I struggle with chronic pain.  Between arthritis and some old injuries, there are days when breathing hurts.  If you go to the doctor and tell them you’re in pain they always ask – on a scale of one to ten what level are you at.  My good days are fives.  

When I have a bad day, when I’ve elevated to an eight or nine, it is difficult to cope but I try to find ways to cope because I still have to go to work and deal with daily life.

In today's Fiery Tuesday roundup, we concentrate on activism in today's Pagan movement. Several intersecting articles: black Pagans talk about Black History month; PCon and "Bringing Race to the Table;" #Black Lives Matter; the myth of "making your own reality;" Pagan Environmental Network.

February was Black History month, and Wild Hunt contributor Crystal Blanton offers the perspective of a number of black Pagans its significance.

People are still unpacking the issues of racism at Pantheacon. P Lupus offers a modest evaluation and links to the podcast of the "Bringing Race to the Table" panel discussion from the conference in this post.

In Which Our Intrepid Blogger Speaks with Artist, Herbalist, and Witch-at-Large

 Sarah Anne Lawless Concerning Her Ground-Breaking Print, Lord of the Beasts,

and Sundry Other Matters

Sarah, who is the Horned to you?

The Horned Ones to me are the great spirits of the wild lands and forests. They are not male or female, but both and neither. In the lore of animistic cultures around the world and through time there always seems to be a male or female spirit, or one of each, that is the guardian or protector of a particular forest or land mass and who is Lord or Lady of all the flora and fauna that dwell within it. Their horns are a weapon as much as they are a crown, and symbol of power and otherworldly knowledge.

Power Ink Recipe and Full Moon Spell - 

A simple recipe & spell to invoke your own power, and the power of the full moon as you manifest your needs and desires. 

I lay there on a chase lounger, in the backyard closing my eyes and listening. The air was cool, and the breeze subtle. I could hear the leaves of the giant maple tree gently rustling above me. The fire was crackling slowly eating away at the pine logs. The muffled midnight chatter of the neighborhood was somehow soothing as I lay there.

Although, my eyes were closed I could feel her rising above me. Displaying her silver silent power over my body, filling my mind with motivating energy. I was taken back to my childhood, when I would sneak out of my bedroom window to the back yard, where I would lay in the grass bathing in her silver light.

This week we'll be discussing Dow or Trans-Channeler crystals. It is a crystal shape that falls into the category of facets: number of edges, and is another example of a crystal with two names for the same configuration.

Because my response to PantheaCon and Leadership is so long, it seems worthy of its own blog entry.

Annika, the reason you found only older Pagans at the PWR meeting was because only older people came, not because younger folks weren't welcome.  Don Frew spoke about the history of the PWR because he had expected people unfamiliar with it to be the ones who came.  That turned out not to be the case, but for you.  Had I known it was going to unfold as it did, I wouldn't have needed to come.  I already knew most of what he had to say, and in fact have given talks on it to Pagans around the country myself.  Also, there were a few people there who were older, Pagan but not Witchen, new to interfaith involvement and who had never attended PWR and who came for that reason, to familiarize themselves with what it is and how it works.

On February 21, 2015 my second son, Galen, was stillborn.

I wrote out the whole traumatic story, then found myself reluctant to share it.  I wish what happened to me would never happen to anyone else.  So I'm not going to share the details in blog form.  Maybe in my next memoir.