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PaganNewsBeagle Watery Wednesday presents four stories about the Element of Water. Whale rescue, understanding how waves are formed, great ocean wave photography and fresh water shortages in rural America. Drink deep!

A lovely video of a whale rescue in the Sea of Cortez is guaranteed to warm your heart.

A wonderful, deeply felt meditation on waves in this post from NPR.

In ancient Rome, today is the feast day of Neptulia, set aside to honor Neptune, God of the seas and fresh water. The mythology of Neptune is somewhat a mystery, much like most of the deep sea remains to us. His early association with the Greek God Poseidon muddies the waters, so to speak. One aspect that differs in some detail is the more romanticized mythology of Neptune's ardent pursuit of his undersea queen, Salacia, a beautiful sea nymph.

Salacia was in great awe of her high ranking suitor, and being desirous of preserving her virginity, she played the shy coquet, managing to glide out of Neptune’s sight and hide in the vast waters of the Atlantic Ocean.

Last week I was blessed to ring in another year. As a lead up to my birthday week I put together a wish list of decks I would have been more then happy to receive from my inner circle. There are some new and noteworthy decks on my wish list so i thought I would share the love and let you see what is next on my new, noteworthy and must have list for the remainder of the summer. 

Kicking things off at #1 is the Isidore Tarot - Bethalynne Bajema

This neo-victorian deck is a self published deck which you can purchase either right from the decks website or etsy. I am a bit of a sucker for animal based decks and this one must has a great feel to it and to be honest what's not to like about a toad in a top hat!

AGAINST A SWARM OF BEES
Ms. 41, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge

 We’re so accustomed to end rhymes in poetry (moon/June) that it seems odd to imagine another kind of poetry. If you've been following my Havamál series, you won't find it odd at all. A millennium ago, the Anglo-Saxon folk of England wrote poetry that alliterates; that is, key words begin with the same sound (like 'bouncy baby boy').The writers made things a little easier on themselves by making any vowel alliterate with any other vowel.Each line of a poem is divided into two half lines. Each half line will have one word which alliterates with a word in the other half line.The underlined letters below show this pattern.

It's FieryTuesday here at the PaganNewsBeagle with stories of activism and politics in today's news.

I know this isn't specifically Pagan, but it's certainly going to "fire up" the activists today: in a major blow to the Affordable Care Act, a Federal Court this morning struck down federal insurance subsidies EXCEPT to plans bought on state insurance exchanges. An appeal is virtually certain. http://www.scotusblog.com/2014/07/major-new-blow-to-health-care-law/#more-215691

After many years of activism and protest, there's progress in getting words that describe Witches, Pagans, and others in our community capitalized. (Like, you know, the word "Christian" which is *always* capitalized.) The Wild Hunt reports on this ongoing campaign.

Warning: This post contains ideas and images that some readers may find offensive.

Talk about cultural poverty. Talk about premature canonization. Talk about unworthy traditions.

The so-called "Sacred Hunt" ritual has become a standard fixture at several Midwest pagan gatherings over the course of the last 10 years or so. Me, I hate this so-called "ritual." Personally, I would contend that, in fact, it is neither sacred, a hunt, nor even a ritual. I think it's time and high time that we drove a spear through its heart and let it die a well-deserved and long-overdue death.

I woke up at 5:15 this morning and the sky was already (or still) full of light. We're in the “summer dim.”

It's a standing joke locally that at 44.9833° North, Minneapolis lies at the same latitude as Bordeaux. Sure couldn't tell from the climate. Ha ha. Here in the middle of the continent, our weather is generally closer to that of Moscow than that of French wine country. Even so, we're still too far south to see the famed “White Nights” of the far North, when the Sun literally never sets and everyone goes sleeplessly frantic in the famed “Midsummer madness.” The fact is, too much light makes you crazy. "White lighters" take note.

Our year here divides roughly into thirds. At the winter sunstead (solstice), we see about 8 hours of light and 16 of darkness. At the summer sunstead, the reverse: 16 hours of day, 8 of dark.