On the Road

Last weekend we were on the road, and conveniently Angie Mroczka was also in Cleveland (where we were heading) for a book signing.

So….we stopped in. Which was quite exciting – I’ve known Angie for several years online, but had never met her in person. And she was there with several books from Pagan Writers Press, including the PWP Samhain book that I have an essay in.

In the end, I ended up signing Angie’s book for her, so I guess unofficially it was my first book signing!

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by on April 26, 2013  •  Permalink
Posted in Essays
Posted by Janet on April 26, 2013

http://www.janetcallahan.com/archives/490

Doing the Work

It’s been an odd few months, even for us. A lack of sleep is generally causing a lack of motivation on all fronts, and fixing the sleep issues has been more challenging than one might hope.

In the midst of this all, I’ve been feeling rather lost, spiritually speaking. No time for full rituals, and meditation is right out – I fall asleep – and many of the other things that I used to do are just darn hard with things here the way they are.

But….as always, where there’s a will, there’s a way. Big Dark & Scary has been waiting patiently, and finally poked me the other day. Because, you know, when your primary matron deity is good at breaking down barriers and making changes happen, and you ignore that idea for too long, She gets cranky. Through an odd series of events, I came across a page of mantras for Her, and it occurred to me that I could do that. Daily even.

And from there, down the rabbit hole I went, reading different mantras and looking at prayer beads and knowing exactly what I wanted….and then realizing that with the schedule this week, there was just no way to make it happen, even if I could find appropriate supplies locally.

I was going to put it off, but instead I went to a local craft store and went and played in the bead aisle, looking for what felt right. In the end, I settled on something a little less flashy than the original plan (something that still stands out, but won’t be considered a problem at work).  Dyed red quartzite, red lava rocks, black glass beads, and some smaller glass crystals make up the mala bracelet I’m now wearing, and I’ve already used it several times to run through a set of mantras.

image

So here’s hoping that this small step will lead to some other changes in the right direction.

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by on April 18, 2013  •  Permalink
Posted in Essays, Personal
Posted by Janet on April 18, 2013

http://www.janetcallahan.com/archives/478

March Special – Dream Catcher Kits

This month’s special is the kind of sale I’ve always wanted to do, but never quite got around to.

My 5″ diameter kits are normally $12 plus shipping. For this sale, I’m discounting kits by 25%, bringing the price to $9 each plus shipping.

Because of constraints here at home, I have removed custom kits from my dream catchers site, but for this special I’ll be offering semi – custom 5″ kits, where you pick a primary and secondary color for your kit, and I pull together a kit for you based on those colors.

Your kit contains all materials plus instructions. You provide a bit of super glue, scissors, and possibly a clothes pin or binder clip.

This special is good only through the end of March, so get your kits now.

If you’re interested in buying kits in bulk for a group project or event, let me know & we can work out a discount.

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by on March 1, 2013  •  Permalink
Posted in Products, Updates
Posted by Janet on March 1, 2013

http://www.janetcallahan.com/archives/459

Times, they are a changin’

Life is always chaotic when you have little ones running about, but at our house, it’s especially so, because our little ones each have multiple medical issues. There are doctors appointments every month, and quite a number of therapy hours every week, on top of the normal kid things like eating and sleeping and bathing.

In an effort to inject some sanity, and based on several recent hospitalizations, my husband is going to cut his work schedule to have more time to help manage all the daily living things around here, plus those appointments. That does put us a little behind on our budget, but we will make do – it’s not so much that any of the important bills (like the electric that keeps oxygen flowing and our youngest one’s ventilator running all night), but it is enough to put some of the extra therapy things we’re doing in jeopardy.

To that end, being the kind of witch I am, I’m going to start figuring out how to build in time for the business end of things around here – I already have a business, now it’s time to manifest the funds we need, right?

Kadiera’s Cauldron has a facebook page - I’ll be running monthly sale specials over there, starting with earrings for the rest of February, and a dream catcher kit special for March. Like the page, or follow me on twitter (@kadiera) to hear about the sales as they come up.

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by on February 16, 2013  •  Permalink
Posted in parenting, Personal, Updates
Posted by Janet on February 16, 2013

http://www.janetcallahan.com/archives/456

PBP – Beginnings

In the Beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth.

–Genesis 1:1

When I was in middle school, I attended confirmation classes (not entirely willingly; I think in the grand scheme of things, it was the beginning of the end for me as a Christian).  Apparently in the “good old days” the class stood up at the front of the church and people asked them questions of doctrine; by the time I got there, someone realized that putting a bunch of 7th and 8th graders on the spot was maybe not a good idea, so we were to write essays about our favorite Bible verse and what it said about our faith.

Most of my friends and classmates picked things from the New Testament about love and redemption…I picked Genesis 1:1.  (Yes, I was a strange child, even then). But the thing is, where we came from is often germane to how we got to where we are, and that seemed to me to be an important step.

But where we came from – where we begin – is not an easy thing to understand. It comes down to what we see as True (as opposed to what is true – factual) – that Truth that lies at the heart of how the universe works.

What is Truth, and what is God?

We Pagan folk believe in a lot of different creation stories. All of them are True, even when they contradict themselves and each other, and even when none of them are true.

There’s the Descent of the Goddess, as told in the Vangelo Delle Streghe. The Norse have a myth of ice that becomes a cow, who then frees a man from an ice block, who becomes the father of Odin; Odin and his brothers kill a giant and make the world from him. The Egyptians have Nu, the chaos of churning water, and when it recedes, the land appears…and then many different stories about how the earth and all its creatures come from that. Floods and formless voids abound, but the details differ from culture to culture, each telling the people where they came from.

Truth then, is our beginning, and it tells us where we have come from, and who we are. It doesn’t necessarily tell us where we’re going, but it gives us a firm foundation for making that journey.

 

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by on January 18, 2013  •  Permalink
Posted in Essays, Opinions, Pagan Blog Project
Posted by Janet on January 18, 2013

http://www.janetcallahan.com/archives/453

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