I'm baaaaaaack!!!!!

Here my first day in town since arriving back from Mexico yesterday.... and it was a bumpy 17 hour flight across the Pacific. There is always turbulence across the Pacific, it's a fact of life from travelling between the temperate and tropical zones, with tropical storms around, hot air convections, etc. But for some reason it was particularly bumpy coming back. Indeed in one instance just four hours before Sydney, it appeared we flew into the vicinity of tropical storms as the plane seemed to weave a squiggly path, we could see that from the flight path map that they have on our screens these days. It was at night so couldn't see anything, but it was quite bumpy, and it was the one occasion we were directed to keep seated with our seatbelts.

Turbulence are a bit freaky these days stemming from an incidence during my last Mexico trip, when coming out from Cancun we went through turbulence when the plane went into free-fall. It lasted probably only a second but it sure felt like eternity, and literally saw my life flash before me!!!! Of course it is true that planes are designed to deal with turbulence, such as even in free-fall the plane is designed to remain upright, and for the airlift to kick in eventually. Planes fly because of the air pressure differences on the wings, lower pressure on top with higher pressure underneath caused through the airflow - longer hence faster airflow over the top hence less pressure, so the higher pressure underneath keeps the plane in the air - why wings are flat underneath and curved on top. But free-fall in turbulence happens when there is a strong enough downdraft to cause this airflow mechanism to break down, hence the wings no longer keep the plane in the air so it literally falls..... but sooner or later the downdraft ceases, or the forward momentum of the plane eventually moves it out of the downdraft zone, so the air flow mechanism kicks in again, and the plane regains altitude, albeit with the now shocked and traumatized passengers onboard - alive but shocked and sometimes traumatized!! In relatively rare instances, the downdraft is so severe that anything in the plane that is not tied down flies around the cabin and smashes against the ceiling, including passengers who didn't obey the instructions to lock their seatbelts on!!!!! Thankfully I never experienced this, nor do I care to experience this, even if the chances of the plane crashing is close to zero - it is extremely rare for a plane to crash just through turbulence even severe ones. They crash typically because of mechanical faults or human error.

In any case I am actually not afraid of dying. I am just apprehensive of the actual process of dying.... will it be a slow and painful death, or be suffering prior to death, such as in drowning where it takes a while for death to occur, or even getting your head chopped off - death is not instant, you still remain aware for a while cos of the blood still in the brain, even if only for a few seconds watching the world go whizzing by as your head rolls down to the ground!!!! If I am going to die, I want to be an instant death with no suffering. In plane crashes death tends to be instant due to the sheer shock of the impact, or if the plane breaks up in the air, the low air pressure outside causes us to lose consciousness before anything else has a chance of happening, such as, hitting the ground below.

I for one am pretty sure what is going to happen after we die. There is a virtually universal realisation that a certain part of us lives on, or at least comes back to life after the death event so to live another life. And I know for CERTAIN what is NOT going to happen after death. None of us are going to spend an eternity of suffering in Hell. Such a concept is not even in the Bible, it is an invention of the Catholic church designed to keep us under control through fear. Such a concept is indeed derived from ancient Egyptian mythology many thousands of years before Christianity was even thought of. The story goes that when we die, we move through an underworld populated by all kinds of scary creatures, designed to purify us, before we finally meet up with Osiris and Isis - the Egyptian God and Goddess. There is a scale where our soul is placed. Depending on how the scale moves, the righteous soul is "light" and will therefore spend eternity in the realms of the Egyptian deities. However the wicked soul is "heavy" and so is destined for an eternity in the underworld being tormented by these creatures. Sounds familiar???

Plus I have studied the Bible and have proved from the Bible itself beyond doubt that there are absolutely no where that points to the destiny of wicked souls suffering eternity in Hell. If anything, the opposite is given, that wicked souls simply dies - cease to exist, no suffering, no consciousness, just nothing........ "The soul that sinneth will DIE"

In any case there are anecdotal evidence of reincarnation. Even the Jews believes in reincarnation, especially in Kaballah. And there are references to reincarnation in the Bible despite the efforts of the Nicene Council, a Catholic based group in the 4th century assigned to canonise the Scriptures by choosing only a small number of manuscripts from the hundreds that were available at the time, and altering many of these to suit their agendas. In reincarnation there is always another chance to make amends which empowers us. Under church doctrine there are no 2nd chances, you either get it right the first time or its all over red rover, hence best idea to submit to the church so to save your soul.

But there is one interesting story in the Gospels where there was a man who was born blind and the disciples asked Jesus whether it was the sin of the man or the sins of his parents who caused the man to be blind? Note that the man was BORN blind, so how could there possibly be his OWN sins (or "karma" as we like to call it) that caused him to go blind???...... unless it was in a PAST lifetime, read, reincarnation!!!! As with most Jews, the disciples clearly believed in reincarnation, and Jesus did not correct them of such a belief saying that reincarnation is false and from now on we are to believe in the Heaven and Hell doctrine. As the Nicene Council exclaims - Dang we forgot to remove THAT one!!!!!!!

Of course we cannot know for certain what happens after death as none of us has lived to tell the tale!!! When we die we don't come back to life again at least in our original forms!!!! But there are plenty of anecdotal evidence around that a part of us lives on after death, and none of us goes to "Hell" nor for that matter to "Heaven", indeed even the Bible says in the New Testament "no man ascends to Heaven". So we remain on planet Earth or another planet, we don't go outside of the universe, that is, to "Heaven".

Last but not least, there are at least anecdotal evidence that it is not my time to go just yet, that I am protected. So even if the plane goes into freefall, or some other shit happens, I will live to tell the tale, such as in these blogs!!!!! This stems from my heart event, when I suffered a heart attack. I was experiencing pains in my chest for about 24 hours, thinking it was just indigestion. I rode my bicycle 11 kilometers with such pains in my chest thinking it will go away eventually. It wasn't until the pains got more severe, when I was alone at home, that I decided it was a good idea to call for help, and even then I called the Health line thinking calling an ambulance would be a wee bit drastic. Needless to say I was in shock when after being taken to hospital under priority one, which I thought was overkill, they gave me these words which would forever change my life "you are experiencing a heart attack". When I told them of my exploits in the 24 hours preceding this, they were shocked!!!! They thought I was just joking with them. Indeed I should have died. I was dangerously close to a cardiac arrest which would have sealed my fate, especially being the blocked arteries that caused the heart attack. FOUR arteries were blocked!!!! I should have died!!!! Quite obviously I didn't!!!! They put it down to my fitness, but even elite athletes have known to have died from heart attacks!!!! It seems clear it wasn't my time to go just yet...... and it was after the heart attack that I decided I had better do something with my life....... fulfil my callings...... my trips around the world to re-balance the energies of these ancient sites on the energy vortexes.... among other things.

And now the shocking revelations about Kathy, my wiccan friend..... she had been in love with me from the days I was married!!!! I had experienced my spiritual awakening in 2005/6, my Uranus opposition years, and soon after that I experienced my "dark night of the soul" - the period that usually involves depression, suicidal tendencies, self harm, etc. One of the consequences of increased awareness, we become more aware of the shit in our lives. I hadn't self harmed since 2016 but I have the scars to show. I had joined an online forum to help those with depression, self harm, etc, and that is where I met Kathy. For some reason we struck up a friendship and soon began exchanging emails. I was still married, and I had no idea whatsoever that she had actually fallen in love with me. And despite not being able to have me, she still remained in love with me, it never ceased. I guess, love happens no matter what. Even if I knew I would not have left my wife. But I didn't even know.

Then of course my wife died...... and then my catastrophic journey into the dating sites. I wasn't even looking for romance. But it was catastrophic, most of them were simply looking to scam me or worst....... then of course the catastrophic trip to New Zealand where I thought there would be romance, even if I wasn't looking for it, but decided this would be my last chance at romance...... and when she dumped me, I decided this was it, I would never look for romance again, and I was as I thought destined to lament the lack of abilities of Virgos to enjoy any success at dating and romance....... all while there was a witch in America who was utterly in love with me. I was so blissfully unware of her love for me, I just thought she was a very good friend, we been through a lot of shit together, but thought at best she be my soul mate, certainly no suggestion of any romance or that she actually wanted me!!!!!! I guess that is typically Virgo!!!!!

Indeed we had lost contact for a couple of years and I thought I'd never hear from her again...... until December last year when she msg me on FaceBook....... and it was only this year that she revealed her love for me!!!!! And she hadn't told me before because she was afraid I would reject her!!!! But I guess she decided she had to tell me sooner or later, she took the risk...... and well here we are.

If only I knew back then...... I would not have wasted time with dating sites nor go to the bother of going to New Zealand!!!!!!

The obvious question...... where to now?? Well I suppose the next step is to meetup with her, indeed this is next on my agenda, though I will be far more circumspect this time, not like the catastrophic New Zealand experience. Though there are major difference. The New Zealand woman came in contact through a dating site, we had not known each other prior to this, so it was a matter whether we would "work out" when we meet, and as they say, its history, a catastrophic one at that!!!!! But with Kathy we already known each other for years, since BEFORE the death of my wife, and we had been through so much shit together, she knows of my suicidal events and self harm, we'd share the most intimate details of such things. She knows my dark secrets. She knows about the Hell I had been through with my life. There is nothing more to hide. She knows me warts and all........ so for her to actually be in love with me, well............ as I say, next step is the meetup....... no details yet, not likely until next year due to having used up my vacation credits for this year...... nevertheless a next step.........

Last but not least...... the catastrophe that is football and the football tipping...... not a good start on any count....... of course the Magpies bombed out, that I expected, and the tipping result was catastrophic, I am in 21st place..... there are only 21 participants in the competition. Well Chiron is still in Pisces!! Firstly I missed out on the first match which was on a Thursday, and due to the time differences with Mexico, I was too late. So that was one down already, I had only 8 more chances, and well I gotten 5 of them but everyone else gotten more than that. So as far as football goes, this is not going to be my year. It will be impossible to win from here. This will be another year without prize money...... Chiron enters Aries next month, but due to its retrograde, it will go back into Pisces for a while..... so the curse of Chiron will have its sting in the tail.

The macabre bright spot..... the loss of the Weevils!!!! Looks like my weevil voodoo dolls from the depth of the Mexican jungle seemed to have worked..... well having to go up crocodile infested rivers and through unexplored jungles to get to the Mayan ruins...... and weevils voodoo dolls..... and the guy at customs was a Dockers supporter....... "no worries mate, bring them in, as many as you like"...... So yeah, the Weevils playing at their brand new stadium, they thought they should win..... well being in a spanking new stadium, they thought a win was in the bag....... well they were brought down to a thudding reality check..... and I could not have been happier.

So this time I won't forget about the Thursday night match, that is TONIGHT!!!!!! Hard to pick at this early stage...... but the Magpies not expected to beat the Giants...... and those little Weevils, I will have to bring out those voodoo dolls again, so the Bulldogs will have Weevils for dinner. Well they have to travel this time, they won't be in their spanking new stadium.

Now for my grocery shopping...... and Eostre candy for the upcoming Eostre festival this weekend celebrated in honour of the central European Goddess Eostre..... um..... otherwise known as Easter.

Meanwhile I celebrate Passover, which falls on Friday, and the holiday continues for the week until the following Friday, these are known as the days of unleavened bread. The tradition is we remove leavened foods (yeast, bicarb soda, other raising agents), and we eat matza the "unleavened bread" instead of normal bread. This stems from back in the days of the Exodus when the Jews escaped from Egyptian slavery, they didn't have time to properly bake their breads, so they ended up with flat kind of bread without any yeast, hence, "unleavened bread".

Now for some lighter entertainment.........

Me on a work day.......

When back in my childhood a group of us who were teasing me about my many girlfriends and they ask me which one I love the most...... Mother overheard this, and she said, "Mum of course!!!"..... uhhh believe me that was as far from my mind as that possibly can be!!!!!!!!!

Speaking of Egyptians.......

Virgo logic......

Now THIS is Heaven!!!!!!!

Virgo logic in dating......

The Chiron effect.........

Why Virgos should not date......

My lament.......

Preferably Taygeta but any place will do........

The message during Saturn Chiron squares.......

When Chiron enters Aries.......

What it felt like when I was in Mexico......

After being deprived of Pizza in Mexico it is on my menu tonight....... hehe......

Football and The Chiron Effect

I am now officially on vacation from work, and tomorrow evening (Sunday) I will be on my way to the airport to begin my very long journey to Mexico, the first leg being the "midnight horror", the overnight flight leaving just before midnight and landing in Melbourne near sunrise the following morning..... then the REAL "midnight horror", the very very looooooooong flight across the Pacific which also goes over midnight, and landing in Los Angeles the "next morning" which is in fact the same day as "yesterday" due to the quirks of flying across the Date Line from west to east!!! Then finally down to Cancun........

Just in my last couple of days at work we learned that the office Football Tipping competition is still going despite our dwindling numbers. Well we always join with a couple of other sections with the dept so still a reasonably few people that still makes it worth while. So being a glutton for punishment I joined...... Of course I have over the years mentioned about the "curse of Mother's death", which I later learned to be the "curse of Chiron". That is up until Chiron's entry into Pisces in 2011 I had always won prize money in the tipping competition, but since Chiron's entry into Pisces which happened to coincide with Mother's death, I had never won any prize money. Last year, as Chiron neared the end of its transit of Pisces, I did come close but still feel just short in the rankings. This year, Chiron moves out of Pisces and into Aries in April, so it will be interesting to see if I will start winning prize money again, though Chiron's transit of Aries will throw up other challenges as mentioned in previous blogs. Either way for better or for worse I am in the competition.

Of course the AFL season begins while I am in Mexico, but I have my laptop with me so can access the tipping site. And also I am subscribed to the digital edition of the daily newspapers, so can download our Perth local newspaper from anywhere in the world, even Mexico. So I can still see how they will rave on about the Weevils and how they think the Weevils will win a premiership, and at the same time, read about how the Weevils will whinge about everything, from travel times to the east coast, to the number of injuries they have to deal with. Of course this year their home games will be at the new stadium, and no doubt they will find something about the new stadium to whinge about and make excuses..... like they might say.... "Duh it's not the same as the old stadium, we're not used to it!!!!" Uhhhhh news flash!!!! The opposition team wouldn't be used to the new stadium either!!!! Duh!!!!!!!!

Meanwhile..... this intrepid explorer to be trudging through the deep dark depths of unexplored jungles, cruising along crocodile infested rivers in search of ancient lost civilizations, digging up answers to the secret of the universe..... and weevils voodoo dolls!!! Here as I come across a Mayan shaman..... "Hey mate can you make me some weevils voodoo dolls?" Shaman asks, "Uhhh who are the weevils?" Me showing team poster from our local paper, "They're a football team in Australia who are so sure of themselves, they seriously need reality checks!!!!" The Shaman responds, "Hey no worries buddy, will have them done for you!!!!"

Then it will have to make it through customs, well you know, voodoo dolls has to be declared at customs..... At Perth Airport as I arrive back...... If the customs office is a Weevil supporter, it is likely to go like this..... "Uhhhh sorry mate, we can't let those into the country, we'll need to confiscate them!!!!" However if the customs officer is a Dockers supporter, it's more likely to go like this..... "Hey no worries mate!! Bring them in, bring in as many as you like!!!!!"

Eupholus Weevil

Meanwhile...... the life and times of this intrepid little Virgo takes a totally unexpected twist that is so "left field" that if it is any more "left field" it will find itself in the "right field"......

Relatively brief background info...... a few years, back in the deep dark past when my wife was experiencing worsening health problems and I was battling periods of depression, self harm and suicidal thoughts, I joined a number of online sites unbeknown to my devout Christian wife because these were of alternative spiritualities, Pagan, witches, etc..... and I joined one particular site specifically to offer support for depression and self harm. I didn't join any Christian sites because I needed more than "just pray", or "just trust God", or "you have a demon" and "you need to repent". Pagans tended to offer less judgemental support and tend to put their money where their mouths are, being a lot more than just lip service.

On this particular site for depression and self harm, I met one lady online, and we became such good friends that we exchanged personal email addresses and our friendship blossomed. All unbeknown to my wife, not because we were having any "affairs" indeed we were nothing more than just good friends, but it was because she is a WITCH!!!! And like 99% of Christians, my wife hated witches. A Christian wouldn't be a Christian if he/she didn't hate witches. It's a Christian requirement to hate witches, as the Bible says "suffer not a witch to live". I was one of the 1% who didn't hate witches and I would cringe when she mentioned something bad about witches, all based on mythology rather than reality.

During our correspondence, she gave me a lot of unbiased and unconditional support when I had my moments, my depressive episodes, encouraging me to cease self harming, and to never commit suicide cos she'd miss me, and I believed her when she said that!! She was the angel who saved me!!

Anyway, through the years we continued to correspond to each other by email, she in America..... and somehow we lost contact back in 2016 when I started going on my trips......

So was very pleasantly surprised when she gotten back into contact with me during December last year, and we began to correspond again. She soon began to give romantic overtures, and well I just thought she was just flirting..... well it's not like I am in any relationship of anything, and we have been such great friends for so long. Me being a Virgo takes such a pragmatic views on such things, and well she is a Virgo too so I thought, surely she is just playing..... just some harmless flirting. A few of my female friends does that over the years, nothing more has ever come from it.

However she was getting more and more intense...... and I am thinking.... OK what is going on here??? She's a VIRGO!!!! Yet she is breaking every Virgo rule..... We witches do have a special kinship, we belong to the same soul group..... and you know, once a witch always a witch, we have all been witches in past lifetimes, and many of us has been martyred as witches in past lifetimes. When I went to Mt Shasta back in 2016, a psychic there revealed that I was martyred as a witch during a past lifetime on Earth. I was the village witch, so when shit happened in the village, I was blamed, and my abode was burnt to the ground while I was still inside asleep!! So we witches share a very special kinship, and it was particularly special between her and I.....

Now in more recent days she has made her intentions abundantly clear, and well to cut a relatively long story short, my next trip is set to be to America to meetup with her! So I consulted my chart and the current planetary alignments, communed with the entities associated with the planets...... and the conclusion was, she was sent to me for a reason!!!! Things happens in spite of my Virgoan determinations!!!!

In reality, in regards to meeting her this won't happen until next year as I have used up my vacation leave credits at work for this year. Given the catastrophe of the New Zealand trip I am staying firmly grounded. Indeed after the catastrophic romance fail of the New Zealand trip I promised to myself that was my last chance, that I will never again enter into any romance relationship again. So have been keeping myself at arms length, never flirting with anyone, and just keeping it all platonic...... I guess it takes a witch, indeed a Virgo witch, to slip under my normally rock solid Virgoan guard!!!!!

Of course a major difference..... the New Zealand lady was a contact from a dating site and I had known her for only a few weeks before we actually met, so should have known we were destined to failure. However this witch lady, I have known her online for years, and offered deep emotional support over the years, and so we already known each other. Also that the NZ lady was not a witch. She may have been into alternative spirituality, a hippie, indeed a star seed, but not a witch.

I am being careful.... and at the same time, being very open minded...... our connection is undeniable, as it is between witches, and it will never be broken regardless of what happens. I have since lost connection with the NZ lady, and it was good riddance...... but I will never lose connection with this American east coast lady, it remains through countless lifetimes........

Meanwhile back at the ranch......

This will be my last blog until after my Mexico trip. All updates, photos, etc, will be available on my Mexico trip FaceBook page given below.......

My Cancun Palenque Merida Trip CLICK HERE

So my flight details getting there, this time with Qantas.......

Sunday 11:25PM - Perth to Melbourne
Arrive Melbourne 6:00AM Monday

Monday 10:15AM - Melbourne to Los Angeles
Arrive Los Angeles 6:35AM - still Monday due to the quirks of across the Date Line from the west

Monday 9:30AM - Los Angeles to Cancun
Arrive Cancun 4:05PM

And hopefully the catastrophe of the ground transportation in Cancun won't be repeated. When I arrived last time, the agent somehow who took my bookings for ground transportation from the Airport to my hotel in Cancun some 30 minutes away did not pass on my details to the transport company. So when I fronted up to the transport company kiosk, I found much to my shock horror they didn't have my details so they refused to take me, leaving me utterly stranded at an airport in a strange country!!!!!

And as Mexicans do, as with a lot of these countries, there are those who take advantage of the predicament of hapless travellers. This guy from an alternative transport company was watching this whole scenario unfold, so was quick to pounce on me as soon as I left the kiosk..... offering me a direct trip into the city at hugely inflated prices compared to what I had already paid for through the agent. By then it was dark, I was shat after more than 30 hours of travelling, and all I wanted was a nice comfy bed in my hotel suite!! So I wore the inflated price and took advantage of the offer.......

THIS TIME I booked DIRECT with the transport company attached to my hotel, a different hotel to where I stayed previously, and gotten the confirmation straight from that company. So.... HOPEFULLY...... THIS TIME I will get the transportation as booked. And even if for some reason this falls through, I now know in hindsight there is a BUS that goes from the airport into the city every 30 minutes for much cheaper, and I know where my hotel is in relation to the bus terminal, and in any case there are always taxis waiting outside the bus terminal.

Anyway...... watch NOT this space for further updates, but the space on my link above.......

Meanwhile..... my last batch of cartoons until I get back from Mexico........

What NOT to do when I finally meet with my Wiccan girl friend in America......

The "Saturn Complex" test fail !!!!!

Virgo attempt at chatting up the girl next door......

Me holding onto lost youth........

When the "Saturn Complex" in my chart kicks in.....

Virgo attempts at chatting up a girl......

Don't give the IT section at work ideas !!!!!!

As those govt budget cuts begins to bite.....

I hope my Uber driver keeps quiet when he takes me to the Airport tomorrow night!!!!

Virgo dating experiences No.98

When restaurants in Perth tries to be "trendy"

The Water Corp in Perth......

Virgos.......

When my GP told me I needed to lose weight and I try to circumvent the Saturn Complex......

Virgos even in the afterlife !!!!!

Realism in robotics !!!!

Never let your guard down !!!!

The Chiron Effect when it kicks in.......

Wiccan Myths and My Scorpio Mars

March 1st last Thursday was the anniversary of the start of the infamous witch hunts in 1692 which ultimately led to the murder of the witches in Salem. There is a reason why I titled this blog "....and My Scorpio Mars". When the Scorpio Mars in my chart kicks in, it is when I state strong opinions even if it means stepping on some toes, and I am about to step on some Christian toes.

Several sections of the Church may have taken significant strides in areas of sexual orientation, racism, other faiths, even the treatment of Jews, etc..... but when it comes to witches they are still in the dark ages. The Catholics may have apologised for their treatment of the Jews, as shallow and half hearted as it was, but at least it was 100% better than what those of the Wiccan faith could ever expect from them.  The same superstitions that led to the murder of witches all those centuries ago are still held by the church today, Catholics, Orthodox, Protestants and Evangelical, in other words, pretty well all of the Church.

Ironically the popular caricature of "wizards" stems from the Christian observation of Jews. The long beards typical of wizards stems from the Jewish practice, especially of Rabbis, of growing beards in accordance with their religious laws. The black robes and caps are in reference to the dark robe-like attire of Jewish Rabbis. The stars and moons on the robe stems from the Jewish calendar and Jewish holidays. The calendar is based on the lunar cycles, the Jewish holidays determined by phases of the Moon. The stars are in reference to the Jewish links between the holidays and the Zodiac. Each month is governed by an Astral sign, basically a sign of the Zodiac, and the holidays are in synch with the Zodiac. For example, the first month on the Jewish calendar, the month of Nissan around the start of the Northern Spring (March/April) is given the Astral sign of Aries the Ram. Passover falls during Nissan and is centred around the lamb. No coincidence here!!!! The Church had often accused Jews of engaging in witchcraft and was one reason why it has been open season on Jews by the Church.

While the persecution of Jews stems from the charge of deicide - the murder of the Christian God, Jesus Christ, Christian persecution of witches stems from a direct passage in the Bible, found in the Old Testament, "Suffer not a witch to live" or variation thereof. This effectively justified the murder of witches, mostly through the dark ages, but also continuing into the so called "enlightenment" ages, and even into modern times.

The Bible today is an English translation from the original Hebrew and Greek texts, and not always an accurate translation at that. Indeed many of the cherished doctrines of Christianity stems from mis-translations of the Bible, the distortion and failure to discern context. The Bible was first translated into English during the 17th century, at the height of open season against witches. This affected the insertion of the word "witch" in certain parts of the Bible which in reality does NOT describe genuine witches.

In fact the word "witch" is often translated from the Hebrew word which means "poisoner", meaning, a person engaging in the administration of poisons and using them to murder their enemies. This is the basis of another Wiccan myth, the common caricature of old witches adding such things as the eyes of newts and the wings of bats into a cauldron of boiling water. Witches does not engage in such practices, in fact, we deal with various herbs and spices used for healing, which evolved into modern day cooking. Indeed many witches has a "kitchen witch" figurine in their kitchen, in fact I have one in my kitchen, celebrating our links to cooking up healthy dishes with healing properties.

The Greek word (in the New Testament) translated as "witch" is the Greek word "pharma". It is where we get the term "pharmacy" which are stores that sells drugs. Dealing with drugs was akin to dealing with poisons. So technically, if the Bible is to be believed, then your local GP would be described as a "witch" for he deals with drugs, he gives you scripts for the purchase of certain drugs from Pharmacies as a means of dealing with sickness and disease. Wow hospitals are full of "witches", the docs and nurses who gives drugs to patients!!! Real witches often seeks out herbal alternatives to these man made drugs from Pharmacies.

Now the Christian mythologies and superstitions regarding witches and others of the Pagan faith. I won't deal with all of them as it will take the next 20 blogs, but will spare you by dealing with just one - the myth that witches are Satan worshippers who actually worships Satan. There is one nit picky problem with such a superstition. It is somewhat difficult to worship someone whom you don't believe in!!!!

Wiccans.... and Paganism in general.... does not believe in a specific opposite adversary to God that is the devil or Satan. Indeed the word Satan is not found anywhere in Pagan thought. Satan is a specifically Judeo-Christian word, later adopted by Islam a religion that stems from Christianity. Indeed all of Islamic sharia law are found in the Christian Bible, some terms are altered eg Allah instead of Yalyeh or Jesus, the actual laws however are identical. Ever noticed the similarities between Catholic Nuns and women in Islamic dress??

And no, Satan is NOT the "horned god" of some Pagan modalities. In fact there are absolutely no Biblical record of Satan ever having horns. In fact if anything, Satan in the Bible is portrayed as an ANGEL, and well, angels does not have horns. The word "Satan" simply means "Adversary", so is nothing more than an angel whom for some reason decided to become an adversary of God. To my knowledge, no one has ever grown horns nor a tail for that matter just be being someone's adversary!!

To be sure there are references to "underworld" gods in Paganism. The over riding difference however is, Paganism deals with many gods and goddesses, and none are either 100% good nor 100% evil. In other words, there is no duality in Paganism, indeed in any other faiths. And even the idea of "worship" in Paganism is different. While Christian "worship" involves 100% submission to a Deity at the expense of self, Pagan "worship" is more to do with an equal working together with our many deities, indeed no different to dealing with our friends and families.

Of course I can't speak for all Pagans, for it is indeed a many splendoured faith, with so many different modalities and ways of doing things. There are no organised groups in Paganism in the same sense as there is the Church. We have no Pope nor any other "holy man" who rules over large sections of the faith, and no major organised groups beyond perhaps local groups in specific areas tied to specific local customs.

Nevertheless at least the majority of witches and Pagans in general does not engage in "worship" in the same sense of Christians. And we certainly DO NOT worship "Satan" since we don't even believe that such an entity exists!!!! Rather difficult to "worship" someone whom we don't believe in!!!!!!

And no we don't turn people into toads even if there are certain people whom we would like to turn into toads!!!! Certain politicians comes to mind without naming anyone in particular!!!!!

Finally..... "witch" is a gender neutral term. Both males and females of certain crafts are correctly described as "witches". The term "warlock" to describe a male witch is a Christian term dating back to the middle ages meant to further demonize witches. There are no "warlocks" in Paganism.

OK rant over...... at least for the time being..... no apologies for my Scorpio Mars!!!!

Now I got that out of my system....... here on a slightly happier note......

This time next week I will be at the Airport waiting for a flight to Melbourne, the first leg of my very long journey to the distant lands of Mexico. You know you live in the most isolated city on Earth when you travel the world, even to the east coast. So this may be my last blog until my trip, though I will try to get another blog in before I go, which means, it will be earlier. At the very least I will give the link to my FaceBook page covering this trip, where photos and stories of my trip will be uploaded regularly throughout my trip.

Finalizing plans for my Mexico trip during this final week, even if not all will be necessarily planned, but as per my Virgoan intent, I like to plan as much ahead as possible. Mexicans however are not Virgos!! The Mexican way is not to book ahead on most things, at least not as far ahead as we westerners!!! Of course there are notable exceptions, such as the flights within Mexico. But as far as buses and ferries goes, for the most part they prefer for us to just turn up at the station on the day, with most travel sites assuring us that these services are rarely booked out, and even if one service is by some extreme unlikely instance is booked out, the following service is often only a short time away. Even the tours you can book only just one day ahead.

And in a lot of cases I won't even go on tours to these ancient Mayan sites, pyramids, etc. There are often bus services to at least the larger and more popular of these sites, so I will just go on my lonesome giving me much more time to explore at my leisure. The tours are often rushed and too structured for my liking, and the "free time" given by many tours are scant and often not long enough to enable me to explore the whole site. For example, Chichen Itza is much bigger than one can explore during the scant two hours we were typically given as "free time" to explore. In  fact I needed to go on TWO tours of Chichen Itza to enable me to see the whole area at my leisure, and even then I struggled to keep within the two hours - given that even if you are just five minutes late, the tour bus leaves without you potentially leaving you stranded!!! I didn't know back then that one could simply catch a bus to these sites, but now with the benefit of hindsight, there are indeed buses to the more popular of these sites. Some I will still need to go on a tour just in order to get there, but then these are typically smaller sites anyway which doesn't need a lot of time to explore.

My main focus in these last few days has been on the Mayan Goddess called Ix Chel. Many of the Mayan sites are in honour of this Goddess. Indeed this time I am visiting the ancient ruins of Palenque, often referred to as a special sanctuary of the Goddess referring to Ix Chel. This time I am spending only one day in Cancun, and I will be spending that day on at least one of the two islands off the coast, both sacred to the Goddess Ix Chel. I won't have time to visit both islands, in fact one of them involves a two-hour trip to the south by bus to get to the ferry terminal and a further hour on the ferry making it a three hour trip each way. As with most things in Mexico, one does not book ahead on the ferries, you just turn up on the day. Ferries to the islands runs every 30 minutes to an hour into the night, so plenty of time for me to explore the island and work with the Goddess energies of the island.

Ix Chel

Indeed it turns out I do have a special connection with Ix Chel...... I may go into it another time..... but it does involve one of my past lives as a Mayan on the Yucatan. Indeed I am actually going back to my "homelands", it was why I was so drawn to the area, and why I was so drawn for a return trip. I usually like to visit as many countries as possible, but in this instance I was drawn to go back to Mexico, specifically to the Mayan Yucatan area, rather than visit another country, albeit to visit sites on the Yucatan that I did not visit last time, mostly on the western side. Last time I was mostly on the eastern side, the vicinity of Cancun. This time most of my time will be spent at Palenque and Merida, both on the western side.

Last but not least, the imminent changes in my job stemming from the retirement of my colleague due to leave us at Easter time, when I will be on my way back from Mexico. Most fortunately this weekend is a holiday weekend, so only four more work days to go..... four more in my old role. My return from Mexico will be something of a baptism of fire, as I will be thrust into my new role!!!!

Now looking forward to a nice day off work tomorrow........

Tempting...... hehe.....

Government Economic Mythology.......

Soon to face brutal Virgo reality check......

Life during Chiron's transit of Aries......

During Saturn Chiron squares.......

Still waiting on those new computers promised to us at work.......

No comments needed....... not getting comments anyway!!!! hehe!!!!

Meanwhile at a govt department near you.....

What it felt like during my 1998 America trip when I was placed on "standby" due to my flight being overbooked.....

The democratic process in Australia......

hehe......!!!!

Fun with my girl friend..... hehehe......

or.... "let alone next EIGHT years"...... as Chiron transits Aries......