Author: C. LaVielle

A bountiful and joyous Lughnasadh to all!

Posted C. LaVielle1 CommentPosted in Wheel of the Year

  As I was looking through the cornucopia full of Lughnasadh articles offered on the web I found these two gems. “Celebrating Lammas,” by Waverly Fitzgerald is a fascinating excursion into British History and the death of King William the Red that seques gracefully into an explanation of what the festival means and ways to celebrate it. “Why I’m Boycotting Lughnasadh,” by John Halstead is a lovely rant about how pagans need to get in touch with what is really happening in their part of the world and celebrate the holiday appropriately. Our friends in the southern hemisphere should be celebrating Imbolg, not Lugnasadh, for example, and those in tropical climates should rethink the whole wheel of the year. After reading Halstead’s article I realized that I too had a rant. It’s about a small, simple problem; one that, after all is said and done, really makes no difference at all except to me and my obsessive/compulsive need to get things straight. As I was… Read More »

The God as Superhero: Part IV, Hades

Posted C. LaVielle6 CommentsPosted in Gifts from the Multiverse, Greece

Continued from previous posts… Hades? You’ve got to be kidding. The dread Lord of the Underworld? The god the Greeks feared so much that they wouldn’t even speak his name?* The god who granted Medea her death and , at her request, destroyed her lover, Jason?** The master of the remorseless Furies, who releases them to torment the living?** The infernal Jove, the snatcher of things, who causes the earth to shake and open up and devour his unfortunate prey? ** The god who called a deadly plague down upon the city of Thebes?** The god who snatched his sister’s only child and took her down to the underworld to be his queen? That’s not a Superhero, that’s an Archvillian! So, imagine my surprise and terror when Hades began talking to me as I stood outside his Ploutonion in Elefsina, Greece. (see previous post: Power Points of Eleusius: The Ploutonion ) I was there a few years ago with my husband and two good friends.… Read More »

Why Are All the Cartoon Mothers Dead?—Revisited

Posted C. LaVielle1 CommentPosted in Movie Review, Young Adult Fantasy

  Sarah Boxer originally asked this question in the July/August 2014 issue of The Atlantic and I wondered right along with her in a previous post. She points out that not only do children’s filmmakers kill off the mothers with brutal regularity, but they are now replacing them with perfect fathers. She saw this as a last, desperate chauvinistic power grab. An attempt to establish a kinder, gentler patriarchy. And I suggested that it was the film industry’s attempt to model good fathering to a nation of underachieving dads. Disney Studios’, the most matricidal of all filmmakers, latest release follows Ms Boxer’s scenario with chilling exactitude. Into the Woods is a fairy tale composed of fairy tales; and since fairy tales are littered with dead mothers we should expect this. But Into the Woods exceeded even my most fevered imaginings. The plotline is composed of four fairy tales smushed together. • Rapunzel: In which a wicked witch steals a couple’s first-born child because the husband… Read More »

A Powerful Convergence

Posted C. LaVielle7 CommentsPosted in Getting Published, Gifts from the Multiverse, Goddess, Synchronicity

When we think of a convergence, we usually envision two or three shining planets coming together in the velvet black night sky and astrologers urgently discussing what such a striking event might mean. But that’s not the kind of convergence I’ll be musing about here. This post is about the convergence of choices/events; how one thing leads to another which leads to another which leads to a point in time where they all converge and, with lots of help from the gods, something amazing happens. These convergences occur all the time. They are the small and large miracles of our lives and most of them go unnoticed. But there was one recent convergence that the whole world noticed. On January 17th Kaleb Whitby had a miraculous escape from certain death. In the dark, cold predawn his pickup was completely squashed between two big rigs during a freeway pile up on I-84 near Baker City, Oregon. He crawled out of the wreckage with only a few… Read More »

The God as Superhero, Part III

Posted C. LaVielle2 CommentsPosted in Gifts from the Multiverse

Continued from previous post… Ganesha is my copilot. As you can see, I don’t drive anywhere without him. . And yet, I know very little about Hinduism and its pantheon. Decades ago, when I first came across Ganesha, he was, indeed, a very foreign critter to me. A close friend of mine got his PhD in Medieval Indian history, speaks fluent Hindi, and definitely knows his Vedas from his Upanishads. He convinced me that Ganesha would be a good god to pay attention to since he’s the remover of obstacles, the god of wisdom and knowledge, and facilitator of all new ventures–whether it’s a short trip to the store, the start of a new creative project, or a business agreement. OK fine, I thought. But I wasn’t what you’d call a devotee. Demeter and the rest of the Mt. Olympus gang were all the deities I figured I needed. But there was something totally sweet and engaging about the fat, elephant headed god. He appealed… Read More »

The God as Superhero, Part II

Posted C. LaVielle3 CommentsPosted in Gifts from the Multiverse

Continued from previous post… The first time the God swooped in and saved my butt happened years ago during my Junior year at Michigan State University… I had just gotten out of a Vertebrate Zoology lecture and was walking down Shaw Lane to my next class, totally oblivious, with visions of reptile anatomy swirling through my head. As I stepped off the curb to cross Bogue Street a hand grabbed the collar of my down jacket, lifted me up, and deposited me back on the curb right as a huge campus bus zoomed by, just inches from my nose. “You didn’t want to do that,” said a man’s voice. He was standing beside me. The only thing I remember about him was that he was a generic 1970’s university student dressed in a down jacket almost identical to mine. “You’re right, I didn’t,” I remember saying. I was in total shock as I stared dumbly after the rapidly retreating bus. When I turned back to… Read More »

The God as Superhero

Posted C. LaVielle1 CommentPosted in Wheel of the Year

  Back in the 70’s, when I was a baby witch and just figuring out the difference between a pentagram and a pentacle, pagans generally ignored the God. After all, we had become pagans to get out from under the stern, patriarchal thumb of the Judeo-Christian God and weren’t about to make the same mistake again. We were drunk on the amazing “new” concept that, as Merlin Stone* assured us, God was a woman. The God, when we deigned to mention him, was described as Her consort. Even as late as 2000, when I was going over my Wicca 101 syllabus with my students, one very young woman commented, “I see we have a class on The Goddess; why don’t we have one on The God?” I was speechless. This was a glaring omission. I was ignoring half the pagan pantheon and hadn’t even realized it. Bad Witch. Needless to say, from that time on, my course included a class on The God. The God… Read More »

Take an Ancestor Out to Dinner this Samhain!

Posted C. LaVielle2 CommentsPosted in Uncategorized

Ah Samhain. My favorite holiday. It’s the time of “ghoulies and ghosties and long-leggedy beasties and things that go bump in the night.”* It’s also a bit easier to talk to our ancestors now. They are there, just on the other side of the veil. And they are eager to speak with us. Most just want to say hi and send their love, but others have messages, questions, and issues. I have found that communing with my ancestors is not only emotionally rewarding, but also helpful in a practical sense. And so every November first, after the excitement of Samhain, we throw a Dumb Supper for those who have gone before. It’s actually quite simple. • Fix a nice dinner. • Set a festive, seasonal table with one extra place for your ghostly visitors. • Light the candles. • Cast a strong circle that will allow only friendly spirits in. • Greet your ancestors and invite them to dinner. • After the greeting no one… Read More »

Why Are All the Cartoon Mothers Dead?

Posted C. LaVielle9 CommentsPosted in Book Review, Goddess, Writing

In the July/August 2014 issue of The Atlantic Sarah Boxer wonders “Why Are All the Cartoon Mothers Dead?” And they are, you know. Bambi, Nemo, Snow White, Ariel, Belle, Pocahontas, Aladdin, and almost any other cartoon main character you can think of is a motherless child. In fact, Ms Boxer challenges her readers to “show me an animated kids’ movie that has a named mother in it who lives until the credits roll.” There aren’t that many. The Lion King, Coraline, The Incredibles and a few others come to mind. However, she doesn’t try very hard to answer her own evocative question. She gives a few lame answers like: The unfolding of plot and personality depends on the dead mother.* The dead mother is psychologically good for the child because it allows him/her to preserve an internal good mother (even if the natural mother hadn’t been all good) and allows him/her to direct all his anger at the step mother.** I can think of better… Read More »

Lions and Kerubs and Sekhmet, Oh My!

Posted C. LaVielle5 CommentsPosted in Gifts from the Multiverse, Goddess, Major arcana

  The Sun is now in Leo, and of course, this biggest, most important planet of the Zodiac rules the most egotistical sign of them all. In astrological speak, the sun is at home, and not surprisingly this is the hottest part of summer in most places in the northern hemisphere. In the coastal Pacific Northwest that means that it’s usually pleasant and sunny, but here in Portland we occasionally feel Sekhmet’s scorching breath. I was sweltering at my computer last week during one of those occasions when I came upon an email from Adam reminding me (and everyone else on the Hermetic Society google group) that August 7th  was this year’s Leo Kerubic Point. That’s lovely, I thought, what in blue blazes is a Kerubic Point? Adam, never one to leave his readers in ignorance, went on to inform us that the Kerubic Points are the midpoints between the cardinal points of the zodiac, the Solstices ( 0 degrees Cancer and 0 degrees Capricorn)… Read More »