Be the Match.com

This morning, I completed the process to become a registered donor at the National Bone Marrow Donor's Be the Match registry. In five or six weeks, after they've typed the cheek swabs I sent in, I'll be part of the database that doctors search on behalf of 6,000 patients a day. Patients with leukemia, sickle cell anemia, what-have-you where the donation of healthy bone marrow cells and other blood-products are really the best hope for a cure. I found it crushing to read that presently only about 30% of patients are finding close enough genetic matches in the database.

I hope you'll consider joining, too!

Right now, there are enough funds to cover the costly testing process, so you can sign up and join the registry for free. (They'll send you information and a set of cotton-tipped swabs to play CSI with and send back.) The registry is for anyone, barring certain health concerns, from the age of 18-60 that is willing to donate blood product and/or marrow if your genetic match is in need. (The donation process also looked way simpler than the scary words "bone marrow" would imply.) Sign up once and they'll keep your information in the database until you turn 61 years old. If they ever need you for a specific patient, they'll call.

It feels powerful, throwing myself into the void. I have an unreasonably strong medical phobia, but I still hope that somewhere, sometime, my perfectly unique blend of Swedish/Scottish/Irish/English genes will offer what others could not. It is my Valentine to the rest of the embodied world--a hand outstretched if ever it should be needed.

Smoky and the Feast of Mabon Cover

Magical Child Books just released the cover art for Smoky & the Feast of Mabon. The book, written by web serial phenom Catherynne M. Valente and illustrated by Magical Child Books' powerhouse, W. Lyon Martin, is set to be released on August 21st. Rumor has it that those who preorder direct from the publisher ($16.95) may receive their copy earlier than that. Either way, plenty of time for Mabon celebrations.



Emoticons cannot express my excitement for this book's upcoming 'birthday'. Magical Child, I love you guys!

Quarter Calls: The Ritual Rebuilding of My Complete Self

Calling the Quarters. Inviting the Elements. Whatever you call it, balancing Air, Water, Fire, Earth, and Spirit within a magickal circle is such an integral part to most witches' ritual practices and yet, even in groups, each individual is doing it in their own personal way. What is it for you when you call the elements? What is your process? Do you stick with particular words or gestures each time? (I don't.) How does it feel/look/sound/smell? What is it that, with your own private energy, you're bringing into your ritual through the elements? What are you thinking, what are you visualizing when someone else is leading ritual?

Here's one way I've found to describe my personal experience with it:

For years, I started my quarter calls in the East. As a place of new beginnings, new days, it made sense to me. Now, though, I prefer to start in the North as it gives me a moment, in the beginning of my Calls, to check in with my physical body, to ground myself solidly into the Earth, and to start building connections on the dense foundation of Earth's energy. I feel supported and secure, sure of my boundaries and aware of not only my divine but also my embodied self. The rest of the quarters add to my rebuilt, balanced, ritual self.

To the East, I call upon Fire. As I open the gateway, I can feel the gateway within my own body opening, can recall the sensation as Fire gave life to the Earth of my body. I feel the Fire within me, sheltered by the Earth of my body.

To the South, I call upon Air. Within me, I sense the power of words, of communication, as I am granted the ability to express what I experience in this embodied life, to find common ground with those other air and fire and earth beings around me.

To the West, I call upon Water. As the gateway opens, I feel the cooling force of the element surround me. That emotional life, that depth of feeling that joins the shelter of my Earth body, the spark of my Fire self, the thread of thought and messages carried on Air through my mind, completes and gives meaning to the rest. Love and compassion trump all.

At the end of the quarter calls, as I stand in the center--completed by the recognition and rebalance of these four elements within me--I am still and energy-filled, calm and collected for the work to come. I am standing, like The Magician, with the knowledge that the elemental tools are all within my reach, that I can react and reach for whatever I may need to in magical work to come.