Ever since the last Full Moon eclipse the world seems to have changed
significantly. Paris attacked, Russian planes downed, world leaders getting
together to discuss climate change, China banning the ivory trade and
finally for me – getting laid off from a job I held for ten years because
the company is moving to Texas where it can pay workers less in wages and
benefits.
I live in a rural area and our office was surrounded by ponds, fields of
wildflowers, pine woods and oaks. I walked outside every day on my break and
would hear owls discoursing, especially when a storm was approaching. There
were wild rabbits, hawks, eagles, geese, ducks, muskrats, beaver, deer,
red-wing blackbirds, green herons and great blue herons. There were so many
robins that one year Audubon members showed up to gawk at them as they
settled in the trees at dusk.
And year after year my co-workers reported seeing bobcats which drove me crazy because I sooo wanted to see one! These creatures are so elusive that some wildlife biologists spend a lifetime searching for them with no success. Then, just a day or two before the office closed, there they were;
a large female bobcat and her kitten. The mother was clearly hunting as her somewhat dazed looking kitten ambled around the parking lot.
It was a final good bye and a blessing from the animal spirits that I had been tracking for a decade. Here is the female’s picture!
So far it has been a very mild winter hereabouts. As of December 1 there has been no snow and I still see moths and other winged creatures flitting around the house and forest.
Some articles to reflect on as a world spirals into deepening war;
- Vandana Shiva remarks on the current violence in the world (video)
- How Syrians are dying (read this and then tell me these refugees don’t need
our help) - And PLEASE call that murderous cult “Daesh” or ISIL. Stop calling them by the name of a beloved Egyptian Goddess!
BOOK NEWS
- I have two new books coming out in 2016!
This book is available for pre-order now and will be out in March, 2016
Secret Medicines from Your Garden
Plants for Healing, Spirituality, and Magic
Ellen Evert Hopman
Coming Spring 2016
- A LEGACY OF DRUIDS
As I write this the book is still not available for pre-order but you canread about it by following the links.
Moon Books
Philip Carr-Gomm
*Reminder! All my books can be ordered from this website – get a copy signed
by the author with a personal note!*
ARCHEOLOGY NEWS
- When Tutankhamun’s grave was opened – color pictures
- 2200 year old mosaics found in Greek city
- Ancient DNA links Native Americans with Europeans
- Iron Age cooking
- Ancient cave paintings and symbols (video)
- How the invention of agriculture changed European DNA
- A La Tene burial
- Syphilis in Europe pre-dates Columbus trip to America
- Things to know about the Book of Kells
- 800 year old seeds yield once extinct squash
- Ancient textiles
- A Pagan basilica found in Rome
- A burned medieval witch found in Italy
- European hunter-gatherer’s bones found in Georgia
- An Iron Age Irish hoard
- Pictish symbol stones
- Photos of Ireland in the 1930’s
- Celtic ceremonial feasting buckets
- A Welsh Viking high cross
- A Viking longhouse found in Iceland
- 3-D printing brings ancient Irish horn to life
- Welsh Hillforts of the Iron Age
- Stonehenge update
- A new human ancestor found in Ethiopia
- Scanning for Nefertiti’s tomb
- Prehistoric villages found in Wyoming
- Neanderthals arrived in Italy earlier than thought
- A Celtic village in Dorset
LANGUAGE NEWS
HERB NEWS
- Ayahuasca – a powerful antidepressant
- How to process chaga
- Pines for healing
- Its time to plant Milkweed for the Monarch Butterflies!
- Frankincense is proven to be a psychoactive anti-depressant
- Magical uses of herbs
- Usnea!
- Herbal alchemy and the water element (video)
- Garlic injections might cure tree diseases, study finds
HEALTH NEWS
NATURE NEWS
- Congress attempts to influence climate scientists to not say Earth is
warming - Russians may clone baby cave lions that were found in permafrost
- How trees talk
- Oklahoma, no where near a fault line, becomes #1 state with earthquakes, due to fracking
- You can track earthquakes in the US daily
- Whales are dying with bellies full of plastic trash
- Scotland’s Fortingall Yew is turning into a female
- Jurassic bark – Ireland is planting ancient oaks, and redwoods
RELIGION NEWS
- Sufi’s, the best antidote to ISIL
- Dr. Ronald Hutton on British Paganism (audio)
- The Bible is just as violent as the Quran
- Last month’s issue of The Druid Inquirer
- The first Thanksgiving – what really happened here in Massachusetts?
- Donald Trump – please register me too
- Pope Francis: “Those who make war are damned, they’re delinquents. War can be ‘justified’ for many reasons. But when the whole world is at war, as it is today … there is no justification.”
- We are not alone the shamans of the world tell us
- Scottish Evangelists: Pagans are one of the biggest threats to civilization (not ISIL)
- Ancient Egyptian Gods and Goddesses (video) (but where are all the Goddesses?)
- Satanists now using Hobby Lobby ruling to advantage
- The solution to terrorism (video)
- A hymn to the goddess Brighid (video)
- Religious fundamentalism could soon be treated as an illness (considering that most wars are started by fundamentalists; Christian, Jewish or Muslim, this is a very good idea)
- Children from religious households are less empathetic than secular, study finds
- Carpathian Shamans
- Shamans of Siberia (video)
- Pope Francis calls for end to tax exemption for churches that do not help the poor
- Americans becoming less religious Pew Poll finds
- Wicca’s new rights under the Georgia Religious Freedom Restoration Act
- LA students fighting Christian indoctrination in their public school
CELTIC NEWS
- The Cailleach (video)
- Step dancing in Ireland (video)
- Honoring Goddesses in Skye
PAGAN NEWS
- “Granny women” and “Yarb doctors” of Appalachia
- A Pagan and a Christian buried together in Frankfurt, Germany in the Middle Ages
- Was Odin a person?
HEALTH NEWS
- Home abortions rise after Texas closes clinics (this was completely
predictable) - US maternal death rate is now the highest in the Western world thanks to GOP policies against women
- Colorado will vote on single payer health care next year
- Middle Aged whites in American dying in record numbers now
- Which countries have the best and most cost effective health care outcomes?
POLITICS AND ETHICS
- Mass shootings are domestic terrorism
- The gravest terror threat to America – right wing extremists
- Anne Frank and her family were also denied entrance to the US
- Petition: make election day a national holiday! (will be sent to Obama)
- Producer of anti-Planned Parenthood videos admits they are a fraud
- In a new low even for him, Donald Trump calls for special ID cards for Muslims. Does no one remember the Jews and World War II when everyone in Germany who was Jewish was forced to wear a yellow star? How about the round up of all Japanese Americans and putting them in camps, just because of their race, even if they were born here? This is disgusting. “Trump would not rule out warrantless searches in his plans for increased surveillance of the nation’s Muslims, Yahoo reported Thursday. He also remained open toward registering U.S. Muslims in a database or giving them special identification identifying their faith, the news outlet added.”
More… - A Republican combat vet eviscerates GOP xenophobia
- Bernie Sanders speaks at Georgetown University (video)
- Unlike the GOP the French president, a Socialist, shows real courage and will take 30,000 more refugees from Syria
- Elizabeth Warren pushes back against the GOP effort to ban Syrian refugees
- Most terror attacks in the US come from far right and Christian men, not Muslims
- While trying to force pregnant women to carry a fetus to term, GOP is also trying to make it legal to fire women for being pregnant (we just can’t win)
- Muslims around the world condemn Paris attacks
- The postal workers union endorses Bernie Sanders
- The most important Socialist in American not named Bernie Sanders just won re-election
- How the world sees us; the Republican party is the greatest threat to America
- Senator Tom Cotton: “Social Security turns Americans into heroin addicts” (Maybe he should volunteer to give up his government pension?)
- State of Alabama is blocked from removing Planned Parenthood funding, due to fraudulent claims by the state
- Judge orders Louisiana to restore Planned Parenthood funding
- Warren: seniors and disabled vets should get a check from the government
More… - Bernie Sanders has more donors than any candidate in US history
- John Stewart is coming back to television on HBO!
- Media is silent as Bernie Sanders beats Trump in polls
- Bernie Sanders and Tammy Baldwin back bill to prevent mining on Native American sacred lands
- Bernie Sanders introduces a bill to stop Native American land give aways
- Texas mulls over the idea that home schooled kids have to learn something
- Why Bernie Sanders is not missing Senate votes as he campaigns
- Our terrorism double standard
- Gun deaths in the US will soon outnumber car accident deaths
Gather with your loved ones around the Solstice fire. Stay warm and have a
blessed rest of the year!