I told myself I would start this week's blog entry out at the Goddess Temple in Nevada, as that is where I will be going on Tuesday the 22nd.  However, the theft of the statue of Sekhmet at that sacred space overnight on Good Friday is too near and dear to my heart and I am noting that unfortunate incident here, now, still in Seattle.  If it be Her Will to be out on walkabout for a very brief time, so be it.  However, I would very much like to see Her return, especially if that could happen during my trip there in these next few weeks.

So, yes, I am counting down, making piles, taking things out of piles, putting things on top of other things and putting a lot of things into little bags, and then putting those little bags into bigger bags.  All while chanting the mantra "less is more."  I have the ride out to the desert sorted.  I just have to work out what I want to do with the few days at the very end of the trip and coming back.  The trick will be to try and swing it so I can hit the afterglow.  I haven't done that for MayFire very much over the years.  I've got my PowerPot and solar recharging kit, and a solar shower.  That should make me more able to meet my needs right there on the sand. 

As I've been cleaning out old odds and ends over the last few months, I've been saving up items that somehow told me they were destined to go to the Temple.  By now, it's not just a few things, it's a small bag of figurines, chunks of rock or glass, and all manner of crafted totems.  These items represent a wide range of energies, gathered from so many different places.  I'll be taking gifts for various sacred spots on the land, and the different entities in those spots.  I've restructured my incense bag AGAIN.  By which I mean for like the fourth or fifth time since it grew into its own bag.  As usual, I have a goodly amount of stuff but am perpetually running low on charcoals.  That's the first thing anyone into incense asks anyone else into incense at gatherings:  "Do you have charcoals?"  We all seem to only ever have three.  I did remember to get a few extra lighters as the wind in the desert can be hard on sources of flame and lighters that seemed like they were just new can suddenly be empty.

Having had a variety of close calls with Mercury Retrograde action while traveling to and from P-con, and having dodged any untoward effects in those encounters, it does not surprise me that the retrograde finally bit me in the ass this week.  I arrived at my house-sit, about an hour and a half via transit south of where I live, and right as I slid the key into the door I could then suddenly recall with perfect clarity changing the key on the ring to not be the lake house anymore and instead be the park house.  And there I was, at the lake house door, with a park house key.  Expletive deleted, indeed!

So, I ditched my bags in the back yard, discretely watered a bush and got my tuchis back on transit to haul north again.  I had a proper bio break, grabbed a key, put on another warmer layer and headed right back out into near-rush-hour transit.  As with the previous run, everything with perfectly synchronized and I even beat the Google map estimates both ways by a bit.  I did a run to the PCC this AM for a few things. 

"You see by means of this diagram (which has been confirmed to be perfectly exact by J. Boucher, who received an identical one from his master Fulcanelli), that Cold and West generate Water, Wet and Hot generate Air, Hot and Dry generate Fire, and Dry and Cold generate Earth. In their turn, Earth and Air generate the Mercury Principle, Air and Fire generate the Sulfur Principle, and Fire and Earth generate the Salt Principle. At the second stage of The Work, the Mercury Principle and the Sulfur Principle generate Philosophical Silver, or Silver of the Wise, and the Sulfur Principle and the Salt Principle generate Philosophical Gold, or Gold of the Wise. The copulation of the two then gives the Chrysoprase."

From Spiritual Alchemy, Inner Alchemy - Ambelin, Translated by Piers A. Vaughan © May 2005.

So, my friend A is putting on a thing, a new thing, out at the Goddess Temple in late April.  I've been contemplating going to it on and off since she told me about it after Illumination last August.  I'd been feeling "on" again, and then my phone rang on Monday night.  We got cut off twice, but clearly the third time was the charm or the Goddess really meant for the call to go on that long, but I'm energized even more to the idea of going, and making it an extended stay at the Temple.  I'd be there for about a fortnight ahead of MayFire.  A's triple fire idea really could use some more anchoring from people who seem to grasp her framework, and it would seem I'm one of those.  Some of the work I'd like to visit this week while I've got myself in a retreat structure would be to divine out that situation and see if it locks down as a "go."  If I find the right one airfare, that would take care of most of it.  I should probably also contact Candace and talk with her.  There are some projects she and I could take on during an extended stay.

Looking ahead to late March and the comiccon... it's clear I have to commit to going to the speed dating.  Srsly.  Randomized, public risks are good for trying to break or shake off old patterns.  And the con environment certainly brings a truly new-to-my-experience level of novelty.  I have to go find a soundbite of Chris Evans talking about how what's best for you is to do what you fear.  I'm going to need the constant reassurance.  My bigender sense spins in circles at the thought, trying to figure out myself for this sort of challenge is almost paralyzing.  Clearly March is going to be interesting.

March 3rd is Girls Day in Shintoism, and Tokara will be having a special tohryanse (open house) this weekend for it.  Traditionally dolls are displayed for the week ahead of the holiday.  This makes me think about the pop culture magick class, and how I'm probably missing one or two necessary female action figures for such an occasion as that's where my dollish interests would lie these days.