Paracelsus for today

Waking nature calls you out. Don't forget when you'll apply your freshly collected herbs:

"Poison is in everything, and no thing is without poison. The dosage makes it either a poison or a remedy."

We just planted our tiny aloe vera today. That will grow huge within 3-4 year. Today we have only two leafs and some roots in the pot :)

Witches do exist

If You'd like to wear our pentacle on facebook

Sappho's Hymn to Aphrodite

Iridescent-throned Aphrodite, deathless

Child of Zeus, wile-weaver, I now implore you,

Don't--I beg you, Lady--with pains and torments

Crush down my spirit,

But before if ever you've heard my pleadings

Then return, as once when you left your father's

Golden house; you yoked to your shining car your

Wing-whirring sparrows;

Skimming down the paths of the sky's bright ether

On they brought you over the earth's black bosom,

Swiftly--then you stood with a sudden brilliance,

Goddess, before me;

Deathless face alight with your smile, you asked me

What I suffered, who was my cause of anguish,

What would ease the pain of my frantic mind, and

Why had I called you

To my side: "And whom should Persuasion summon

Here, to soothe the sting of your passion this time?

Who is now abusing you, Sappho? Who is

Treating you cruelly?

Now she runs away, but she'll soon pursue you;

Gifts she now rejects--soon enough she'll give them;

Now she doesn't love you, but soon her heart will

Burn, though unwilling."

Come to me once more, and abate my torment;

Take the bitter care from my mind, and give me

All I long for; Lady, in all my battles

Fight as my comrade.

Translation, copyright 1997 Elizabeth Vandiver

Awaking Nature

 

Dear Readers,

The Nature is waking. We were in to a forest today and took some pictures of the growing plants and the first flowers of this year.

Let us share them with you!

Bright Blessings!

Maslows hierarchy of needs

 

Maslow's hierarchy of needs is often portrayed in the shape of a pyramid, with the largest and most fundamental levels of needs at the bottom, and the need for self-actualization at the top.

The most fundamental and basic four layers of the pyramid contain what Maslow called "deficiency needs" or "d-needs": esteem , friendship and love, security, and physical needs. With the exception of the most fundamental (physiological) needs, if these "deficiency needs" are not met, the body gives no physical indication but the individual feels anxious and tense. Maslow's theory suggests that the most basic level of needs must be met before the individual will strongly desire (or focus motivation upon) the secondary or higher level needs. Maslow also coined the term Metamotivation to describe the motivation of people who go beyond the scope of the basic needs and strive for constant betterment. Metamotivated people are driven by B-needs (Being Needs), instead of deficiency needs (D-Needs).

Physiological needs

For the most part, physiological needs are obvious — they are the literal requirements for human survival. If these requirements are not met, the human body simply cannot continue to function.

Air, water, and food are metabolic requirements for survival in all animals, including humans. Clothing and shelter provide necessary protection from the elements. The intensity of the human sexual instinct is shaped more by sexual competition than maintaining a birth rate adequate to survival of the species.

Safety needs

With their physical needs relatively satisfied, the individual's safety needs take precedence and dominate behavior. These needs have to do with people's yearning for a predictable orderly world in which perceived unfairness and inconsistency are under control, the familiar frequent and the unfamiliar rare. In the world of work, these safety needs manifest themselves in such things as a preference for job security, grievance procedures for protecting the individual from unilateral authority, savings accounts, insurance policies, reasonable disability accommodations, and the like.

Safety and Security needs include:

* Personal security

* Financial security

* Health and well-being

* Safety net against accidents/illness and their adverse impacts

Love and belonging

After physiological and safety needs are fulfilled, the third layer of human needs are social and involve feelings of belongingness. This aspect of Maslow's hierarchy involves emotionally based relationships in general, such as:

* Friendship

* Intimacy

* Family

Humans need to feel a sense of belonging and acceptance, whether it comes from a large social group, such as clubs, office culture, religious groups, professional organizations, sports teams, gangs, or small social connections (family members, intimate partners, mentors, close colleagues, confidants). They need to love and be loved (sexually and non-sexually) by others. In the absence of these elements, many people become susceptible to loneliness, social anxiety, and clinical depression. This need for belonging can often overcome the physiological and security needs, depending on the strength of the peer pressure; an anorexic, for example, may ignore the need to eat and the security of health for a feeling of control and belonging.

Esteem

All humans have a need to be respected and to have self-esteem and self-respect. Also known as the belonging need, esteem presents the normal human desire to be accepted and valued by others. People need to engage themselves to gain recognition and have an activity or activities that give the person a sense of contribution, to feel accepted and self-valued, be it in a profession or hobby. Imbalances at this level can result in low self-esteem or an inferiority complex. People with low self-esteem need respect from others. They may seek fame or glory, which again depends on others. Note, however, that many people with low self-esteem will not be able to improve their view of themselves simply by receiving fame, respect, and glory externally, but must first accept themselves internally. Psychological imbalances such as depression can also prevent one from obtaining self-esteem on both levels.

Most people have a need for a stable self-respect and self-esteem. Maslow noted two versions of esteem needs, a lower one and a higher one. The lower one is the need for the respect of others, the need for status, recognition, fame, prestige, and attention. The higher one is the need for self-respect, the need for strength, competence, mastery, self-confidence, independence and freedom. The latter one ranks higher because it rests more on inner competence won through experience. Deprivation of these needs can lead to an inferiority complex, weakness and helplessness.

Maslow also states that even though these are examples of how the quest for knowledge is separate from basic needs he warns that these “two hierarchies are interrelated rather than sharply separated” (Maslow 97). This means that this level of need, as well as the next and highest level, are not strict, separate levels but closely related to others, and this is possibly the reason that these two levels of need are left out of most textbooks.

Self-actualization

“What a man can be, he must be.” This forms the basis of the perceived need for self-actualization. This level of need pertains to what a person's full potential is and realizing that potential. Maslow describes this desire as the desire to become more and more what one is, to become everything that one is capable of becoming. This is a broad definition of the need for self-actualization, but when applied to individuals the need is specific. For example one individual may have the strong desire to become an ideal parent, in another it may be expressed athletically, and in another it may be expressed in painting, pictures, or inventions. As mentioned before, in order to reach a clear understanding of this level of need one must first not only achieve the previous needs, physiological, safety, love, and esteem, but master these needs.

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The Wiccan Rede

(the short version)

Bide ye Wiccan laws ye must, in perfect love and perfect trust.

Live and let live, fairly take and fairly give.

Form the circle thrice about to keep all evil spirits out.

Soft of eye, light of touch, speak ye little, listen much.

Deosil go by the waxing moon, singing out ye Witches' Rune.

Widdershins go by the waning moon, chanting out the baneful rune.

When the Lady's moon is new, kiss your hand to her times two.

When the rippling waters flow, cast a stone and truth ye'll know.

When ye have and hold a need, harken not with others' greed.

With a fool no seasons spend, lest ye be counted as his friend.

Merry meet and merry part, bright the cheeks and warm the heart.

Mind ye threefold law ye should, three times bad and three times good.

When misfortune is anow, wear the star upon thy brow.

True in Love ye must ever be, lest thy love be false to thee.

In these eight words, the Wiccan Rede fulfill

"An' it harm none, do what thou wilt."

Phases of the Moon

Let's funk it up:)


Easy, isn't it?

Amsterdam meeting

Dear Readers, Brothers, Sisters, Friends and Members,

We have visited Cornelius in Amsterdam and also had a great meeting there.
Let us share with you some of the pics we took:

 from left to right: Cornelius, GhostGirl, Vindicta

from left to right: Meredith, Atomm, Morgana

Top line: Vindicta, GhostGirl

Bottom line: Meredith, Atomm, Morgana, Cornelius

We had a bright time and a great chat. Later we went around the city and it was gorgeous.  

We're planing to visit them again in the next few months. 

On Thursday eve we took our part on a shamanistic Imbolc ritual. 

"Merry meet and merry part and merry meet again!"

Imbolc Blessings