept for days... The front entrance was beautiful. The coffee pod things in the rooms, however, were terrible. They only made one cup and then they didn't have enough fixings to put enough sugar or creamer into the awful coffee. The dining room only had 1/2 and 1/2 and I am allergic to milk, so this was not a good thing for me.

The guest soaps are incredible--citrus mint-Yum!!! There was one bulb out in the bathroom. The shower did not adjust in intensity. It turned but then froze in one position which was the needle spray position which made the shower a bit painful. The bathroom sink drain drained very slowly--almost not at all.

Breakfast was free to Priority Club members. All I can say is that you get what you pay for. I ate late at 9:30 AM and breakfast was over at 10 AM. It definitely showed. The scrambled eggs were dry and hard. The bacon was ok and the fried potatoes looked awful, but tasted great. They were lukewarm and had gotten clumps of red in them where the salsa put into them had congealed. They looked really nasty, but they still tasted pretty good. The fruit was hard, unripe pieces of melon and one or two grapes. There were no flavored--or unflavored for that matter--non-dairy creamers for the coffee, only 1/2 and 1/2. I stated earlier that I am allergic to milk, so this was a problem for me. The waitress said that this was all they had.

Dinner the night before had been exactly opposite with great food, good service. The Priority Club membership gives you a free drink-a choice of beer or wine-and 10 % off dinner. This was very, very nice.

If you are a Priority Club member, then show your card. You will get treated like royalty and get all the discounts and things you would normally get paying full price. Also, the points you earn in the restaurant, room service, bar and the rest will be credited to you Priority Club account, just not your room fee if you make the reservation on Priceline.

Sedalia Writers' Conference

2010-03-02T17:49:00.000-05:00

The fourth annual Sedalia Writers' Conference will be held April 16-17, featuring novelist Kathy Grissom of Forest and three other presenters on various aspects of the writing life.

Grissom's first book, "The Kitchen House," was published last month by Simon & Schuster, and she will be a participant in the Virginia Festival of the Book in Charlottesville.

Lynchburg resident Paula Jean West, a specialist in eco-travel and "spiritual travel" has a worldwide audience for her blogs. She will discuss blogging as a diversion and also as a potential business.

Amy Allen is the owner and director of the Lynchburg-based Ruth Consulting Group. The author of eight books, she was the public relations director for the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts before going into business for herself. She will discuss public relations as an occupation.

Darrell Laurant has been a journalist for three decades and a freelance writer for almost that long. The local columnist for The News & Advance in Lynchburg, he has also written more than 200 magazine and Website articles and is the founder and director of The Writers' Bridge (www.thewritersbridge.com), an international freelance writers' organization.

The conference will begin with a reception on Friday, April 16 from 7-9 and continue on Saturday (9-4). Lunch is included in the cost, which is $25 at the door and $20 in advance. For more information, contact Darrell Laurant at writersbridge@hotmaillcom or at 434-525-4811 or 434-385-5544.

MRS. B Has a Great Idea on Confessions of a Pagan Soccer Mom!

2010-02-19T15:01:00.001-05:00

My friend and co-Examiner at Examiner.com has posted a great idea and a really cool contest on her blog site! Take a look at this! Can yo see me "fantasied" as an Autumn Faery??
BB
Paula

Friday, February 19, 2010
Retro Cooking Giveaway #5: Fantasy Me Print!!

While this might not necessarily have a "retro" theme (though it certainly could, lol!), I'm never going to pass by a chance to work with Angelique from Angelique Art (among a multitude of projects that she handles, including the Pagan Writers Community)

Have you ever fantasized about being a fairy, a pirate or a princess? Maybe a fierce warrior with a pet dragon? Now is your chance to put those fantasies into a work of art!

The winner of this contest will get a custom made "Fantasy Me" digital creation!! If you aren't familiar with Angelique's Fantasy Me creations, she works in 3-D digital technology to create a custom made "If I were a fantasy figure or historical figure, what would I look like" picture.

I personally have a Fantasy Me done as me as Joan of Arc (one of my ultimate favorite historical figures. Here's what mine looks like:

Is that freaking cool or what?! To see other works by the artist, check out her Deviant Art Gallery, which includes other Fantasy Me works, among other things (Let me strongly recommend her take on Cernunnos on page 4 -- rowwwrrr!).

The winner will receive a high quality digital file of the work that Angelique creates specifically for her/him, suitable for a great print!

Requirements to enter:

Have an blog accessible through your user name or leave an email address with each entry.
Visit Angelique's Deviant Art Gallery and see what kind of work she does. Come back here, and leave a comment about your ideas on what historical or fantasy figure you'd like to see yourself made into.

For extra chances to win (required post must be made for these to count!), you may do any one or more of the following (leave a separate comment for each):

1 entry each (for a total of three possible) - Write about this giveaway on your blog, Myspace or LiveJournal. Leave a separate comment for each and include the URL to the post. (As per the new Facebook TOS, Facebook can NOT be used as an entry for giveaways.)
*1 entry (per day) - Tweet the following message: RT @MrsBsConfession Visit silvermoonwitch.blogspot.com to enter to win a Fantasy Me creation from artist @angelmroczka! (Leave a separate comment for each day's tweet, including the URL to the post.)
1 entry - Be or become a follower on Twitter of @angelmroczka
1 entry - Subscribe to Angelique's personal blog.
All Retro Cooking Month Giveaways will run until the last day of February. All winners will be picked at noon, EST on February 28 via an online, random number generator. Winners will be announced soon after.

***PLEASE NOTE ON THE TWITTER MESSAGE:
When you copy something from this blog, it automatically adds my URL to the message when you paste it again - basically a way to try to keep people from copying my content.

Just erase the part of the message that says:
"Read more: http://silvermoonwitch.blogspot.com/2010/02/retro-cooking-giveaway-4-inside-glass.html#ixzz0fov63F12"

PLEASE NOTE:
If your blogger profile is set to private, I will be unable to find your blog or email via your profile. If you don't leave an email address in your comments, and your profile is private, the entries DO NOT count.
Entries that are not on separate posts will be counted as one entry.
Entries that contain links not related to the giveaway (capital "s", rhymes with "ham") will be deleted, and those entries will not count.
Entries must be in English.

Read more: http://silvermoonwitch.blogspot.com/#ixzz0g0uNY5zI

Many New Projects: Are You Interested In Being A Part Of One of Them?

2010-01-20T10:52:00.004-05:00

January is already far, far too busy for me. Winter is supposed to be a time to relax and regroup. I already have ten different irons in various fires and need to either seriously cut back or find an organizational schedule to deal with all these "wonderful opportunities."

I am so overwhelmed on all levels right now. I need to drop a bunch of this stuff and concentrate on the basics like finding my house under the layers of built up clutter from the last four weeks I spent at my Mom's in PA. I am so depressed today!

Here is a list of all the links to my various projects:
1. My blog here, Travels With Branwenn, which is sadly neglected and needs to be updated. I could definitely use a copy editor to go over my blog and tell me what needs to be updated or changed.
2. My Examiner.com column and the series of articles for Imbolc that I have just launched that still has THREE more parts that need to be finished.
3. My newest undertaking, Black Walnut Magazine. Black Walnut Magazine is an online Pagan webzine of which Darci has so trustingly allowed me to become Assistant Editor. I have several articles for the magazine and have recruited a couple more, but I need more great articles about Imbolc! Email me at Branwenn@aol.com if you have any ideas to help me out here!
4. Someone to help me create, clean, and remodel my basement into my new office space and herbcraft space. I need an office assistant that will be able to help me in all aspects of this undertaking including the dreamwork in creating it as magickal space.

Pagan Travel 2010: green travel, eco-travel, sacred sites, Pagan Festivals and much more

2010-01-01T15:21:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year! Happy Hogmanay! Welcome to Pagan Travel in 2010! (That's pronounced "twenty-ten" or so I am told by those who are way cooler than I.) Along with giving you the lowdown on all the cool “Pagan Places” you can visit on our waxing, waning, wonderful Mother Earth, I hope to dispel myths and misinformation about Paganism and Wicca along the way. Come along and see the world! Paganism is everywhere.

Like everyone else, Pagans make New Year's resolutions and sometimes don't keep them. This is not mysterious or arcane. Dedication, determination, hard work, concentration and follow-through are the characteristics that will help you succeed in the new decade. Sometimes these characteristics are harder to muster than we originally thought.

These are the same principles--dedication, determination, hard work, concentration and follow through -- that many witches, Wiccans, and some Pagans apply to any magickal work they attempt. It might be called magick, but it still takes hard work. Misunderstandings abound, as they do about much of what is labeled (rightly or wrongly) as Pagan or Wiccan. It probably will surprise many of you that some Pagans don't do magick. A larger number of Wiccans do, but not all. For those who are totally confused by the different sects of Paganism, the rule of thumb is, "All Wiccans are Pagan, but not all Pagans are Wiccan." It's close to the idea that all Southern Baptists are Christian, but not all Christians are Southern Baptists.

Every Pagan path (Pagan being the general umbrella term for a great number of sometimes not completely compatible "nature religions.") is different. Wiccans, witches, Heathens, Druids, and countless more spiritual paths embrace characteristics of Paganism. The joke is that if you gather six Pagans in a room, you will get six definitions of Paganism. The primary characteristic seems to be a strong sense of individuality.

Many Pagans follow what they call an “Earth-centered” spirituality. Some Pagans follow the law, "Harm none.” Wiccans have a version of this law that states in archaic English, “An that it harm none, do what thou wilt.” This is called the Wiccan Rede and can be very loosely compared to the Christian Golden Rule. Some Wiccans also believe what they call the “Rule of Three” which states that for every action or energy, positive or negative, that you send out into the Universe, this action or energy, positive or negative, will come back to you three-fold. Think “karma” or in secular terms “what goes around, comes around.” In scientific terms, think about the First Law of Thermodynamics: “For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.” The THREE-fold idea seems to come from the magick of the number THREE in some Wiccan tradition’s ideology, i.e. the idea of a Triple Goddess.

Some Pagans and many ceremonial magicians see "magick" as defined by Aleister Crowley as: "Magick is the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will. (Illustration: It is my Will to inform the World of certain facts within my knowledge. I therefore take "magickal weapons", pen, ink, and paper; I write "incantations" — these sentences — in the "magickal language" ie, that which is understood by the people I wish to instruct; I call forth "spirits", such as printers, publishers, booksellers and so forth and constrain them to convey my message to those people. The composition and distribution of this [article] is thus an act of Magick by which I cause Changes to take place in conformity with my Will." (From Wikipedia’s page about Crowley)

Many Wiccans see "magick" as a more psychological transformation, a type of positive affirmation with the added sacred dimension of making these affirmations before your personal Gods and Goddesses inside a "magick circle." The writings of Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell are good refernce materials for this type of psychology as it relates to Pagan thought. Another view of magic can be seen in a book written by the popular psychologiist and motivational speaker, Dr. Wayne Dyer. Dyer entitled his book, Real Magic. It is a great read with yet another view of magic and although it contains many ideas that embrace the Pagan paradigm of values, Dyer is not known to be Pagan. Neither are Jung or Campbell, but their ideas are well-known and loved in some Pagan circles.

I digress too long on my second favorite subject which is debunking misinformation assigned to Paganism. This is my secondary goal in these columns. My primary goal is telling the world about all the “Pagan Places” that are just waiting to be explored in this world. In 2010, I hope to approach this wide-flung subject matter in a more organized fashion starting with an outline of all the “sacred places” in the various regions of the USA and then moving over to Ireland, the UK, France and on across a large portion of the world.

Pagan Travel Examiner will continue to feature the Pagan festival calendars, the Renaissance Faire calendars and interviews and reports about people and places Pagan-related all across this world. As always, I encourage you to subscribe to my columns, comment at the bottom of each of the articles and write to me at Branwenn@aol.com with any additional ideas or suggestions you may have for these pages. I want to hear from you!
**********************
This article kicked off the year 2010 on my Examiner.com column Pagan Travel Examiner

Samhain at the Beach

2009-11-01T07:38:00.000-05:00

Nothing ever turns out the way I expect it to be these days. October 31, 2009 at Myrtle Beach dawned bright and beautiful. A special gift, Rhiannon and Epona graced me with their presences. I was sitting on the balcony drinking my cofee, when suddenly about 20 horses(and riders, too, but who counts them :0 ) are marching in ones, twos and threes, past my hotel and all along the beach. They prance up the beach and back for about three hours. First marching, in the surf and along the edges of the water, then trotting, and then a few of them in an all out gallup in the surf pounding up and down the beach. Amazing! What a gift! Thank you Godesses!

I have many more tales of my travels--pun intended--and pictures too. I will be posting all week.

Leaving the South?

2009-10-26T08:47:00.007-04:00

I have been out on the road since October 14. It is a mixture of pain and joy for me. Being on the road always brings out such mixed feelings and emotions for me. I would love to be able to travel WITH my wonderful husband Jamey ALL the time, but he has a 9-5 (good) job as an engineer back home in Lynchburg, VA. I am indulging in some tearful homesickness for my honey this trip, and for my house and home.

I miss my big, old, rambling, sometimes falling down, sometimes charming home on the corner back in the 'burg. I definitely do not miss the 'burg. It seems more like the center of radical right evil than ever these days as the cancer of Falwell-ism metastasizes out to infect the entire city. It has always been bad, but it's gettin' worse.

I miss my dog and cat, especially the dog. Now that my Rosie-kitty is in the Summerland and I have adopted the new little brat cat, Bijoux, Keri has become my angel. Keri-dog, my mostly black, Labra-beagle, is always there beside me at home. Sitting at the computer, all I have to do is drop my hand down to pat her head or scratch her tummy when she rolls over. I don't remember ever loving a dog so completely, even my Judy-dog, the gorgeous golden cocker spaniel with the cataracts to whom I was the seeing eye person.

Judy was a very special and wonderful doggie, but Keri is something more. I may have found another familiar. I am still not quite sure. I do know that I miss Keri terribly on this trip. It is creeping up on the anniversary of my Rosie's passing. Rosie left me on Thanksgiving night last year. Thanksgiving 2009 will definitely be a mixture of pain of missing Rosie and happiness of being with my Mom and my whole family. Mom is 80 now so every day is precious. She and my nephew by a previous marriage, Steven, and his family, are my only real family. Being an only and adopted child can be a lonely experience.

Here in Hilton Head today it is grey and overcast, melancholy, like my mood. It is only 66 outside and supposed to be in the low 70s. The next two days it is going to rain. DEPRESSION ALERT!

Mean while, I need to decide whether it is time to get back home or whether to soldier on and complete the articles I have not finished with yet. I have taken this trip and I feel I haven't gotten enough out of it yet. I wonder if any of you have ever felt that way?

The sweet potato harvest from Lynchburg and Brugh na Bhride--the name for our house and home--exceeded all expectations. There will be yummy sweet potato pie this year! I have herbs to finish gathering and pies to bake, wreaths of rosemary and lavender to make and brooms to create.

Jamey and Greg, my youngest son, 19, saw a big woolly caterpillar yesterday in the back yard. It was huge and totally black with a really thick coat and hardly any brown showing through. Look out! We are in for a real winter this year!

Well, I am all packed up now and have decided to spend another 3 days up in Myrtle Beach until it stops raining. The room is an efficiency oceanfront at the Ocean Park Resort. How awful can it be to sit on the balcony-or just inside the balcony if it is really pouring-and watch the rain on the ocean? The room is only $33 a night and it is a three star "resort." They are supposed to have real Wi-Fi and I can write while I am there.

The $33 a night at a resort is what you too can find if you look, by the way. I've got a lot of hotel and restaurant reviews to write and a few more Examiner articles before I can come in from the road. I am still stuck on the idea of celebrating Samhain on the ocean with a circle in the sand. We shall see.

I'm off to the shower now,so I'll talk to you tomorrow!

Sandy Fall Blessings!
Paula

My Examiner.com column

2009-10-25T10:44:00.006-04:00

Brightest Blessings everyone on this crisp and beautiful Fall day. I am sure that a lot of you know by now that I am the Pagan Travel Examiner on Examiner.com. I take great pride in my Examiner.com column and I am trying to help the greater Pagan, Wiccan, New Age, Earth-centered spirituality communities by providing this overview of all things related to Paganism to do in this wide, wonderful world. The scope of the subject is pretty limitless. My articles on Examiner are supposed to be news stories and in the third person, so this blog is where the real me will be hanging out for all the world to see. I hope you will subscribe to both columns and read them regularly. I am hoping to provide a constant stream of interesting and educational as well as funny stories and articles about cool Pagan places to visit in this world. Go to both pages and subscribe and come along with me as we travel the world together! Pagan Travel Examiner and Travels With Branwenn

Chases on the Beach, New Smyrna Beach, FL

2009-04-17T11:32:00.001-04:00

Chases on the Beach
3401 South Atlantic Avenue
New Smyrna Beach, FL
386-423-8787

A Real Change of Attitude and Right on the Ocean

www.chasesonthebeach.com

I can't help humming Jimmy Buffet's legendary song, "Changes in latitude, changes in attitude..." This is one of the best on the beach restaurants and watering holes I have found on my myriad journeys. There is live music twice a day. There are 2/1 drink specials and half-price appetizers at Happy Hour every day. I had the Calamari for $8.99. ($4.50 during Happy Hour.) This is hand cut and battered calamari tubes and tentacles served with a marinara dipping sauce. They were excellent! I had two Yuengling drafts both brought ice cold at the same time for $3.00. I had the Coconut Chicken Wrap Sandwich for $8.99-also excellent. It was crispy chicken fingers in an herb tortilla wrap with lettuce, pineapple, shredded coconut, roasted cashews and provolone cheese. Yummy! And the live music is classic--beach favorites from the Beach Boys to Buffet and beyond. Fire up the blender, Mama! The view is the best one in the Universe--waves rolling up onto the sand with a gentle swish, swish, swish... What more could you ask for? Oh--and if you dare, you can wear your bikini or bathing suit right into the restaurant or even swim in their pool right there in the restaurant. This is beach living at its best!

Coastal Waters Inn, New Smyrna Beach, FL

2009-04-16T15:18:00.000-04:00

Coastal Waters Inn
3509 S. Atlantic Ave
New Smyrna Beach, FL 32169
386-428-3800, 800-321-7882

Coastal Waters Inn would be lovely if they had more rooms with a view of the ocean and if they had an elevator and luggage carts. The rickety, old-style wood beach steps up the sides of the buildings are dangerous especially if you are elderly or even slightly handicapped in any way. It was raining the day I left and I had to carry my luggage one step at a time down the 17 very slippery and rickety steps from my room on the second floor to my car. When I expressed my dismay at check-in that there were such steep steps up to the room, the tiny check-in attendant offered to help carry my suitcases up the steps for me. She was tinier than the 50-60 pound suitcase that I take on long journeys. I ended up leaving the suitcase in the trunk and bringing up one set of clothing a day rather than make the dangerous trek even more dangerous with 50 pounds of luggage. I didn’t care for this hotel and I would not recommend it to anyone. There was a fully equipped kitchen in my unit, but how do you cook when you have no easy way to get the groceries up the steps to the unit? I guess if I was still in my 20s or 30s, it wouldn’t be such a problem, but I noticed that most of the guests were older than I am. The reservations were made through a company called All One Vacations who do time share tours in the New Smyrna Beach area. I toured a timeshare resort named Coconut Palms while I was there, but I was very unimpressed by the resort and the tour. I will discuss in depth the lack of customer service by All in One Vacations in another post devoted to just that company. There was no restaurant at Coastal Waters Inn. I would not return here in the future.

Shiki at the Beach

2009-04-16T14:44:00.000-04:00

Shiki at the Beach
3192 South Atlantic Avenue
New Smyrna Beach, FL 32169
386-427-4930

I loved this incredible Chinese-Japanese fusion restaurant. The location is nothing special. It is in a strip mall on the non-ocean side of A1A with Food Lion and some other shops. The decor is very nice and the food is excellent. I had the Gyoza appetizer for $6.50. The Gyoza is 6 pan fried beef dumplings served with sauce. I also had two different types of rolls featured by this restaurant: the Park Avenue rolls for $5.25 which are made up of sushi rice, tempura shrimp, avocado, cucumber, flying fish roe, and mayo. I also had the Florida roll for $6.00. These are sushi rice, fried salmon (or white fish), mayo, lettuce, and avocado. All of the food was incredible and the Soda was inexpensive at $1.75. I heartily recommend this restaurant to everyone.

JB's Fish Camp, New Smyrna Beach, FL

2009-04-16T14:02:00.000-04:00

JB's Fish Camp
859 Pompano Avenue
New Smyrna Beach, FL 32169
386-427-5747
I loved the rustic look and feel of JB's Fish Camp. Their Oyster Sandwich with fries for $7.50 was piled high with succulent fried oysters. These are the kind of oysters that oyster lovers dream about. I can only imagine that the rest of the seafood was equally divine. This restaurant is open from 11:30 AM to 9:30 PM daily. There is live entertainment on Saturday and Sundays during the summer season, weather permitting. If you love seafood, a laid back atmosphere and great music with your beer, then you will love JB's Fish Camp. I can't wait to go back. http://www.jbsfishcamp.com/

Barnacles Restaurant

2009-04-16T13:25:00.000-04:00

Barnacles Restaurant
869 South Atlantic Avenue
Ormond Beach, FL 32176
386-673-1070

4/02/2009 and 4/03/2009

“Barnacles” became my favorite restaurant on Ormond Beach this April 2009. I was very unhappy that the dining room did not have a view of the ocean, but the food almost made up for this. (Who would go to all the expense of having an ocean front property and then not put windows that actually faced the ocean so you could hear and watch the surf while you dine?) “Barnacles” is rustic and seaside looking. The huge salad bar, all you can eat crab specials and the oceanfront location are the biggest stars here. The Stuffed Shrimp Appetizer is incredible. It is actually 4 large shrimp, each topped with a big chunk of first quality crab cake and drizzled with a lobster sauce that was heavenly. I ate here twice while I was at the beach and ordered this appetizer both times. A word to the wise: watch for the coupons specials in the various coupon books for Barnacles. The night I had the Rib-eye steak with my Stuffed shrimp, I met the $25 minimum and received two glasses of free wine with my meal. “Barnacles” also has a two for one Happy Hour and a huge salad bar worth the extra $3. The second night I dined at Barnacles, I tried the Shrimp Pasta Arasgosta which is shrimp and linguine topped with their incredible lobster sauce. This was a bit of a disappointment as they were a bit skimpy on the shrimp and the lobster sauce for my taste.

http://www.barnaclesonline.com/Home_Page.html

Seasons 52 Restaurant, 7700 Sand Lake Road, Orlando, FL

2009-04-16T12:36:00.006-04:00

Seasons 52 Restaurant
7700 Sand Lake Road
Orlando, FL 32819
407-354-5212

Reservations Suggested

A Wonderful Restaurant for Any Reason

Seasons 52 Restaurant is sparkling clean and simply beautiful. The decor is earthy and pleasant: wood, stone, fountains, hanging lanterns, artwork everywhere you turned, and an incredible view of the lake. Everything is spotless in the restrooms as well. The outside of the building is fantastically landscaped in wood, stone, lots of plants, trees, flowers and fountains. This is a very impressive restaurant to see both inside and out.

The food at Seasons 52 was incredible. It more than lived up to its reputation of using only the freshest ingredients. I have rarely had such a wonderful meal as the one I completely enjoyed at Seasons 52. I chose an appetizer of stuffed mushrooms. These were served on a special plate designed for stuffed mushrooms. The tender morsels of mushroomy goodness were stuffed with crabmeat, cheese, and baby shrimp and then sprinkled with more cheese. My next course was a steak salad. The salad was actually a fresh assortment of spring greens, roasted yellow and red peppers, warm, smoky mushrooms and freshly shredded Asiago cheese topped with a freshly made Caesar dressing. This was then topped with a tender, warm pink in the middle, steak cut into bite size cubes and liberally sprinkled on the top of the salad. The entire presentation was hearty and elegant and claimed to be fewer than 500 calories per serving. The finishing coup was the Mango cheesecake. This has to be one of the best desserts I have ever eaten. The Mango puree was heavenly; the cheesecake light and fluffy; creamy and rich; and the tiny cup was just enough to conquer my sweet tooth without blowing my healthy eating plan for the rest of the month. The freshly made Cappuccino was the perfect beginning and end to an amazing meal.

My only question is why don’t we have a Seasons 52 here in Lynchburg, Virginia?

Back in Florida Again--

2009-03-02T15:25:00.004-05:00

Hyatt Regency Orlando International Airport
9300 Airport Blvd. Orlando, Florida 32827
(407) 825-1234

SO GLAD I AM STAYING IN THE AIRPORT!

When I finally stumbled off the second leg of my flight from Lynchburg, VA to Orlando, FL at 9:30 PM, you cannot imagine how happy I was that I had the good, common sense to book my first two nights in Orlando right at the airport. My flight out of Lynchburg had been canceled and they stuffed us all into a "limo van" like sardines and trucked us off to the Roanoke airport over an hour away. The relief at finally being able to climb into a warm, soft bed was incredible after dragging around too heavy luggage all day. I didn’t even have to hassle with my luggage again after I arrived at the Hyatt Orlando because for a $10 fee, you give your luggage pick-up stubs and a description of your luggage to the bell captain and he sends someone off to pick up your luggage and deliver it to the room for you. (Yes—that monstrous green suitcase is heavy, isn’t it? Thank you—here’s another $5 towards your hernia surgery…You say you don’t have a hernia… Well, you will after you do the same thing for me on the return trip… Ask for Tony, you say…OK John! Thanks and I will ask for Tony on the return trip…) I also hadn’t eaten since breakfast and so I ordered room service, at 10 PM. Sushi—wonderful, incredible sushi—available by room service—at 10 PM! Amazing! I also ordered my breakfast for in the morning and a large pot of Starbucks coffee to wash down my zucchini and cheese frittata. This was served promptly at 10AM when I finally became conscious again. Now I admit to you that all of this luxury isn’t cheap. The least expensive rate is $145.52 a night after they add all the taxes and that is only if you are a Hyatt Gold Passport member and a senior—(Ahhhh… the blessings of AARP… It almost makes being over 50 enjoyable.) Lucky me, I am a Gold Passport member, an AARP member AND I had 24,000 points idling away in my rewards account, so I stayed for free for both nights. Soft, comfy king size bed, marble bath, room service, and a balcony overlooking the inner court of the airport central terminal where you could people watch for days and never get truly bored—ahh—what a life we frugal travelers live! If you can afford it—do yourself a favor and spend the first night or even two of your Orlando vacation at the Hyatt Regency Orlando International Airport Hotel. It was wonderful for me.

On The Road Again

2008-10-16T21:15:00.003-04:00

Some of you know I am out on the road again; some of you didn't realize it; and, some of you don't really care. To that last group I say, it IS my blog. I will write what I will write. You can delete now or get your own blog. Anyone can do it--LOL:):) BLOGGER isn't picky, obviously, they let me do it! I left on October 2 and I won't be home until sometime on October 18. Then, I will probably be in for the winter unless I am lucky enough to get a resort audit someplace warm and tropical in January or February.

Having cleared away all those who don't really know me or want to know me, let me say that this trip has been very long and very enlightening. The first week and a half I worked my tail off. I did 4-5 retail audits a day and wrote them up and submitted them every night. While I was doing this, my hotel rooms were paid for (and several of my meals) since I was also doing three consecutive resort audits at two really nice resorts and one not so nice-um-er-hotel. (I can't say where because then I would get into trouble for violating confidentiality.)

Completing the time-share shops is a matter of learning to say, "No," in twenty-one different ways. You are rigged up with a portable tape recorder. They are digital now, the old ones were huge and they gave you a special purse to put them into. Pretty soon all the time-share sales people were onto the purses. ("Watch out for the shoppers with the ugly black purses that they keep fidgeting with. Be careful what you say to them and whatever you do, don't swear, even in fun, during the presentation.”) Now you can drop the tiny recorders into a breast pocket.

The most important part of the resort shops is to tape the sales pitch and see if they violate any of the rules of the industry--like getting nasty when you say, "No." Oh, and some of them do get nasty...very nasty. I am sure some of you have attended one of these pitches to get the free vacation or to get the free gift. Well, they pay me to go and check out the resort and tape the sales pitch. And I get the free vacation too-sometimes a whole week in one place, sometimes 2-3 days. I then add the 4-5 OTHER shops to the days I am on the road and try to make a profit. Sometimes I even do! We have gotten to go to a lot of really cool places this way. It's never boring, that's for sure!

This occupation involves a lot of acting. I loved acting in college. I played--you guessed it--the wicked witch of the west in our Children's Theater program which toured different elementary schools in western PA. I can cackle in three languages. "I'll get you my pretty..." Hey look! There’s a real witch playing the witch!

This trip out, I have been on the road long enough to get homesick. This happened even more often when I was staying at the “not so nice resort.” I was calling home twice a day in tears. (I miss you and my doggy, Keri and my kitty, Rosie--snuffle-snuffle.) Now that I am back at a really, really nice resort, right on the beach, I am much better and needing to write an entry to my blog to describe how what I do dovetails so nicely with my travel bug. So this is a ”blog entry/email/creative writing piece” to keep me occupied while I watch the ocean crash against the shore. I know, it’s a tough job…

These last couple days have been-finally-wonderful. I am done with most of the “other shops.” Now is the time when I can kick back and write, surf, catch up on my emails or get philosophical about life. I see what I do on a regular basis at home so much better from out here on the road. I also have realized that I think more clearly and see everything a lot better when ocean waves are crashing in on the shore where I can hear them. I always said I should have been a water sign. I am at my best near the ocean.

Well—now you have some idea of what I do when I am on the road. Tomorrow, I get to attend yet another sales pitch and complete and submit an oil change shop. Whee! Of course, I also get to watch the full moon over the ocean and the sunrise over the ocean in the morning.

John Duncan, 1866-1945

2008-09-17T14:58:00.005-04:00

RIDERS OF THE SIDHE

TRISTAN AND ISOLDA

COMING OF BHRIDE

John Duncan's art is sadly neglected by the art communities of the world. I first discovered Duncan while looking for images of my special Goddess, Bride. He was a Scottish painter and illustrator. Many of his better known works are pictured above. John Duncan was born in Dundee, Scotland in 1866, and studied there at the School of Art. Duncan was influenced by the Pre-Raphaelites, Celtic imagery, and symbolism. His work included pictures depicting myth and legend, also Symbolist work
in a late Pre-Raphaelite manner. Duncan died on 24th November 1945.

The History of the Sidhe

2008-09-17T11:15:00.013-04:00

Riders of the Sidhe, by John Duncan, 19th c. Scottish artist.

(This is an introductory overview of the people known as "The Sidhe" taken from another website. This is not my work and I recommend you check out the title link for more excellent information about the sidhe and the ancient Celts. I am including this here to further enlighten the reader about the legendary inhabitants of Newgrange or Brugh Na Boyne. This is legend and not necessarily fact.)

The people known as the Sidhe, people of the mounds, The Lordly Ones or The Good People were descended from the Tuatha de Danann who settled in Ireland many millennium ago. After being defeated by the Milesians, they retreated to a different dimension of space and time than our own. They were believed to be living under mounds, fairy raths and cairns, and also in the land of Tír na nÓg a mythical island to the west of Ireland. Place names in Ireland with the pre-nouns Lis, Rath, and Shee are associated with these people for example Lismore, Lisdoonvarna, Sheemore, Rathfarnham etc.

Down through the ages the Sidhe have been in contact with mortals giving protection, healing and even teaching some of their skills to mortals. Smithcraft or the working of metals is one such skill. Cuillen (Culann)is one sidhe smith who has been told of in the Legends of Cúchulainn and the later Legends of Fionn mac Cumhail.

The Gaelic word "sí" or "síog" refers to these otherworldly beings now called fairies. The Irish fairy is not like the diminutive fairies of other European countries. The Sidhe are described as tall and handsome in all accounts. They are dressed very richly and accounts of their halls are of richly decorated places with sumptuous food and drink. The Sidhe are generally benign until angered by the foolish actions of a mortal. Many trees and mounds are considered under their protection and if a mortal destroys or damages fairy trees or mounds, then a curse is put upon him and his family. In some parts of the countryside, people would not build their houses over certain "fairy paths" because of the type of disturbances which would ensue. Whenever a host of the Sidhe appears there is a strange sound like the humming of thousands of bees also a whirlwind or shee-gaoithe is caused.

Further Reading: O'Hanlon, rev. John (Lageniensis), Irish Folklore:
Traditions and Superstitions of the country. first published 1870,
republished E.P publishing Ltd., 1973.

Ireland: Brug Na Boine or Newgrange

2008-07-24T15:31:00.016-04:00

Behold the Sidh before your eyes
It is manifest to you that it is a king's mansion
Which was built by the firm Dadga
It was a wonder, a court, an admirable hill

(traditional Irish poet, Mac Nia
Book of Ballymote)

The Visitor Center at Newgrange/Brug na Boine: Notice how it was constructed to blend in with the surrounding scenery.

A Closer View of The Visitor Center

The Entrance to Newgrange

Branwenn at Newgrange-just to prove I was really here--LOL:):)

The much photographed carved stone in front of Newgrange.

Branwenn standing in front of immense Celtic cross in the Newgrange Visitor's Center.

Brug na Boine or Brugh-na-Boyne, known today as Newgrange, is the most famous “fairy hill” in Ireland. These passages were called sidhe and were actually barrows or hillocks, with square doorways decorated with Celtic spirals patterns. These were the doorways that, according to legend, led into the Celtic Elysium, an underground land of unending splendor and delight. One description of Brugh na Boine, the largest of these hillforts, which the son of the Dagda, Angus Mac Og, craftily cheated his father out of having as his own residence, had a wonderful party-all-the-time description that will delight many of us with Celtic blood. “There were apple trees always in fruit, one pig alive and another ready roasted, and the supply of ale never failed.”

Newgrange is located about five Irish miles from Drogheda. It was thought to have been built even before the pyramids in Egypt. On the banks of the Boyne River are 17 barrows—three of which are well known. These are Knowth, Dowth and the largest of the three, Newgrange. Once they were mythologised to be the homes of the Celtic Gods, now they serve as their barrows or tombs. Newgrange is the largest and best preserved. It is over 300 feet in diameter and 70 feet high. The grassy top forms an earthen platform 120 feet across. All three of these barrows were ransacked by the Danes in the ninth century.

Once through the doorway, you enter a long narrow passage of about 60 feet and not much higher than six feet. Most have to duck in places where the floor rises and the ceiling does not keep pace with the incline. The passage goes uphill at a slight grade and gradually widens and opens into a central chamber with a cone-shaped dome of about 20 feet. On both sides of the chamber is a recess containing a shallow oval basin. The recesses are decorated with many of the spiral shapes that have become associated with the ancient Celts, but it is thought that Newgrange was built by a prehistoric people that inhabited Ireland centuries before the Celts.

Newgrange is one of the most amazing sites of all of my travels to different sacred archaeological sites around the world. This megalithic passage tomb covers over an acre and was constructed around 3200 B.C. Buried for centuries, the mound was rediscovered in 1699 and was restored starting in 1962. At the winter solstice, the rising sun shines down a long passage and lights up a cross-shaped chamber. Viewing winter solstice at this amazing site has a waiting list which is chosen by lots and booked ahead for years.

A wonderful "live" webcast of the 2007 winter solstice at was put out by the The Office of Public Works An archive of this event is now available below. To view you will need to have Windows Media Player. The following link will open a pop-up window to display the webcast. If you have problems opening this link, please ensure that you have pop-ups enabled.

http://www.servecast.com/opw/211207/archive150.html

Standing Stones of Callanish

2008-07-22T18:00:00.005-04:00

Traveling to see the Standing Stones of Callanish was the whole point of my trip to Scotland. It was more than two weeks into my trip and I still hadn't gotten there. The distractions along the way: Loch Lomond, Aberdeen, Stonehaven, Inverbervie, my new friend John, Inverness, Loch Ness, my new boyfriend, Mark, the heather, the gorse, the fresh air and the scones were all pleasant distractions to say the least, but I was a woman with a sacred calling. It was time to listen to the call of the mist as Mananan, Lord of the Sea’s horses ran through the spume of ocean off the Isle of Lewis.

After our trip around Loch Ness, Mark and I took the bus to Ullapool from Inverness. From Ullapool, we took the ferry to Stornoway. The Caledonian MacBrayne Ferry was a tourist hot spot of its own for us. We had an absolutely fabulous time weaving and wobbling across the deck as we explored the ship from one side to the other. The sea was not too rough on this day, but we still saw one or two people”heaving-ho” over the rail of the ship. Taking an ocean-going ferry like this is a great way to decide whether you are prone to being seasick. Of course, we were having so much fun that neither of us was sick a bit. The trip was gorgeous. It was very windy on the deck, so we didn’t stay too long, but I have been partial to taking the ferry ever since. I found that this is one of the best ways to travel in Europe and the British Isles.

We stayed at Caladh Inn in Stornoway. This hotel was very nice, but rather pricey for a poor couple. I paid the extra money because I had heard all the horror stories about accommodations without proper facilities on the Outer Hebrides. This was in 1996, so I would hope it has improved by now. The hotel had a great club next door, so we went to karaoke that night and I was pleasantly surprised to find that Mark had a great voice and was a “karaoke king.” All the ladies wanted him once he sang, “Love is All Around” by Wet, Wet, Wet (originally done by the Troggs) and I was so proud to be the lady of the romantic singer with the great voice that night.

Boleskine House, Former Home of Loch Ness' Great Beast

2007-12-14T09:04:00.000-05:00

As Mark and I (now traveling together) were riding the bus on a tour around Lock Ness, suddenly the tone of the tour guide's voice changed completely and he announced, "On the left, you can see just through the trees the home of Aleister Crowley, the self-named GREAT BEAST." The obviously non-Crowley-friendly lad went on to elaborate on some of the more horrific tales of Crowley's excesses.

I was pleased as could be. I had no idea that the home of the infamous magister was located that near to Loch Ness. (I have always seen Crowley as the black sheep of our Pagan/Wiccan family tree--definitely one of the nuttier nuts, but there on the tree of our ancestry none the less.) Our tour guide went on to describe the purchase of the home by Jimmy Paige of Led Zeppelin fame. He added that house was now privately owned and allowed no visitors.

He did allow us to stop at the cemetery on the right side of the road and peer up at the house. He also regaled us with tales of the barricaded, underground passageway reported to have led to Crowley's ritual room in the main house. This was an unexpected treat for me. I am no huge fan of Crowley's although I do feel that he had a lot more to say if you ignored his enormous ego and his penchant to mislead the seeker with his excesses. I feel these misdirections were meant to shock and derail seekers from discovering their own true will.

Even though there are many things to criticize about Crowley's life and teaching, he is still one of the founders of our magickal path. It is reported Gardner met Aleister Crowley in 1946 supposedly introduced by Arnold Crowther. Many of Crowley's ideas managed to make it into Garnder's ancient/new religion which later came to be called Wicca.

The sketch below and the article give you more, excellent, infomation on Bolesskin House. I have credited both the sketch and the article.

Sketch taken from http://www.geocities.com/athens/parthenon/7069/bole-1.html

Boleskine has long been the site of strange and disturbing events

By PAUL LESTER

OF ALL rock's legendary landmarks, Boleskine House near Foyers on the south-eastern shore of Loch Ness is most deserving of a blue plaque.

Or rather, a black upside-down cross. Because it has long been synonymous with The Dark Side. Look no further than Led Zeppelin's The Song Remains the Same, a newly enhanced DVD filmed during the band's notorious 1973 trek across the US. In one of the fantasy sequences that intersperse the live footage, guitarist Jimmy Page is caught in an eerily innocuous pastoral idyll, sitting by a lake next to his 18th-century manor in Plumpton, Sussex, toying with a hurdy gurdy as the song Autumn Lake plays in the background. He turns towards the camera and his eyes, pure Hammer House of Horror, are glowing devil-red. Then suddenly we're in dense, dark woodland lit by a full moon. Page is shown climbing the steep face of a snow-capped mountain with only a corduroy jacket and a neckerchief to keep him warm. To the strains of Dazed and Confused, he fights his way to the top, where a ghostly hooded creature dressed in white and holding a lantern awaits him. It is the Hermit, a Tarot figure representing philosophical enquiry, though here his face is wizened and has a pallor suggestive of death. The whole chilling sequence was filmed on the mountainside directly behind Boleskine House.

With the possible exception of the Rolling Stones, no band in history has ever been as closely associated with the Dark Side as Led Zeppelin. And of their four members, the one with the greatest reputation for the illicit and degenerate is Page. There are many anecdotes about the guitarist numerous apocryphal stories and rumours of carnal and pharmaceutical excess. But the one fact brought up time and again to capture his amoral essence is this: in 1971, as Zeppelin were about to enter their decadent pomp, Page bought Boleskine House.

Page, who later owned the occult bookshop The Equinox in London, bought it primarily because it had, between 1899 and 1913, been the property of one Aleister Crowley. Page was something of a Crowley aficionado, though the extent of his interest is a matter of speculation. Certainly, Crowley's maxims - "The word of sin is restriction!" and "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law" - were adhered to with dissolute glee by Led Zeppelin in their debauched heyday.

A poet, novelist, painter and mountaineer, Crowley became a counter-cultural icon in the 1960s (his face is one of the many on the cover of The Beatles' Sergeant Pepper - on the top row, second from left, next to Mae West), when his views were seen to have anticipated the permissiveness of the age. But it is for his alleged practices in the occult that Crowley is best known, and that earned him the nickname The Beast, alias The Other Loch Ness Monster. The tabloid press of the day were fascinated by and fearful of Crowley in equal measure, dubbing him "the most evil man in Britain" and reporting on his supposed dreadful exploits, including human sacrifice, devil worship and black magic. According to Crowley's writings, he bought Boleskine to perform a ritual called the Abramelin Operation, an angel-summoning ceremony "requiring intense and lengthy meditation in a temple or secluded place". Stories of unexplained ghoulish occurrences in the area during his time at Boleskine are numerous. There is one of a local butcher accidentally cutting off his hand with a cleaver after reading a note left by Crowley. Another concerns the disappearance of a housekeeper. A third tells of a local workman employed by Crowley who went mad and tried to kill him.

A low, pink-walled mansion situated across the water from the snow-capped Meall Fuarvounie 21 miles south of Inverness, Boleskine House was built in the late 18th century by Archibald Fraser - it remained in Fraser family ownership until Crowley bought the estate. According to legend, a church once stood on the ancient site. When it caught fire the congregation was trapped inside and burned alive. The nearby Boleskine Burial Ground is notable for the remains of the original chapel and a grave watcher's hut: the grave watcher was employed to prevent body snatchers from defiling the graves.

Not surprisingly, a tunnel between the graveyard and the house is said to be best avoided after dark. As for Boleskine itself, it has long been the site of all manner of strange and disturbing events. In 1965, for example, an army major who lived there killed himself with a shotgun. Malcolm Dent was invited by Jimmy Page, his boyhood friend, to supervise the restoration of the house after the guitarist bought it. While Page himself only spent a total of six weeks there in the two decades he owned it, Dent lived in it for years, raising a family there. Apart from random slamming doors and moving chairs and rugs, not to mention the odd headless spectre, Dent had to contend with streams of ghouls making pilgrimages to Boleskine because of its association with Messrs Crowley and Page.

"I knew Jimmy had some weird interests, but that was about it," Dent said at the time. He was less respectful of Page's acolytes. "I have them from every corner of the world. A lot of them are nutters. Many are downright dangerous lunatics. There's a constant procession of these sick-minded people." Often Dent would have to bolt the doors and windows at night to prevent their access to the grounds. "They're a damned nuisance, a real pain," said Dent.

Page sold Boleskine House in 1992. Subsequent owners, ignoring its turbulent history, have run it either as a private residence or as a guest house. And, judging by the graffiti in the graveyard, it's clear Boleskine still attracts a certain type of tourist, with a penchant for the macabre.

"We don't get too many enquiries about it these days," the woman at the Inverness Tourist Information Centre tells me. "But those who do seem to be drawn to it for its unusual history. Things like the tunnel between the house and the graveyard, which is meant to be haunted by witches." Is it a frightening place to visit? She pauses. "Well, it's certainly... curious."

On from Inverbervie--

2007-12-11T09:14:00.000-05:00

I spent about two weeks exploring Inverbervie, Stonehaven and Aberdeen, Scotland while I stayed with my friend John. The folks on the northeast side of Scotland seem to spend most of their time in the pub and not pay too much attention to the world around them. (Actually, most of Scotland seemed this way to me.) Of course, the Scottish economy is pretty grim. Despite this, they still haven't lost their sense of humor or fun. Most of the Scots that I met were low-income, unemployed or retired and living in council houses. The oil industry that used to employ most of the Scots from this area is dying rapidly and many are out of work.

It was a very different way to live for me. Americans are so driven to achieve. It is so refreshing to be in a place where you can just sit in the pub with some friends and have a good laugh. Unfortunately, the driven American finally surfaced and I realized that I was wasting away my precious vacation time sitting in the pub with John and his buddies. So--off I went toward the highlands.

There was another lad from Glasgow that I had been exchanging emails with for months. This was Mark. Mark had sent me flowers and indicated quite an interest in me. In a moment of redheaded craziness, I emailed him and said, "Well, if you want to meet me so badly, meet me tomorrow at the Inverness train station at 4:00 PM. I will be arriving from Aberdeen." Mark says it was quite a flurry of activity, but he managed to be packed and ready to meet me with a rose in his hand and wearing his best suit when I climbed down off the steps from the train. How he knew exactly where to be and at which pair of steps off the train, I will never completely understand. The rest, they say, is history. It took a couple years, but I finally married this wonderful, wacky Scotsman. Unfortunately, it didn't last and we divorced a year later, but it was wonderful while it lasted.

Mark and I spent a couple days exploring Inverness and getting to know one another. It was magickal. Every moment that I ever spent with him IN Scotland was magickal. It seemed it was when we were outside of Scotland, that things ever became less than magick for us.

Stonehaven and Arbroath Abbey

2007-10-29T18:45:00.001-04:00

Dunnottar Castle

The town of Stonehaven, Scotland

Stonehaven Harbor

My friend John taking pictures of Arbroath Abbey

Arbroath Abbey was founded in 1178 for monks of the Tironensian order by King William I. Arbroath Abbey is most famous in Scottish history for its association with the Declaration of Arbroath. In this document of 1320, Scotland’s nobles swore their independence from England declaring, "as long as a hundred of us remain alive, we shall not on any condition be be subjected to English rule."

A visitor centre provides an insight into the abbey’s history and an exhibition on the Declaration is within the Abbey.

Location
In Arbroath town centre on the A92.

Region - Perthshire, Kinross and Angus.
Grid reference NO 643 413.
Postcode DD11 1EG.

Public Transport
Regular trains to Arbroath. From Arbroath train station, walk 6 mins to Abroath Abbey.

Contact
Tel 01241 878756

Opening times
Summer (1 April - 30 September), Monday to Sunday, 9.30 am to 5.30 pm
Winter (1 October - 31 March), Monday to Sunday, 9.30 am to 4.30 pm

2007 Admission Prices
Adult £4.50 Child £2.25 Concessions £3.50

Accessibility
STB Category 2 (Shop - STB Category 1)- Gravel paths and grassed areas allow access to most of the ground level of the abbey, (except the sacristy), and interpretation boards in the nave. There are displays on abbey life in the ground floor of the Abbot’s House, and on the declaration of Arbroath in the ground floor of the Gatehouse. Due to the turnpike stair, there is no disabled access to the upper floors of the Abbot’s House, Gatehouse range or South transept.

Visitors can enjoy the herb garden along the south wall of the abbey church.

The visitor centre provides a walk through audio-visual with a sound loop system. There is also a staff operated platform to enable disabled access to the upper viewing area.

Disabled parking is available adjacent to the visitor centre.

Inverbervie

2007-10-27T19:52:00.001-04:00

Inverbervie is a small town on the north-east coast of Scotland, south of Stonehaven, in the Aberdeenshire council area. The Inverbervie name derives from Inbhir Beirbhe, meaning Mouth of the River Bervie in Scottish Gaelic. Inverbervie manages to support three pubs and an award winning chip shop. The local "Bervie Chipper" won an award for the best fish and chip shop in the UK in 1998.

Here you see my friend John in his favorite pub in Inverbervie. I had a great time at the pub with John and learned all sorts of new things. I learned that the beer in Scotland is high test compared to the "pish" we drink here in the USA. (I had three pints and when I went to sit on my bar stool, I missed and promptly fell flat on the floor.) I learned that "ladies" drink half-pints and men drink pints. (Brazen red-haired Yank's who fall off bar stools drink pints, of course.) Don't tell your friend in Scotland to sit his "fanny" down on the bar stool next to you. It will cause beer to come out his nose while he laughs his head off. (In Scotland, "fanny" is a part of the female anatomy we usuaaly don't talk about here in the USA.) When you are in Scotland amd you get "pissed," you are usually too drunk to stand and in a great mood. (I like their meaning for "pissed" a lot better. It's a lot more fun. A lot of things in Scotland are a lot more fun.)

Loch Lomond

2007-10-27T19:13:00.000-04:00

My first task was deciding whether or not John was an axe murderer. Once he passed that test, we motored off toward Inverbervie where he lived. Ever the considerate host, he traveled by way of Loch Lomond giving me a chance to take the high road and meet him "On the bonnie, bonnie banks of Loch Lomond."

As we traveled at breakneck speed (which I later learned is very normal for all Scottish drivers) I had glimpses of breathtaking beauty through my clenched hands over my eyes. There are about 23 islands that are considered a part of Loch Lomond. Above is Tarbert Island a picturesque private island in the loch. At slower speeds, I would have enjoyed it a lot more, but then we would have taken more than the allotted two-and-one-half hours to get to the pub in Inverbervie. I also learned that the national sport of Scotland is a tie between footy (soccer/foorball) and drinking and that the Scots take to both with an abandon that humbles even the best of us Yanks. These lads can really put it away!

Making Plans to Travel to Scotland--

2007-10-27T12:33:00.000-04:00

I touched down at Glasgow International Airport, now BAA Glasgow. My friend, and host for the next two weeks, John, was patiently waiting in the arriving passenger's lounge for me after I cleared customs. Now, I know and you know that it is dangerous to meet men you have never met before alone in a foreign country and the even more foolish to depend on them to provide you with room and board and to help transport you around on your travels. Do not try this yourself. It was foolish and I was quite fortunate.

John was just as warm and personable for the entire two weeks I stayed with him as he was online and over the telephone. We had conversed in depth for weeks and I felt like I knew him well. I didn't and ultimately, we did not get along well. What we thought may have been a budding romance ended up as just a passing friendship. BUT--he was an unfailingly polite and gentlemanly host and provided me with a great place to stay, a full Scottish breakfast every morning and an escort around Scotland while I got my bearings and got used to living in an English speaking, but most foreign country for this USA isolated Yank. John was a fine example of a Scottish gentleman and I was a very lucky lady. Later, I realized just how fortunate I was.

For those of you who do not have a stellar host like John waiting to pick you up at the airport on the other side of the pond, I recommend an invaluable travel service provided by Transport Direct.

http://www.transportdirect.info/TransportDirect/en/?abandon=true

RESEARCH is the key to a good trip-PLANNING, PLANNING and more PLANNING. READ everything you can find about the area to which you are traveling. You can get brand new travel guides for discounted prices from book services like Alibris or on E-bay. Completely map out various itineraries and contingency plans. I find these cautionary measures the key to being safe and prepared while overseas. This is easy now with the Internet and even easier with the wonderful system of tourist offices available on the web for most of Europe and the British Isles. You can find all the information you would ever need about Scotland at http://www.visitscotland.com/.

Back to the Beginning: The First Trip - or - How Getting Fired Was The Best Thing That Ever Happened To Me

2007-10-26T17:04:00.000-04:00

It's funny how the things in life that change us the most are also the ones that happen completely by surprise. The picture above is of me and some of the crew from my college bookstore, about a month before I got fired. That's me hiding on the right in the back row. If you had asked me on this day, I would have told you that I planned to run this bookstore forever, if I could. After I left, the store played musical managers for a couple years and then sold out to Barnes and Noble. I guess I was a hard act to follow.

This sounds like a sad story, doesn’t it? Well, actually, running that bookstore is one of my best life memories and getting fired was one of the most fortunate things that ever happened to me. I was at a place in my life where I was dying to travel and once I was assured of getting my severance and unemployment; travel I did, and in a big way.

I left that job in March of 1997. I spent a month researching the British Isles on the Internet. I fell in love with the Standing Stones of Callanish on the Isle of Lewis way out on the Outer Hebrides Islands of Scotland. This became my first travel goal. My second travel goal became meeting people on the Internet with whom I could stay while I was traveling in Scotland. I met several wonderful folks this way and spent time with all of them during my travels. There’s nothing like a local for a tour guide.

I have already told the story of my first steps out of the USA and into Iceland on my way to Scotland. In my second adventure, I will show you around Aberdeen, Stonehaven, Inverbervie and other spots in northeast Scotland escorted by my new friend John. I also made a trip to Arbroath Abbey.

See you in Scotland!

Catkin Lodge in Amesbury, England

2007-10-13T18:59:00.000-04:00

Catkin Lodge in beautiful rural Wiltshire is AA 3 Star rated accommodation and is the nearest Bed and Breakfast to the ancient Stonehenge Monument. Catkin Lodge is only 15 minutes from the historical City of Salisbury with its magnificent Cathedral and Old Sarum Hill Fort.

In addition to this, Terry, the owner and host is an intelligent and talented fellow. I completely enjoyed my stay at Catkin Lodge and recommend it to everyone interested in lodging in the area. The rooms were clean and comfortable and the big, old fashioned tub was a great place to soak walk-weary bones at the end of a long day of sight-seeing.

Here is another link to their website.
http://www.catkinlodge.fsnet.co.uk/

Terry makes coffee for us Yanks in a wonderful French coffee press and presents an incredible full English breakfast in a smart breakfast room full of his own paintings of Stonehenge and the Salisbury area. In my own office back here across the pond, I have two of Terry's prints and two more on the landing upstairs. Just seeing his talented artwork was worth the stay at the Catkin and the rest was just a whopping plus to the good fellowship I enjoyed.

Glastonbury--

2007-10-10T11:45:00.000-04:00

My day in Glastonbury was the highlight of my 2002 Samhain trip to southwest England. Morning dawned unexpectedly beautiful--sunny and warm for early November in England. I woke to birds singing and incredible coffee brewed in a fancy French coffee press. After a decadent bath in a huge claw-foot bathtub brimming with “real English lavender” bubble bath, I enjoyed a yummy traditional English breakfast with two interesting students—one Greek and one French--and Terry, our B&B host. (My B&B in Amesbury, Catkin Lodge, was 5 minutes from Stonehenge and “simply smashing.” See more details abut this fine accommodation at the end of this article.) My host and fellow breakfasters assured me that the drive to Glastonbury was about an hour, perhaps a bit more. With sun was shining brightly, off I went with map in hand in search of the graves of King Arthur and Guinevere and the mythological last resting place of the Holy Grail.

The route to Glastonbury from Amesbury follows the A303. The A303 is a "dual carriage way" (two-lane highway), but not limited access like American interstates. During the day, it's quite nice. There are two lanes, so the folks going 80 in the 60 mph zone can whoosh by as quickly as they like. I found it a bit difficult at first remembering that the LEFT lane is the SLOW lane. The beeping of an irate “lorry driver” enlightened me quite quickly. At night, as I returned, I found the A303 quite dangerous and choked with rush hour traffic in the early English dark. Roundabouts replace exit ramps and are confusing and dangerous. I circled one roundabout twice before I fought my way into the proper lane. The A303 switches back and forth between 1 and 2 lanes, with little notice or reason, so someone like me driving on the “wrong side of the road” for the second time, the first on crowded highways like this one, has a lot to anticipate. The narrow streets and lanes never cease to amaze me or the places where people will risk their lives to pass you: hills, corners, anywhere they feel like they are being held up by the silly American (Yank) woman actually following the speed limit. At least I had an automatic transmission, thanks to Auto Europe, a car rental company I highly recommend to all my fellow travelers. Automatic transmissions, which we take for granted here in the US, are uncommon in the British Isles and Europe.

Glastonbury Tor showed itself first, rising high above the city, shining with the first sun in 2 days reflecting off its stones. The streets of Glastonbury are the same nightmare as all southwest England's streets--unbelievably narrow, with the right of way determined by the largest vehicle or the most aggressive driver. I saw two “street people” here in Glastonbury, one woman with her dog, begging money from her seat on the sidewalk, and on the other side of the street a musician of sorts, an older hippie-looking fellow with a flute and drum, with the typical collection hat open in front of him. These were actually the only street people I saw on this trip, although a well-dressed gentleman at Salisbury Cathedral asked me if I could loan him 80p for the bus. I answered him negatively with my best Yank accent and he hurried away.

The streets of Glastonbury are alive with Pagans of all types. Shops are very revealing in their names, "Man, Myth and Magick," "The Goddess and the Green Man," "The Crystal Star," "The Goddess Temple," and many more. How they make any money at all crowded there together in one crystal mecca is hard to say, but business appears to be good as all the shops were crowded with tourists and locals as well. This is the alternative community's “Shangri-La” in Britain. Classes, seminars, and demonstrations of every kind abound. There are readings of all types, reflexologists, herbalists, an amazing array of “ists” and “isms” for everyone. Vegetarian foods battle with coffeehouses and traditional British pubs. One gustatory highlight is a wonderful bakery aptly named Burns the Bread, reflecting the humour of the establishment’s owners.

Names like Kathy Jones, Nicholas Mann, John and Caitlin Matthews, and others you will recognize scream out at you as you wander the bookshelves in the 20 or so bookstores. I could spend millions here on books, and I noticed that the books that I picked up were often signed by the authors. There were signs for workshops and presentations held everyday and everywhere. There are all types of Wicca and Pagan "things" that I have never seen in any American stores. But then again, I have never seen this many "New Age" shops in one place. American pagans should sit up and take notice of this wonderful place! At The Crystal Star, I met Antares, a “name” that describes him pretty well. His soft-spoken manner belied his hard sell, but he was friendly and ACTUALLY talked to you, which is something most Brits have yet to learn about American shoppers. We LIKE to be waited on. Everything Antares showed me could be marked down just a little bit more if I showed a spark of interest, but didn't immediately add it to my stack. Antares parted me from £49, and I'm happy that I spent every pence. He also shared his past lives and his feelings that Samhain should be quiet and personal, not a “festival,” but a time to honor the ancestors in sacred silence and ceremony, and that he had been regressed back into his past lives recently, once of which was attending a boy's school in Glastonbury, by an American psychologist who was absolutely “brilliant.” I gave Antares my card and told him to stop by if he was ever stateside, especially at Beltane or Samhain.

The trip through Glastonbury Abbey was picturesque and beautiful but devoid of anything spiritual for me. I took a ton of beautiful photos but little else. I saved The Chalice Well and Gardens for last, and it was definitely worth the wait. The Chalice Well was an extraordinary place, charming enough to calm the soul, even without the extra benefit of the mystical water from the Chalice Well with its mythical healing properties. The flowers in the gardens, even in November, were incredibly beautiful. The babbling of the red and the white springs cooled the head and soothed the soul. I was lulled into a feeling of happiness and relaxation that held me steady through the harrowing drive home. I waded in the chilly waters of the healing chalice pools, drank the water from the chalice fountain, and filled two water bottles with the precious water. I watched small voles scamper through the amazingly lovely English gardens full of herbs, lavender, roses, morning glories, and larkspurs. The Chalice Well Gardens are an enchanted fairy garden full of beautiful, blooming flowers, even in the cool November air. Inside the gardens, all the rest of the world just fades away. I've had this feeling in other such places, but this was definitely one of the best places I've ever visited.

My First Trip Outside the USA--Iceland at Beltane--

2007-10-06T11:16:00.001-04:00

At Ostara, on March 20, 1997, I lost my job as manager of the college bookstore where I had spent the last five years of my life. You know what they say--no good deed goes unpunished. In retrospect, it was one of the best things that ever happened to me. I suddenly realized that I had one full year of unemployment in which to find another position. I decided to do something absolutely crazy wonderful. I had a bit of money saved up and I was going overseas-Scotland, Ireland, Wales, England, maybe even further. I was 41 and in pretty good shape for me. Time to head across the pond! I had been dreaming about Scotland and Ireland for too long.

I searched for discount airfare and found a flight to Glasgow on Iceland Air. During the course of booking the flight to Glasgow, Iceland Air offered me an inexpensive two night stop-over in Reykjavik. I had no intentions at that moment of going to Iceland, but since I was a foot loose traveler, I thought, “What the heck...”

I stepped out of the plane from my first trans-Atlantic flight on April 30, 1996--Beltane eve--in a place where Paganism is one of the official state religions. (In 1972, after a long campaign by poet and Gothi Sveinbjorn Beinteinsson, Iceland once again recognized Nordic Paganism as a legitimate and legal religion.) That night, I watched breathlessly the many bonfires lighting up the hillsides which I could see glittering in the darkness from the window of my hotel room. I could hear the wild shouting of celebrations echoing from the hills around the hotel. The night was literally on fire with excitement.

After my own small Beltane ritual in my room, I submitted to jet lag and slept like I hadn’t since the date of my unemployment. Beltane morning, I awoke and drank a toast to the first day of summer with my wonderful Icelandic coffee. (Who knew that the Icelanders took their coffee so seriously?) I decided to take the Golden Circle tour offered from my hotel and it was one of the most wonderful tours I ever set upon.

The tour is still offered by Reykjavik Excursions and is affiliated with Iceland Air who made all this possible for me to enjoy. They also offer a special discount on the tour to Iceland Air passengers. The quote below is from their promotional brochure. The pictures of Gullfoss, the largest waterfall in Iceland, are mine.

You can walk around the world-famous Geysir area, a geothermal field where hot springs are in abundance, geysers explode and pools of mud bubble. The Geysir museum is included as a main feature of this area, an informative multimedia exhibition that vividly shows how the forces of nature shap ed the country and the people.

One of many high lights of the tour is the volcanic crater, Kerið, and another is the Gullfoss waterfall, the queen of Iceland's waterfalls, tumbling down a deep gorge. Finally, but no less spectacular is a visit to the Þingvellir National Park. This is the place of the most historic events in Iceland and exceptional beauty. Þingvellir is the original site of the oldest existing parliament in the world. The Great Atlantic rift is clearly visible, a rift which is slowly pulling Iceland apart along tectonic plates.

Locations visited include: Hveragerði greenhouse village, Kerið volcanic crater, Gullfoss waterfall, Geysir hot spring area and Þingvellir National Park.

This entire area is quite amazing from a geologic perspective, as well as for someone who has an interest in Norse mythology. The bookstores and coffee shops of Reykjavik are full of copies of the Icelandic Sagas. In addition, it was just outisde Reykjavik that I made a purchase that has blessed my life ever since that day. While wandering through the Hveragerði greenhouse village, I came upon a traditional weaver of Icelandic wool. On her loom she had a magickal creation of sea blue and green. She looked at me and she could see the longing in my eyes. She said, "I am just about ready to take this off the loom, do you want it?" I asked her how much it was and she even translated the krona into USD for me. She said, "For you, $90." As you can see from the photo below, this cape got a lot of wear in Scotland over the next two years of my journeys and I wear it every winter to this day.

Brighid and Her Sacred Well

2007-10-05T18:23:00.000-04:00

Brighid and Her Sacred Well
by Branwenn WhiteRaven

(originally published in Circle Magazine: A Quarterly Journal of Nature, Spirit and Magic)

Part 1: The Choosing
Candles shimmered and glittered everywhere in the small apartment in Washington, DC, transforming everyday reality into another place, another time. The smoke of our sage and lavender incense rose and whirled around us. Face to face, our bare feet scrunched and slid on the salt strewn on the floor. While my partner Bran chanted a blessing, we entered the doorway into trance. Suddenly, the roar in my ears stopped with a deafening silence. There were no sounds, no words, no movement, no thoughts. For a second, I ceased to be, my heart stopped, my breath froze. My eyes closed tightly, but the surrounding landscape formed and reformed around me, hanging between the worlds.

Bran stopped chanting and jumped back, immersed in his own visions. The candles trembled. A flame shot up over my head. A voice filled my mind, filled the room, filled my womb. Pictures flashed through my head of a single standing stone thrust up from the treeless green hill. I stood in a circle with eighteen others, who over and over repeated the words, "Brid is come, Brid is welcome." I had no concept of where I ended and the song began.

A light flared again above my head in the chilled flat. Bran's voice called my name over and over. Candles were burning down, guttering out in the grey February dawn. A voice filled my universe. "You are mine! You are my daughter!" My eyes opened and I saw the fear and concern in the eyes of my lover. "Are you all right?" he asked. I replied, "I am Brighid's. I am. I have been called..." My words trailed off, becoming indistinct. "Mother," I breathed, "I have come and I am yours."

The frigid air around me was chilling, and I paled. Bran took me by the arms and gently led me back the long hallway to our tiny room. I fell, tumbling into the bed with the motion. My eyes closed and I stood again on the hillside with the eighteen priestesses of Brid. I chanted. I was called and I had been chosen. Once again I spoke, with calm dedication in my eyes. "Brid, I have come, and I am yours."

Part 2: The Origins of Brighid
Brighid, the Goddess to whom I had dedicated myself, is the Celtic Goddess of inspiration, healing, and smithcraft. She is one of the best examples of the survival of a Pagan Goddess into Christian times. She was canonized as St. Brigit by the Roman Catholic Church and various stories are given of Her origins and Her life. She was a Druid's daughter, described in the Carmina Gadelica as the "daughter of Dugall the brown." She is reported to have predicted the coming of Christianity and to have been baptized by St. Patrick. Popular folk tales describe Her as the midwife to the Virgin Mary, and She is thus always called upon by women in labor. The Christian St. Brigit was a nun, and later an Abbess, who founded an Abbey at Kildare in Ireland. She was said to have had the power to appoint the bishops of Her area, an unlikely role for an Abbess, made stranger by Her unusual requirement that these bishops also be practicing goldsmiths.

In ancient times, the Goddess Brighid had a shrine at Kildare, with a perpetual flame tended by nineteen virgin priestesses called Daughters of the Flame. No man was permitted to come near Brighid's shrine and neither did Her priestesses consort with men. Even food and supplies were brought to the priestesses by women from the nearby village. When Catholicism overtook Ireland, Brighid's Fire Temple became a convent and the priestesses became nuns, but the same traditions were upheld and the eternal flame kept burning. Each day a different priestess/nun was in charge of the sacred fire and on the 20th day of each cycle, the fire was miraculously tended by the Goddess/Saint Herself.

For more than a thousand years thereafter, the sacred flame was tended by nuns. In 1220 CE, though, the Bishop became angered by the no-males policy of the Abbey of St. Brigid of Kildare. He insisted that nuns were subordinate to priests and must open their abbey and submit to inspection by a priest. When the Brigidine nuns refused and asked for another Abbess or other female official to perform the inspections, the Bishop was furious. He decreed that the keeping of the eternal flame was a Pagan custom, and ordered the sacred flame to be extinguished. Despite this persecution, St. Brigit remains to this day the most popular saint in Ireland, along with St. Patrick. In the1960s, though, Vatican II declared there was insufficient proof of St. Brigit's sanctity, or even of Her historical existence, and She was decanonized, so that the Roman Church's campaign against Her became successful. Recently, however, despite the initial protests of the Roman Catholic church, two nuns, by the name of Sister Mary and Sister Phil, have reestablished the worship of St. Brigit at Kildare and have relit Her sacred flame, which burns once more. The first modern Candlemas/Imbolc celebration at the ancient site of Brighid's sacred well in 1997 drew hundreds of people and grows every year in popularity. The flame of Brighid's love burns brightly once more.

Part 3: Brighid's Sacred Well
In the summer of 1998, I was called to Ireland by Brighid. Specifically, She called me to come to Kildare to visit Her cathedral. The train ride from Dublin was filled with faery-tale scenery, after which a short walk brought me from the picturesque old train station to the cathedral. It was as beautiful as I had expected, since I had already seen pictures of the site in books.

As I walked around outside and inside the cathedral, though, I was struck with how empty I felt, or more specifically, how empty the cathedral and the grounds felt to me. I found the tiny plaque that indicated the hole in the lawn where the sacred Pagan fire temple had once been. For me, though, everything there was sterile and bare, devoid of any mystical or magical feeling. I was very disappointed. I had come thousands of miles to see St. Brigit's Cathedral, but was very saddened by what I discovered there, so I instead trudged into the town of Kildare. I stopped at an information kiosk in an antique building in the heart of town to see how I might redeem the rest of the day. I poked through the pamphlets and brochures, but nothing struck my fancy. Even more dejected, I left the information center and headed out to look for something to do to pass the time until the next train left.

As I came to the main intersection in town, I noticed a signpost indicating Brighid's Holy Well, with an arrow pointing to a road that led out of town. Suddenly brightening, I headed down that road to see what adventure I could find. I thought the signpost had said that the well was a mile away, but I have found that in Ireland distance is similar to Pagan Standard Time, and is a very unstable measurement.

About two miles into my journey, I started to wonder whether I had missed some important turn in the road. Before I gave up and turned around, though, another sign with yet another arrow pointed me down a gravel road. By the time the road had turned into a narrow path, I finally saw a park, or at least something that looked promising, up ahead in the distance.

Finally reaching the entrance to Brighid's Holy Well, I breathed a sigh of relief. The small park was absolutely delightful. The lawn within the park's fence was green and lovely. I had no idea how amazing the day would turn out to be, but I could feel that something incredible was about to happen. I walked reverently to the spot where in legend Brighid had supposedly healed the lepers, and put my hands into the soothing waters. I was totally engrossed, saying the Genealogy of Bride, when I stopped and suddenly looked up into a face so beautiful and familiar to me that I didn't jump or feel alarmed.

I asked this faery apparition if she was the guardian of the well and she answered with a huge smile, "Yes. Did you call me?" My new faery guardian, one of the human members of Solas Bhride (the nuns associated with Brigid's cathedral) was named Tara. She looked enough like me to be my real sister, with red hair, blue eyes, generous figure, and all. She took my hands, pulled me up, and said to me, "Come, Brighid has sent me to take you to meet Sister Mary and Sister Phil."

One of my most cherished possessions is a letter from Tara telling me how Brighid brought her to the well that day and how glad she was that she listened to the summons. Tara and I spent the rest of that day together, and, much later, she gave me a ride back to the station so I could catch the last train back into Dublin. We talked and talked and drank huge cups of tea at her home just a few minutes from the well.

As promised, Tara took me into town and introduced me to Sister Mary and Sister Phil, the Brigidine nuns who have reestablished the worship of Brighid in Kildare. I had taken some water from Brighid's holy well and Sister Mary gifted me with a candle lit from Brigid's eternal flame. I use that votive candle to light each candle on my altar every time I do ritual work.

Sister Mary has re-lit Brighid's flame and keeps it burning in her home. Every time I light a candle now, I see Sister Mary, Sister Phil, and my guardian faery friend, Tara. I, too, have become a Daughter of the Flame, and a guardian of Brighid's Sacred Well.

Photos and article by Branwenn White Raven

Branwenn@aol.com