I have Sacred Geometry Cards by John Michael Greer.  I can't say they are a beautiful deck but they are nice, and they are really interesting.  I always have the oddest experiences when I use them though.  I can use my Druid Animal Oracle deck and come away with what I feel is a stern lesson but with the geometry deck I always feel like I've disappointed someone  ... or maybe it's more like the deck is just more forceful with a lesson than anything else I've ever worked at.  It's nothing for me to pick the same card three times in a row.  I always get the feeling this deck is saying "YO!, You're not listening to me!!" even if it's the first time I've drawn a card.  This deck just doesn't seem to let me wiggle out of doing something I know I should but I don't want to.  I'm pretty sure it's all in my head but it's like that every time I use it.   *shrug*  It does tell me things that I need to hear but don't want to hear.  I have a love hate relationship with it.

I really love working with cards though.  I love buying new decks and using them the first time.  I love holding them and I leave them out all the time so I can just pick them up whenever I feel like it.  I just love how they kick start my thinking.  Even before pulling a card or doing a spread, I like that I have to focus on something, even if it's only wondering if there is anything that I should be focusing on for the day. 

Anyway, we're between rain showers here so I'm off to harvest some juniper to bring in for protection and purification.  I just realized today how much I need to take some to work with me next week.  I'm in the process of witchifying my work space.  The energy is getting snippy and ugly at work, so much negativity.  I need to get that moving so we can all just work in peace.

Oooo, full moon night and it was clear and beautiful outside. I have an mountain that's to the east of me so it takes a while before the moon comes up here so it was well after 10 when I headed out. It was a little chilly so I took my trusty witch blanket and tied it around my shoulders. My cat, who always seems to find me when I'm basking in some witchiness, found me and faced the opposite direction ... watching my back. He's the greatest cat ever!

My Bealtaine to Summer Solstice Druid Animal Oracle card reading that I did for the year at Samhain is Owl. Not and animal I feel close to but I've been working at the lesson none the less. Well I heard more owls hooting last night than I think I ever have in my life. I was listening and grinning like an idiot watching the sky get brighter and brighter, just enjoying the whole experience, waiting with anticipation for the moon to peak over the ridge.

It occurred to me that I'd been outside a while and my husband hadn't come out to check on me. He hates when I'm outside at night by myself. So I was thinking 'phhhhhttttt, what is he so worried about.' I really need to quit manifesting the worst case scenario! A bear came walking around the observatory about ... oh ... three feet in front of me. He didn't see me until I spun around with my blanket billowing out like Superman's cape and ran for the house. When I took off he snorted that surprised bear noise that they do and took off the other way. LOL! He was a baby so I'm assuming mom was not far behind him and probably beat feet to see what was going on. I don't know because I wasn't hanging around to find out. So Fuzz and I enjoyed the moonrise through the window from the comfort of the livingroom chair.

Oddly enough I pulled a card of the day yesterday morning ... yep, bear. *sigh* Learn a lesson already! LOL!

And I broke my toe a couple of days ago. Who knew I could run that fast with a broken toe and flip flops on! It must have been the mighty Superman witch cape!

I dyed my hair before leaving for vacation. I have this annoying skunk stripe of gray along the front. Maybe Elvira can pull off that look but I can't. Well let's just say this coloring didn't go so well. I'd have to say my hair color right now is the same shade as a prostitute that gives change back from $5. *sigh* No matter what color I buy it turns out either black or red ... not a nice red, a weird and unnatural red that just really highlights my pale pasty complexion. I look like a walking corpse with blazing hair. Nasty on me! I can't ever seem to get brown hair ... a few auburn highlights would be good. That would be my natural pre-gray color ... but nooooooo. I get the Mrs. Ronald McDonald look but I don't have to add the white face paint. How handy!

Tuesday before leaving we had to work. I suggested to my husband we leave before he wanted to. He said 7pm. I said we should leave a little earlier in case something happened we, *I*, wouldn't have to drive down 2 Mile Hill in the dark and we wouldn't have to set up in the dark. We ended up leaving at 7:40.

Now Two Mile Hill is a lovely little natural disaster. The road to where we were going is already a nightmare but that hill ... oy ... what an insane piece of modern road engineering. It is two miles, oddly enough, with sharp turns, steep grade, winding, steep drop offs at the edge, waffer thin guide rail. By the time you get to the bottom your brakes are the temperature of the surface of the sun, they smell like they are burning through the wheels and if you're lucky, they are still working. I've been on roller coasters that are not as steep and winding as this hill!

So it's 7:40 and we're FINALLY going. Long before Two Mile Hill, we start off on a cow path of a road that is a single lane and after about a mile turns to dirt and takes you all but straight up. I swear roads in the Andes are not this nasty. And living in Pennsylvania all my life I had no idea that we were at war recently but there are bomb craters on that road that I had to turn my lights on to find my way out of. I suspect New Jersey. They've always been jealous of our roads!

So I'm following J, he's in the camper, I'm in the mini van ... with a heavy load in it. We're climbing and climbing and the van freaks out ... bing-bing, lights, check the gauges. It's overheating. I'm on a single lane dirt winding road, no guide rails ... fortunately I find a camp parking space and pulled in and turned it off ... waiting about 10 minutes for J to back the camper down the road from hell to find me.

When we left the house we had just showered. It was freaking HOT! I was sweating like a whore on dollar day. (ok that's a tasteless saying but it's funny!) When we got out to check the van I hadn't realized we'd driven above the arctic circle. It was freezing! I had all our coats and sweatshirts packed but I did have J's robe in my van. We're standing around swearing like crazy. He's blaming me for jinxing us. I'm telling him I'm just brilliant and was foretelling the future. My newly orange hair blazing like my temper ... him looking like a wal-mart version of Hugh Hefner's wardrobe ... bathrobe over his clothes. Scary!

J gets it all fixed up and tells me that I'm leading in case something else goes wrong. That's comforting ... but I soldier on. Now that I've foretold the future and/or jinxed us, I realize ... I'm about to die on 2 Mile Hill. There's no stopping it. I've already thought it, there is no unthinking it. I'm about to go hurtling down the face a mountain to end in a fiery crash ... good bye cruel world. And then I had the most rational thought ... I'm sure everyone would be thinking the same thing. I thought ... I sure hope it catches on fire. I don't want my parents to have to identify my body with my hair looking like this. Completely rational!

With that odd thought I had to laugh so I'm laughing and driving and *poof* I'm at 2 Mile Hill without having the proper amount of time to get nervous and obsess about immanent death. What a bummer! Now I'll just have to drive down the stupid thing. I get to the first switchback and everything's going well. The breaks are only the temp. of lava. Ok, I might live. I get about 3/4 of the way down, the breaks are HOT ... freaking HOT!!! The floorboards are hot through my sneakers! It's smelling ever so lovely ... something between hair dryer and burning corpses (just a guess, honest.) The van gets that familiar shaky bouncy feel to it when I'm on that hill and I'm going as slow as I can without welding the brakes into one solid lump. I'm doing what any respectable witch would be doing ... cursing the idiot that carved that road into the side of a freaking mountain. And what do I see? There is a TREE on the road.

At that point I hadn't seen another vehicle on any road our entire trip. Tree in my lane and the only car on the road in the other lane. Now that just freaking figures! I'm going to have to stop ... and my RV driving husband is right behind me with his brakes a blazing. This could be the end! *insert dramatic music here*

So what's a girl to do? I ran the freaking tree over. I figured if it got hung up under the van I'd having a lovely torch look going before the earth shattering kaboom. You can't beat that right? Now THAT is a way to punch out!!! No sniveling and begging ... flames, swearing, laughing and an explosion! I'm very partial to explosions and a blaze of glory is sounding at least memorable!!!

But then I realize if I can get it stopped with the van only partially on fire there is a 10% chance the my husband would put me out ... after he saved the telescope of course. But hey, it's a chance, and since it was certain death to begin with, I've got a ray of hope!

As I'm halfway through what I think my eulogy should say, I realize I'm at the bottom ... and I'm alive. I'M ALIVE!!! It's like a second chance on life. I'll live to dye my hair a natural color! Haha. I spit in your face death!!! You have no power here!!!!! Be gone!!! I fart in your general direction! <--Monty Python reference

We did have to set up partially in the dark so I did get a full "I told you so" in. And what did my husband have to say about the trip ... and I quote ... What tree? I didn't see a tree.

As a side note ... I don't see why my husband says I'm over dramatic. Ppphhhhhttttt! Where does he get that stuff!?