Last week, Keith Olbermann, on his news show Countdown, covered the devastation that one tribe has experienced this winter – two severe snow storms left them without heat, electricity and water.  Our government so far has done nothing.   He provided the links on website for  two funds that accept donations to help (the links are also below).  I sent my donation in this weekend to both organizations, and I hope to be able to donate a little each month.

Another way to help is to contact your Senators and Representavies, and even the President, to remind them of our national responsibility to live up to our promises to provide for the Native American tribes.

The Cheyenne River Sioux Disaster Relief Fund -  2 winter storms  have left the whole reservation without power or water. (Feb. 2010) – over 2,500 utility poles are currently on the ground in this remote, rural area. Power has been out in several communities and for thousands of residents for several days. Below zero temperatures and no electricity, heat, water or gasoline has created devastating results.

If you would like to make contributions of clothing and other non-cash gifts, please mail such items to: Wakpa Sica 709 Ft. Chouteau Road Ft. Pierre, SD 57532  (605-223-9099)

To learn more about the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe and their recovery efforts please visit their website at CRST Disaster Relief.

Native American Heritage Association – donations help all Native Americans most in need.

On a side note – the reason I’ve been away from the blog so much is because my laptop is fried.  It got a really, really, really bad virus or trojan (or whatever!) that blocked all my security protections and all access to internet EXCEPT the fake site claiming to remove the virus.  I had to save up a bit and then took it into Geek Squad.  The cost is $200 to get everything removed (if they had come to the house it would have been $300) and will take 10 to 14 days to be done.   So my laptop won’t be home until some time next week.

Written by Lady RoseTags:disaster relief, Native Americans

Spirit of Womongathering

June 3rd – 6th, 2010

(Note: NEW dates for 2010, but location remains the same as previous years!)

Checked the website and was pleasantly surpised to see all the information for 2010 registering is ready.

2010 registration rates:
$330   Per Womon (age 15+) at the gate, if space available
$310   Per Womon (age 15+) (must be postmarked by May 22)
$290   Per Womon (age 15+) (must be postmarked by April 17)
$270   Per Womon (age 15+) (must be postmarked by March 20)
$40     Gyrls 3-6
$65     Gyrls 7-15

There is also bus and air transportation information.

I will be getting my form in as soon as possible.

If you are planning to attend, hopefully we be able to meet  for hugs and smiles.  Feel free to indicate on your registration if you wish to room in the same cabin that I am in (lady Rose).  I included my pen name, Lady Rose, on my form in the space for festial/spirit name, so when possible the festival staff do try to put folks together. 

Bright blessings, Lady Rose

Written by Lady RoseTags:womongathering

Happy New Year everyone.  To start off the new year, I have a wonderful event for you to add to your brand new calendars: 

Spirit of Womongathering 2010,  Festival of Womyn’s Spirituality,
DATES: June 3-6  ( new dates this year)
Location is the same as previous years - same camp facility near PA\NY border.  Element: Spirit, Direction: Center; Theme: Mysteries of the Triple Goddess. 

The all female weekend includes experiential workshops, sweat lodge, sacred fire, rituals, drumming, vegetarian meals and more.

Registration should be available soon so be sure to keep checking back on the Womongathering website.  In previous years there was a discount for early registration, (2009 registration cost was $290 (deadline postmark May 30th), discounts if registered early – must be postmarked by April 30 $280; must be postmarked by March 28 $270; children ages 3-6 $38 and ages 7-12 $64).

I plan on definitely going this year.  Since I just got a new car in August ‘09, I won’t have to rent one to make the trip so that will save a lot of money.  In 2008 I had my very old car and I didn’t feel like risking a break down on the road for such a long trip so hubby paid for a rental that had lots of room and a cd player.  My new car has a cd player so I’ll be able to enjoy lots of pagan music along the way.  The directions are fairly easy so even if I end up driving alone I know I’ll find my way, but I told my mom that I will pay her registration so she can attend (as a combination Mother’s Day(May) and Birthday (July) gift for her) and she is pretty sure she will be able to make it (depending on her health) and she is very excited.  I am also keeping my fingers crossed that Mama Kelly can attend too (and perhaps her eldest daughter).  My car is a small two door and can hold one other person and has a good size trunk, but for two people we’d have to pack very light.  If I need more room so everyone can come along, I have no problem working out a car rental arrangement so we can all go together.

If you are planning to attend also, feel free to leave a comment  and if you are interested we can coordinate to meet there and\or share a cabin.  (Note: to share a cabin, on the registration form include the name of the person you wish to share with and whenever possible accommodations will be made, so you will need my real name to include on your form, which I will send via email for those who leave a comment.)

Mama Kelly and I had a wonderful time at Womongathering 2008, and we posted a lot about the experience and included some photos (to read all posts click on the post tag “womongathering”).  Here are a few of the posts about Womongathering 2008:

• Womongathering General FAQ
• Friday at Womongathering (2008)
• Saturday at Womongathering (2008)
• Sunday at Womongathering (2008)

Bright blessings, Lady Rose

Written by Lady RoseTags:goddess, womongathering

We are pleased to announce the winner of our blog contest – ERICA. I’ll be sending an email your way so we can arrange for shipping of your 2010 Season of the Witch Calendar.

A big thank you to everyone who participated and for being a fan of 2 witches blog.

Bright blessings, Lady Rose and Mama Kelly

Written by Lady RoseTags:contest, witch calendar

I like to plan ahead and for those who also like to get ahead start on planning for the New Year, here are the dates for the Full Moons in 2010.

Full Moon dates 2010

Month/Day      Time      Day of week
Jan 30               06:19      Sat
Feb 28               16:40      Sun
Mar 30              02:28      Tue
Apr 28               12:21       Wed
May 27              23:09     Thu
Jun 26               11:32       Sat
Jul 26                01:38      Mon
Aug 24              17:06      Tue
Sep 23              09:19       Thu
Oct 23              01:38       Sat
Nov 21             17:28       Sun
Dec 21              08:15       Tue

Note: The time is in Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).  If your local time zone is currently on Daylight Saving time, please add one hour to the standard times listed above.

2010 Full Moon Dates and Time (Eastern Standard Time) (Note: link is to chart that includes date and time for all phases of the Moon)
Jan 30  01:18         
Feb 28  11:38         
Mar 29  21:25        
Apr 28  07:18         
May 27  18:07         
Jun 26  06:30       
Jul 25  20:37         
Aug 24  12:05         
Sep 23  04:17         
Oct 22  20:36        
Nov 21  12:27        
Dec 21  03:13

Written by Lady RoseTags:2010, full moon, wiccan calendar

First of all, I can’ t thank everyone enough for their kind words on my recents posts.  As I’ve mentioned my laptop has fallen ill and cannot be repaired for a while.  As such, hubby and I are currently sharing his computer and I get only for a brief period each evening.

Now granted, I am still hooked on facebook and have been mindlessly clicking through a couple of games I play as a stress reliever and connecting albeit quite intangibly with a few friends here and there.  But, I also spend time every evening checking for emails from teachers, verifying Miss Artistic’s homework assignments, and have also been doing the holiday shopping online as well.

Anyway, the point is that what used to be a few hours a day online (between time spent before going to work and time spent surfing/blogging while watching TV with the hubby) has been reduced to maybe about an hour a night and so I do not generally have time to do more here than hurriedly write blog content from time to time, delete spam comments while reading your kind words as I go, unfortunately without the time I’d like to have to reply to each one as they deserve.

I am here, I am reading, and it means more to me than I can say that you take time out of your own busy lives to spend time here at 2 Witches and offer me (and Lady Rose) your thoughts, your words, your support.

I miss being able to communicate back and forth, I miss visiting your blogs in turn, I miss well the best part of blogging which is getting to know all of you better.

I am hoping to get myself motivated this coming weekend to come up with some kind of schedule so I can get more accomplished with my limited time online even if it means saying goodbye (during the week anyway) to facebook.

Hopefully I will have a new laptop within a couple of months and we can get back to more interactive as well as more interesting programming soon.

Blessings

Mama Kelly

Written by Mama Kelly

I am happy to announce that Two Witches Blog is holding a contest – just in time for Yule.  The prize is a 2010 Seasons of the Witch Calendar (spiral bound), and a small surprise gift from the South Jersey Pagan Pride event that I attended last month. It is just a small way to say thank you to all our readers and let you know we truly do appreicate you.

To Enter: leave a comment on this post (1 comment per person), and for an extra 5 entries, write a post about 2 Witches Blog  (a brief review and\or mention the contest) on your blog with a link back to us (http://2witches.com/blog/); please remember to leave a link to your post in your comments so I can record your entra entries. 

Deadline:  Dec. 17  (winner will be selected Dec. 18 and an email sent out for shipping info.).

I want be able to mail the calendar to the winner in plentry of time so that it arrives before the end of the year (and since I will use priority mail) it may even arrive before Christmas).

The Seasons of the Witch Calendar is really beautiful.  I had one a couple of years ago and got another one for myself for 2010.    Each of the 12 monthly tabs has a  goddess collection  print with reference notes on reverse side.  It is printed in a one page per day format (including Saturday and Sunday) and “features major & minor PowerCasting™ opportunities for spells, sabbats, esbats, noteworthy events, lunar astrology, moon void-of-course, Mercury Retrograde, 7th House 13-Month Witches Calendar, Secular (bank) holidays. Every month begins with a month-at-a-glance spread with waxing moon days shaded yellow.”  

Good luck and bright blessings everyone,  Lady Rose

Written by Lady RoseTags:contest, witch calendar

My friend Michelle and her husband have entered a film in a contest, if they win it means $50,000 in their pockets, something that would truly be a blessings from the Gods.

To rate our film and possibly help us win $50K, please read on.

To simply view our film and not participate, please click here: The Best Fisherman in the World

I must warn all of you that the quality of our film is subpar. It’s not our fault, we actually have a VERY good version of it here at home, but the requirements for uploading our film, and also the sheer amount of films available on the voting website, really restrict the quality of our film. Therefore, it looks like we don’t know what we’re doing. But I assure you, we do know what we’re doing. We have an email in to the operators of the site and have received a response that they are working on the problem/fix. When that fix happens, I’ll update this posting.

Now, for the voting information…

You must register with the website, which begins here:

Upon registering, you’ll be presented with the option to “Request Rating Assignment.” This will allow you to rate up to five films in a 24 hour period. These films are chosen at random, and you will get to rate each video during the voting session, which has already begun and will continue until 11:59 PM on July 31st.

I don’t know how often you’ll get to vote on a single film entry, or how many films you’ll have to watch before you can vote on our film. It’s all random. This is actually a very fun way to view what types of independent films are being produced out there in the US. People from around our country have worked hard to put their projects together and I am honored to be able to participate with them.

There are rules that many of the films have not followed, however, and you do have the ability to flag those films if you deem it necessary. Such as the showing of any label or logo that is not from the Stella Artois beer company. We’ve already had to flag quite a few, because of this rule. Not only is it breaking the rules of the competition, it’s breaking the law. We’ve been paying close attention to these details for many years to know what this all means. Plus, it just wastes every one’s time, since we have to sit through to the END of the film before we get to rate it. Don’t skip out on those credits as you’ll only be presented with those rating stars AFTER the entire film has been shown.

After this public voting period ends, the 10 films with the highest ratings will be viewed by a panel of celebrity judges, whom you can see on the voting website. Of those 10 films, ONLY ONE will be chosen to win $50K. While the money would be awesome, I think just getting a top 10 film that will be viewed by the likes of Kevin Spacey and Laurence Fishburne is enough to make me happy for the rest of my life.

Thank you all for your consideration in participating with us in this competition. It means a lot. And if we win, we get to throw a wrap party, complete with Stella Artois beer. Tell your friends to join and vote!

Written by Mama KellyTags:contest

The winners have been chosen by random.org.

The first winner – recipient of the New Moon earrings is LunaWolf

The second winner – recipient of the Golden Sun earrings is Janet F

Please send your physical mailing address to Mama Kelly who will in turn forward it to our contest sponsor Lady Amaranth of Eternal Stardust Jewelry

Congratulations to both winners!!  Wear your new earrings in good health!!

And now, of course its time for another contest, another free tarot reading giveaway.

You may choose one of the following spreads:

• Three Card – past, present, future: reg. $6
• Four Card – how to reach your goal: reg. $8
• Five Card – elemental influences: reg. $10
• Five Card – your current relationship: reg. $10

As with our free earring giveaway there will be ways to earn multiple entries so as to increase your odds of winning.  Please remember that each entry will require that you leave another comment as we will once again be using random.org to pick the winners.

Entry #1 – leave a comment simply indicating that you want an entry in the contest (required)

Entry #2 – link to us in your sidebar and then come back and tell us you have done so, if we are already linked there just leave a comment advising us of this fact

Entry #3 – tweet about our contest, just cut and paste the following

I just entered for a chance at a free tarot reading over at 2 Witches Blog http://tinyurl.com/dcj86c

Then come back and advise of of your tweet, also listing your twitter ID

Entry #4 – post something on your blog about tarot … your own thoughts, feelings, skepticism, or even memories of previous readings you’ve done or received and link back to us at http://2witches.com/blog anchored to the words free tarot reading … like this <a href=”http://2witches.com/blog”>free tarot reading</a>.  Then come back and let us know your post is up.

Entry #5 – write another post reviewing our blog and link back to us at http://2witches.com/blog anchored to the words pagan blog … like this <a href=”http://2witches.com/blog”>pagan blog</a>  Then, again, come back and let us know your post is up.

So yes this means that you can earn up to 5 entries in our giveaway. Entry #1 is required, after that you are free to do all of the other 4 or simply pick from among them to earn the additional chances you desire.

Just remember that each entry requires that you come back and leave a separate comment.  In other words if you want all 5 entries you need to make 5 separate comments.  I am not responsible if you erroneously put all your entries in one comment.

Additionally, if this post gets more than 100 comments I will choose 2 winners.

The winner(s) will receive their choice of spread via email in an attached word document within 5 days of sending me their question.

And speaking of contests, have you checked out the Ultimate Blog party with all of its wonderful prizes to be won?

Now most of these prizes are geared toward parents of babies and young children. Obviously any prize I win would more than likely be used as a gift for one of the ladies I work with who are becoming grandmothers this summer. But, if I could win anything I would pick …

• prize #11 — Aromatherapy book and a sampler of therapeutic essential oils.
  Provided by: Jennifer at Oils For Wellness
• prize #19 — $50 gift certificate to Target Stores
  Provided by: Shoot-Me-Now or one of the others offering the same prize
• prize #95 — Kernal Seasons Popcorn Prize Pak
  Provided by: Mom Maven

Good luck to all and let the fun begin.

Blessings

Mama Kelly

PS Entries will be accepted starting the evening of Saturday March 21 until midnight (Eastern time) on the day of the next full moon, April 9th.  So you have plenty of time to get all your entries in.

PPS  Please keep in mind that tarot readings are also available for purchase

Written by Mama KellyTags:contest, free tarot reading, giveaway

The side bar now has a tool from Google which will allow you to translate this website into a number of other languages. We get a fair amount of traffic from foreign countries and I’m hoping that by adding this feature that these visitors will be able to get more out of the site.

I have added a couple of pages which will hold a random Youtube video:

1. General Pagan content
2. Herbalism & Alternative Medicine
3. Tarot

This content does have the drawback of having embedded adsense coding – which I hope is not too much of a distraction. But, I love how that when you refresh the page you get a new video to view.

Our Pagan blogroll is in the process of being updated. All dead links have been removed and all reader submitted links have been added. Additionally, I am about halfway through adding my own personal reads to the list.  Be sure to let me know if you want your own blog or website listed.

Below our twitter updates in the sidebar are now little bird-themed graphics which will allow you to easily follow our tweets if you so choose.

Our tarot giveaway winner has been selected and I am just waiting for a response to their notification email. Tarot readings are still available for purchase, and another free reading giveaway will be posted as soon as the winner of this contest receives her prize. (Update: read about Mama Kelly’s feeling on doing this reading)

Speaking of giveaways, in case you have yet to enter, we have a wonderful jewelry giveaway going on. Two winners will be chosen and there are ways to earn more than one entry to maximize your odds of winning. Entries will be accepted through the Spring Equinox.

What else would you like to see?

Mama Kelly

As an aside I would like to take this opportunity to ask you my readers to vote for a coworker of mine in his efforts to win a $20,000 college scholarship. He is a really sweet young man. He is a well-rounded student. He gets good grades, is taking AP classes, plays in the marching band, and is a black belt in Karate.

He has a way to go to catch up to (and surpass) others in his group to stay in the running. The top 6 will move on to the next round. But I know that with your help we can get him there. Voting ends on 3/4/09!!

Thank you advance for your time. Voting requires registration but it is quick and painless.

(Update: While you were all able to add votes to his tally, unfortunately he did not gain enough to move on to the next round. He wanted me to thank everyone who voted, however.)

Written by Mama Kelly