h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

so, does this mean that you want something other that chocolate for the easter/spring solstice/unpronouncable festival name?

FABT

No, chocolate's great for Ostara Not that it really bothers me - I survived Yule/Christmas, after all. Does it bother you?

nope

would have been nice for you to actually tell me though.

how long has this been going on?

and tell me what you are really into so i dont trample on your beliefs.

you never seem to have had beliefs before now so i dont want to screw up.

FABT

Sorry, but how would you have suggested I broke the news? Hmm? How does one go about telling one's parents? Help!

It's been about six months I guess since I really felt Wiccan, but I've been interested for quite a while and have done a fair bit of research. I'm not walking into it blind, so don't worry about that.

As to what I actually believe... it gets complicated, but the basic principles are, as you might expect, the most important parts, and so I'll stick with those. Note that these may come out slightly differently if you talk to other Wiccans - it's a religion where personal perspective plays a large part in your view of the world and how you interact with it.

Fundamentally, in terms of morality, there are two rules - the Rede and the Law of Return. The Rede states "do as ye wil, an it harm none," which is fairly simple. The Law of Return says that "what is sent out, returns". Some say it returns three-fold, so this is often called the Three-Fold Law, but I'm not so sure it's always three-fold - sometimes it might be more, sometimes less. Basically it's a caution that applies most directly to the use of magic - if you send out nasty things, so if, for instance, you cast a hex or curse on somebody, nasty things will eventually come back and hurt you. Similarly, doing good will be rewarded in the end, usually through the actions of others towards you. There's a terribly coherent explanation of this in a book I have. It's not just applicable to magic though, it applies to everything, so basically, it means "be nice, and you get nice things back. Be nasty and you get nasty things back" or maybe "do as you would be done by", which Mr. Andersen at Junior School was always so fond of.

On the theological side of things... at the top of things in life there is a single Deity with two aspects - the Goddess and the God. The God is the God of the sky and the sun. He is the force of life. The Goddess is the Goddess of the earth and the moon, and She is the form which life takes. Together, as people do on Earth, they work together to bring forth and nourish life. That includes people.

The Goddess and God go by many names, depending partly on the education of the Witch and their Tradition (there are many different Traditions of Wicca and Witchcraft which look at things slightly differently to each other, but the fundamentals are the same). There are also less deities and the Elementals - Air, Earth, Fire and Water, but they are all in the end aspects of the God or Goddess. It's a matter of how you look at things really - one explanation I read was that it's a matter of focus. For example, when performing a ritual for a particular purpose, let's say love (although love spells tread very iffy moral ground - say you just want to send out a general invitation for Mr. Right to come along and say hi), you could call upon the Goddess and God, or you might instead choose to call upon Venus, or maybe Cupid. Many deities and entities from different pantheons are considered to exist, but only in terms of attitude - you're still talking to the same Deity in the end, but invoking Venus for love could possibly help you to focus and improve the success of the spell. It's down to personal perception and preference really.

Oh, and I should mention some common misconceptions here. Witches do not worship Satan. Witches do not even believe in Satan. It is possible to be an evil Witch, but only by action, the same way as everyone else really. There are 'dark powers' but they are a necessary part of the balance and should be acknowledged along with everything else. Balance is vital.

By 'Witch' there I mean 'Wiccan'...

Other things that are right out - sacrifice, violence and attempting to convert other people. Wiccans answer questions and explain, but never, ever tell someone their beliefs are wrong or misguided.

My fingers hurt now, can I stop?

you can tell me anything, any time, I'll still love you the same.
and I think deep down you must realise that I wouldn't have a problem with something like this.

I'm glad you have found a centre and seem happy, long may it continue.

I'd leave off telling the olds for a bit though,

Mum nearly had a fit about half an hour ago when I said I was going to just burn a few matches in the kitchen if that was alright and did she mind not coming in.

she nearly wnet blue and exploded.

I mean, it's sodding Mothers day tomorrow, she might have guessed i was doing somthing for her.

mind you, mum would probably have the same reaction if you told her you had realised you were gay or converted to catholosism, or moving to australia. or getting married, or taking up karate again, she'd probably still react the same if you said you had an excellent job offer and were moving to london.

she never seems happy with what we plan and she will alwways worry and always miss the point.

do what makes you happy love.

i know you wont hurt anyone.





you can tell it's been a rather trying week at this end cant you......


must go, found some muck to read and i think i'll get on with it.

ta ta for now.

burn something for me will you (but if you start saying 'sacred URBS' I *will* have to kill you. it's a Herb not an Urb. greeeeeeeeeeeeghahgaag)


FABT

Thankyou!

Yes, probably best not to tell the parents at this juncture. I'd better do that in person when the time comes around to it, especially after how I told them I was applying to join the police. Better not to do that again...

Mum's just protective I think, but thankfully she's not as bad as some Mums I've heard about. All we need to do is convince her we're capable of handling our own lives and she'll leave us alone. Maybe.

I'm not sure how they'd react to the issue of religion though. I'm not even sure what they regard themselves as, besides a comment by Mum some years back that she supposes she must be Anglican. I mean, if she only supposes, it's not really a religious belief is it? I am firmly convinced that you can only properly claim to have a religion (or lack of one) if you've spent some time thinking about it, and that kind of phrasing implied to me that Mum hasn't.

Mind you, got to be better than if they were fundamentalists. At least they might not react with "you're going to Hell! You worship the Devil!" as happens to lots of Pagan teenagers, apparently. Although that's in America, where they seem to have a much higher population of practising or at least believing Christians (and other religions) than we do. They certainly have enough stuff going through the courts about it, anyway, which I don't really understand. If the First Amendment says that Church and State should be kept seperate and the State should not promote any religion but should also not act against any religion (provided those religions stay in compliance with secular law), then I don't see how mayors all across America can claim that putting up a big sign saying "Jesus is Lord over this town" doesn't violate it!

* tears out hair *

Sorry, some people are so stupid.

Maybe Mum thinks you're playing with fire, which is of course dangerous. Wonder how she'd react if I wanted to set up a ritual circle with element, God, Goddess and working candles... that's at least six of the things. On the floor. In holders of course. Everything I've read about using candles mentions somewhere about having good, sturdy and stable candle holders, which is really very sensible advice, wouldn't you agree?

Ack, I'm babbling. Must stop babbling.

And no, I won't be talking about sacred 'urbs, because I know just as well as you how that word is meant to be pronounced.

I'm debating how/if to tell my housemates. Probably a bad idea all told, but guess what - I'm living with Christians next year as well. Hmm.

Will probably call tomorrow to say happy Mothers' Day to Mum.

forgot what i ws going to say





uh yeah

did you see charmed.....didnt cole look like darth maul?

and did you see strange?
well cool. hope that makes it to a series. like johnathan creek but will out that annoying wonman in it. it's daft really, i like tha actress in other stuff, it's just in that she makes me tear my hair out.

daddy was wondering a bit earlier why you hadnt rung. i sadi i thought you had a lot of work on at the moment.








probably best not to tell your house mates. they are lovely people but do seem to have a bit of a blind spot when it comes to certain issues if they are anything like the bunch i was at college with.



take care





FABT

I totally missed Charmed. What happened?

And I did ring! And yes, I do have a lot of work on at the moment.

charmed....uh......

oh yeah

phoebe is driving home late at night when she sees this little girl running away from something. basically she says fairies are real and she is saving the princess fairy from the trolls who kidnapped her and want to take over the kingdom.

these exist in 'tweens' which in btween places. i.e. door ways, shdows and midnight. you can only see them if you believe in them and have ingested some fary dust. phobe and piper do so and loose all their inhibitions becasue they are returnmed to innocence. this leads to an embarressing cabere in the club and then a great scene with cole. he arrives to pick up phobe for a date which she cant go on cos shes too busy. he asks if he could use the bathrom and they ask if it s for a number 1 or number 2. he h eh eh eh eh

he wants to steal the book of shadows, and turnd in to darth maul anf flys through the ceiling to do so

the girls save the day

etc.

etc.

the end

oh and....piper and leo are fixed because she realised she would have to give him up to concentrate on her job. the ptb decide that as long as she realises the danger they have a chance and agree to let them try.

but no one cares about them by now any way.




questions?




FABT

Nope, sounds fine to me. Shame I missed it. Mustn't forget next week!

did you watch strange?

totally cool, hope it gets a series.





btw, how do you link to something that is further down the page in an entry. i might have to do it and i am just wondering if it is possible.
also, if there are loads of related entires to a page but you dont wnat to list them all at the bottome of each of the pages can you just get hem to appear as standard down the siode in the related entries box?

FABT

The former's only possible using HTML tags, there should be a GuideML solution to it fairly soon...

The latter should be possible by putting the links inside the tag which appears after . I think. I've never actually done it, so I'm not 100% sure...

What's Strange?

was a show on saturday night dummy!




ok, samantha janus as nurse on stroke ward. lives with blokeya nd their son. blokie is courier. he convinced her to give up research (physics) by making constant jibes. the son is really

blokie gets this package to deliver to jonstange who isnt at the right address and is indeed very strange. he's translating old books and trying to prove the existance of deamons.

stange is unpopular with the local cannon ,cannon black, and indeed was de-frocked by him over this.

people start coming into the stroke ward who have had other things and one of them spell out the name AZAL using a scrabble set.

samantha janus just things he has lost it. the she is eating her lunch outside when stange comes up to her and starts ranting about it all. she trys to get away until he says the names of deamons. AZAL.

not gettng this in the right order at all but basically

azal is electricity. he worked with farrady to invent it and now spends his time electicuting people. there is a massive source of evil sealed up under this old church and he is trying to get into it using thunderstorms. the priest and the local vagrant get electicuted and end up on the stroke ward in the process.

meanwhile the son is supposed to be doing his homework which is a science project but keeps refusing all offers of help. he has figures out that there is power under the church and goes off to record the results.

smantha fugures out azal is electric and based at the church. then she realises son has gone there and goes to save him. blokie shows up, turns out to be azal and while the energy field (evil) is activated by the thunderstorm he wires himself up to it and teleports off to kill strange who cant be killed because he is in a lift and therefore not earthed. therefore azal drops the life to the ground

meanwhile again the son is stuc behind the evil barrier and so samantha rewires the fuse box and overloads azal, killing him.

the lift stops just before it hits the ground and strange rolls out with smoke pooring off him and there are people waiting to get in. he gasps 'it's hell in there'

at the end samantha and stange are in the park watching son and kevin (a downs syndromw guy who can read unnatural vibrations and works for strnage, play football. she makes some comment about how azal is the only demon she is ever likely to meet and stange gives a little smile as he looks at her son.


dead cool and made it to bbc 1 at 9.00 on a saturday.



fABT

Oh. And will this be on again?

doubt it

fABT

when is it you come home?

FABT

Saturday 23rd.

right

did you see charmed? cool stuff going on with cole and phoebe what?

likeing this very much.

pipers pink dress was absolutley shite though.

FABT

Thankfully she didn't get to wear the dress for very long - their period clothing was much better. Looks like there'll be more about rediscovering old magical knowledge in future episodes, which is good - it would be nice for them to truly understand magic instead of blundering through like they usually do - the only powers they really seem to know about are their specialised ones, i.e. telekinesis, time-freezing and premonition (has Pheobe had any more levitation incidents, not counting her period on a broomstick last night as that was a different kind of power, I'm sure you'll agree).

Oh, by the way, they got a few things right - applies do have pentacles within them if you cut them across the core like that. Brooms are used to sweep away evil and negativity to cleanse a space. I'm sure I've heard about the conical hat thing before as well...

But when are they going to get a chance to not travel in time? They do it a lot, it must be getting very disturbing.