Wheels Within Wheels by Jeff Freels

Want a nice little slap in the head to remind you to think every now and again? Wheels Within Wheels by Jeff Freels is just such a needed slap. Witty, entertaining, humorous, and easily digested, this little book is a great way to bring yourself into the NOW, you know that little thing called the present moment I'm always saying people need to be in? This little handbook will help get you there. Not a spiritual book, not a system of thinking, not even a self-help or advice book, but a little reminder to stop in your tracks and just friggin' THINK!

Best of all? You can download it in pdf format for FREE! Nothing to lose, download it, read it, love and print it out to carry with you everywhere, or read it and then use it as kindling for your next fire, either way just read it. You'll have no choice then but to think.

If you enjoy the work of Eckhart Tolle (of which I am a fan) or some of the others who espouse the Power of Now through stilling your thoughts, try this lighter, different approach to similar subject matter that says, quite simply, to THINK.

It is amazing how we need the obvious stated for us sometimes.

Find it here: http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/wheels-within-wheels-handbook/4506079

Check out the Wheels Within Wheels page at Jeff Freels website: http://www.jfreels.com/WheelsWithin.html

Jeff is a talented writer and artist, and all around great guy. To see what else Jeff is into, as he is as strangely eclectic and varied in his interests as I am, visit his homepage at: http://www.jfreels.com/index.html

Blessings

May you all be blessed and have a Happy Samhain!

A Little Off-Topic Self-Promo

I've been working hard on some writing projects for one of my passions, old school pencil & paper role playing games, and to support all this I've started a new blog entitled TROLL HAMMER. Check it out at: http://trollhammerpress.blogspot.com/

Blessings,
Paul 'The Mystic Fool'

Walking with Kali

With the return of the cold the turning of a year walking with Kali approaches. Really not a year, but the culmination of many, simply a year since She showed me Her face. I gathered relics to lay before Her, trinkets and totems to construct Her shrine, but when the treasures were gathered, She had me put them away, 'later' She said, we have work to do first. She took me by the hand and led me to darkness, where I was deconstructed, and the parts scattered, and She danced upon them, the dance of death, the trampling of life to bring death to bring rebirth. Then She gathered the parts, the pieces of me, the scattered bits, and She gave them to me, and She said 'build'. So I did, and I've worked hard at it, with my bare hands, building the new me, building a living with my bare hands, but I still held fear, and kept back one small dark piece, and tucked it deep within to haunt me, hidden at the surface for all to see but me. But all is good, I need the dark too, She is of the dark, I need Her, therefore I must need the dark too. Theorize - philosophize - justify. I continued to work, my guide by my side, and then She reached inside and turned up more bits and pieces of me, pressed them into my hand and said 'write'. Once again I started to build, this time with words, fantastic lands and ferocious beasts, hearty heroes and dreamy damsels, terrible tunnels where trolls tread. So back to now, eleven months have passed, and life has taken its turns. Slowly yet surely I've clawed and I've crawled, the top of the pit is in sight! She stands by my side, dark mother of All, muse of my spirit, guardian of my soul, standing by my side, I continue the fight!

~ 10/3/2010, Paul 'The Mystic Fool'

Update: An Isis Rosary

Seems my Isis Rosary from the Brigantia 2010 issue of Mirror of Isis was reprinted almost immediately on a blog at PaganSpace.net. I find it flattering that someone thought my work good enough to include on their blog. Check it out at:

http://www.paganspace.net/profiles/blogs/an-isis-rosary

There is so much more to the Isis Rosary, and I am trying hard to get it all down and published, but time and life show no mercy, do they? An Isis Rosary, in an earlier form, was originally published in Isis-Seshat magazine June 2005, and a second article entitled An Isis Rosary Part 2: The Meditations appeared in Isis-Seshat Sept 2006. I had hoped to collect these articles along with much more unpublished material into book form by now, but I guess I am more realistically looking at a 2011 release.

The Call of Kali

Isis, Goddess of Ten Thousand Names, has revealed another of Her faces to me. She has given me one of Her names to work with at this time in my development.

Late November, 2009...

I was working, cleaning out and hauling away trash from a customer's garage and office. As I was dumping the trash from the back of the pickup, a single tarot card landed at my feet: Kali, The Queen Of Wands from the Handl Tarot. No other cards were anywhere to be found. I picked it up and kept it, considering it an omen and potential talisman. I looked up queen of wands in my favorite tarot book (a blending of tarot and the Tao Te Ching) and, among other bits of accurate info, it quite specifically stated that this card is good for poets. Prior to this, I had been exploring dark places with my writing and looking for further inspiration. I have been led along by an unidentified dark muse, who I now believe has revealed herself to be Kali. I also researched the meaning of the card from the deck which it comes, the Handl, and much of the info regarding Kali seems to fit right now. The FOI Oracle for Kali, from rite 3 of Fortuna, also seems to be appropriate.

So, in the tradition of my ever changing path, I am getting ready to re-dedicate the shrine of The Iseum of the Tao of Isis to Kali. My spiritual work will focus on Her at this time, and I shall try to open myself to Her completely.

Kali can bring rebirth, but often one must experience pain or destruction for this rebirth. I believe that She has brought me through much pain and destruction, and my rebirth has begun. I believe Her influence has been with me for quite a while now, but She chose to not reveal Herself as Kali until now, perhaps because I was not ready to accept Her.

Hopefully the destruction has passed, and now reconstruction can begin. Since finding the card, my financial problems have become more managable due to (finally) getting hired on full time with the landscaper I've been working part time for the past year plus. Ironically, the destruction from the last snow storm and the wind storm which quickly followed it here in NY, have been the vehicle for jump starting my new career, as we have been doing non-stop tree removals due to storm damage ever since. Destruction leading to rebirth...

I will post updates on my work with Kali from time to time.

Wish me luck!

~ Paul, The Mystic Fool

Bon Jovi captures the FOI/Pagan Spirit

My eclecticism goes far beyond my spirituality, bleeding into virtually every aspect of my life, music being no exception. My wife is a huge Bon Jovi fan, and I found that two of his more recent offerings include songs that I feel capture the FOI and Pagan spirit quite well.

The first song, from the 2005 album 'Have A Nice Day', is titled 'Welcome To Wherever You Are'. This song is a celebration of our individuality and diversity, while simultaneously being a meditation on the fact that we are all the same. Sound familiar? It is a basic tenet of most Pagan Spiritual paths: we are all individual splinters off the same divine block of wood, each seperate yet a part of the same whole. The overall message is a most basic truth of life that the majority of humanity has forgotten: whoever, whatever, and wherever you are is exactly as it should be, so be proud that you are a living part of Divinity, and that the only way to really 'live', is to live in the Now.

Here are the lyrics:

Welcome To Wherever You Are

Maybe we're different, but we're still the same
We all got the blood of Eden, running through our veins
I know sometimes it's hard for you to see
You come between just who you are and who you wanna be

If you feel alone, and lost and need a friend
Remember every new beginning, is some beginning's end

[Chorus]
Welcome to wherever you are
This is your life, you made it this far
Welcome, you gotta believe
That right here right now, you're exactly where you're supposed to be
Welcome, to wherever you are

When everybody's in, and you're left out
And you feel your drowning, in a shadow of a doubt
Everyones a miracle in their own way
Just listen to yourself, not what other people say

When it seems you're lost, alone and feeling down
Remember everybody's different
Just take a look around

[Chorus]

Be who you want to, be who you are
Everyones a hero, everyones a star

When you wanna give up, and your hearts about to break
Remember that you're perfect, God makes no mistakes

[Chorus]


Be sure to check out the video, they did a fantastic job of matching the visuals with the lyrics to get their message across. Find it on YouTube at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3zcypsjO8o


The second song is from their latest album, 'The Circle' (2009) and is titled 'We Weren't Born To Follow'. This piece is another meditation on diversity of belief, but in the sense of standing up for what you believe in, to get off of your knees and refuse to follow the flock. It is an examination of how those who hold onto their beliefs and convictions, regardless of the consequences, are the real leaders, the real mechanics of change. In the face of adversity, don't give up, don't give in, grab hold of your beliefs and ride the wave, ultimately you will sail the winds of change. It holds another basic truth of life: change comes through the courage of conviction, the strength to be different, and commitment to one's true spirit, particularly in the face of opposition.

Here are the lyrics:

We Weren't Born To Follow

This one goes out to the man who mines for miracles
This one goes out to the ones in need
This one goes out to the sinner and the cynical
This ain't about no apology

This road was paved by the hopeless and the hungry
This road was paved by the winds of change
Walking beside the guilty and the innocent
How will you raise your hand when they call your name?

Yeah, yeah, yeah

We weren't born to follow
Come on and get up off your knees
When life is a bitter pill to swallow
You gotta hold on to what you believe

Believe that the sun will shine tomorrow
And that your saints and sinners bleed
We weren't born to follow
You gotta stand up for what you believe

Let me hear you say yeah, yeah, yeah, oh yeah

This one's about anyone who does it differently
This one's about the one who cusses and spits
This ain't about our livin' in a fantasy
This ain't about givin' up or givin' in

Yeah, yeah, yeah

We weren't born to follow
Come on and get up off your knees
When life is a bitter pill to swallow
You gotta hold on to what you believe

Believe that the sun will shine tomorrow
And that your saints and sinners bleed
We weren't born to follow
You gotta stand up for what you believe

Let me hear you say yeah, yeah, yeah, oh yeah
Let me hear you say yeah, yeah, yeah, oh yeah

We weren't born to follow
Come on and get up off your knees
When life is a bitter pill to swallow
You gotta hold on to what you believe

Believe that the sun will shine tomorrow
And that your saints and sinners bleed
We weren't born to follow
You gotta stand up for what you believe

Let me hear you say yeah, yeah, yeah, oh yeah
Let me hear you say yeah, yeah, yeah, oh yeah

We weren't born to follow, oh yeah
(Yeah, yeah, yeah, oh yeah)
We weren't born to follow, oh yeah
(Yeah, yeah, yeah, oh yeah)


The video is another well-conceived vehicle for delivering their message. It may be viewed at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68Te8piQH70&feature=fvst

So, always remember: You are exactly who and what you are meant to be, so dig deep inside to find your true spirit and beliefs, and once you have your hands on that, stand up for yourself and your beliefs, no matter what.

Or, quite simply: be YOU, and live in NOW.

Peace and blessings,
Paul, The Mystic Fool

An Isis Rosary

My article 'An Isis Rosary' has been reprinted in the current issue of Mirror of Isis. It can be found at: http://mirrorofisis.freeyellow.com/id521.html

This is a slightly expanded version of the original article which appeared in Isis-Seshat Magazine #6, June 2005.

Work is already underway to further expand An Isis Rosary into a book, hopefully to be released by mid-to-late 2010.

Enjoy!

Paul, The Mystic Fool

Report: Healing Haiti with Prayer

It was a wonderful day full of positive energy. The rites at all three time frames went very well. I was able to keep my commitment of reciting a mala prayer cycle every hour from 7 AM to 7 PM: 13 recitations of 180 counts of the FOI Healing Prayer, yielding a total of 2,340 recitations of the prayer.

I referenced the Tarot three times during the day, a single card each time. The first card (Temperance) came by intuition and meditative messages, the second and third (4 of Wands and 4 of Swords) by random drawing. Collectively, they tell a story of the restoration of balance, the building of a simple yet solid foundation leading to prosperity, and peace after conflict. I took them as a very good omen for Haiti's future.

Thank you to my FOI sisters and brothers: Linda and her Lyceum, the Circle of Isis, Dorn, Rosie, and everyone else who joined in by attunement. It was great to work with you all.

By the way, just before typing this report, I saw on Yahoo that a 17-year-old girl was pulled from the rubble, Alive, TODAY! FIFTEEN DAYS AFTER THE QUAKE! A person can only survive 3 days without water, so it is truly a miracle. It makes me teary-eyed. Read about her here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100128/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/cb_haiti_survivor

Wouldn't it be nice if maybe, just maybe, some of the energy we sent today was just enough to make those neighbors hear her tiny, withered voice calling for help from the debris...

Wouldn't it be nice, indeed.

Love, peace and blessings of Isis eternally,
Paul Ingrassia
The Mystic Fool
Iseum of the Tao of Isis

Update: Healing Haiti with Prayer

I have suddenly found myself with the day off from work tomorrow, so I have decided to make Healing Haiti with Prayer an all-day ritual for myself. I will start off at 6:30 AM NY time by lighting a candle which will remain lit all day. Next, I will do my morning FOI attunement. Then, as planned, at 7:00 AM I will perform my healing prayer. Afterwards, I will use a 108 bead mala I have to pray the FOI Healing Prayer for Haiti 108 times. I plan to repeat this mala cycle once every hour, including after the 1:00 PM rite, until the 7:00 PM prayer. I will then do my FOI evening attunement. I also plan to perform personal meditations and readings throughout the day.

It should be a day charged with healing energy!

Blessings,
Paul, The Mystic Fool

Healing Haiti With Prayer

I am pleased to announce the first 'public' working of the Iseum of the Tao of Isis: Healing Haiti with Prayer. On Wed, 1/27/10, The Iseum of the Tao of Isis will be performing a healing prayer for the people of Haiti, and would like to invite everyone to join in via attunement. The rite used will be an Isian Healing Prayer I wrote, and will be performed three times during the day: 7:00 AM, 1:00 PM, and 7:00 PM Eastern (New York) time to accomodate all schedules.

The Isian Healing Prayer was first published in Circle Magazine, and later reprinted in Mirror of Isis. The prayer can be found in the MOI archives at: http://mirrorofisis.freeyellow.com/id413.html. I encourage all to use my prayer, but it is not essential to join in, any healing prayer or rite will work just fine!

I look forward to joining all of you in sending healing energy to Haiti.

Love, peace, and blessings,
Paul Ingrassia
The Mystic Fool
Scribe of the House of Life of the Iseum of Ma'at and Thoth, Scribe of Eternity
Founder of The Iseum of the Tao of Isis

Iseum Dedication and Blessing

Isis, Goddess of 10,000 Names,
Queen of Heaven and Earth,
Mother of All,
Goddess of Goddesses,
She of the Myriad Faces,
I dedicate this humble Iseum
to your Tao, and in your name.

I ask you,
Mother and Protector,
Queen and Goddess,
to bless and protect,
to nurture and heal,
to guide and teach,
and to grant
peace and love to
all who visit your Iseum.