Shaphron's musings

In my reading recently I have been thinking about the elemental associations of the wand and the athame - traditionally in ceremonial magic the wand is linked with fire, and the athame (dagger) with air. When I first heard this I thought this was odd - to me, the athame was forged in fire, whereas the wand grew in air, so why are they the other way round?

( Detail on the associations... )

Now I know, this is probably an odd topic for talking, but I thought I'd writie about what I know and about something which has been much on my mind recently. There is a possibility I will be writing more on occult symbolism soon, I hope none of you mind!

( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

After Matt gave me the news on this I just had to investigate it myself, and I feel so betrayed. I read the books first when I was very little, and I still have them now, but the film of The Dark is Rising looks so awful.... For those interested see here for the official site and here for a review. It's not just that they've changed bits of the storey - that I understand to make things more suited for film - for instance I loved the LoTR adaptions, Narnia and the Harry Potter ones (here's hoping that they make the next film more interesting than the book...). No, it's not just that they've changed parts of it - it's that they chanbged everything about it... The lead is supposed to be 11, and from an old english family on a farm in Buckinghamshire. In the film he's 14, and an American living in England. One bags the question - if they're happy to have it set in England, why change the lead to American? The storey is completely interwoven with Arthurian ledgends and pre-christian myths, however, they've taken all the Arthurian bits out of the films - how this can possibly be considered to be the same storey without Arthur is beyond me.

Well, so far my livejournal plan is not going to plan, if you see what I mean... However, I'm back now and writing something - this can only be good, really. I've had a few things happen recently which may well work to be written about - a week off work to relax and catch up on stuff has been good (today is last day off - I'm back to work next Monday, more's the pitty). I went to visit my aunt Marty's on Saterday for big family get together - we have one once a year, and 'tis lots of fun. Surprisingly, the weather was gorgeous, so despite the recent trend it was great. I'll find some photos soon and put them up, and you cal all gawk at my mad relatives...

Having now played with the user pictures on my profile I'm ready to say something. I'm still keeping to my weekly plan, so all's well so far. Given that it is my birthday tomorrow (happily a bank holiday Monday, so no work for me) I find myself dwelling on the changes that fall on us as we grow older. I'm only 24 this year, not yet even a quarter century, and I haven't yet succumbed to the depression of getting older. However, given that I don't consider my parents as old and they're well into their 50s I probably have a way to go before I ever think of myself as old. That and you can, if you try, always think of positive things which happen as you get older - for instance at 25 your driving insurance will now cover you even if you're driving in a different car, at 50/60 you can think about retiring (something that I would love to be able to do now....) and so on.

 

Well, I thought to myself when I made this that it wouldn't be worth it unless I updated it regularly. So, once a week is it - I'll try and stick to it. Today I've been experimenting with the scrapbook option here on LJ - I've uploaded pictures, I've selected a style, I can view them, but I can't see any way for people to look at them linked from my journal or my profile, so I've included a link here. I've only got up a few pictures of our cats at the moment. As and when I update it with more I'll include it in my journal.

Now, for something to actually talk about - that's the hard question. I suppose there are all manner of things I could talk about - our current roleplay game, what I think of our LRP group, current politics, work, computer games etc etc. So I should pick one and go for it. I'll got for computer games - specifically, city of heroes/villains, as it's a game Matt plays an awful lot, and one I do admit to playing myself, tho not as much as he. 

 

I've resisted getting an account like this for quite a while now, but I've decided that it's probably worth the effort it will be. After all, I rant enough about random things that I could probably pull off a livejournal, and enough of my friends use this thing, so I can use it for keeping in touch too - a worthwhile aim. I do admit to being annoyed at people who keep these things and then don't bother to keep in touch any other way, using it as an excuse to not put any effort to keeping up friendships, but as I seem to be fighting a losing battle on that grouds I thought I'd follow the axism : "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em". So here I am.