I started out in a hall of pillars.... Sort of a long path, lined with many stone pillars which held up a roof that covered the entire walkway. The pillars looked like the giant papyrus pillars of Ancient Egypt. I looked down at my feet and saw sandals strapped onto my feet with long straps wrapping and crisscrossing part way up my calves. I walked down the path toward a doorway in a building ahead of me.

When I stepped through the doorway, I saw thousands of tiny flickering flames all over the room. They looked like the flames of thousands of candles, yet seemed independent of any source. As I walked toward the center of the room it seemed as if the flames moved out of the way of my every step. When I arrived at the center of the room, these little flames swirled around me and formed a spiral staircase beginning directly in front of me and spiraling upward out of sight.

I knew instinctively that I should walk up the staircase, and as I did this, I noticed that they did not burn me or my sandals. Also, though they seemed to be floating, they held my weight effortlessly and felt like firm ground beneath me. I could see down between the flames to the floor bellow as well. Even so, I had no fear as I continued upward.

At the top of the stairs, I found myself in the center of another room. In front of me was a throne with a woman seated upon it. I could not see her face, only that she seemed to be made up of pure white light. I knew her to be my goddess, though she said nothing at first, and I felt only peace in her presence.

She beckoned for me to come forward, which I did immediately. Standing before her felt very familiar to me, as if I'd been there before. She leaned toward me and whispered "You are always a messenger of light." After hearing these words, I found myself once again in the lower room, surrounded by tiny flickering flames.

Leaving this temple brought some sadness to me. I felt such peace there, that I did not wish to return just yet to this plane. After the meditation, some of us shared a bit of our experiences with each other. Telling others what I saw and felt, brought a tear to my eye as the raw beauty of what I'd been shown washed over me. My hope is that I brought back some of that light with me to share with those I meet. I hope that I brighten this world even just a little for having been a part of it.

Amethyst is basically a purple variety of Quartz. It has many of the same properties as quartz although with the color difference, it does have some unique qualities as well.

Amethyst has both receptive and projective properties, this makes it a great multipurpose stone. It can be used to absorb negative energies or charged to protect or heal. Although a word of caution might be warranted here... Quartz and it's related stones can become toxic if they absorb too much negative energy. To keep this from happening, it requires regular cleansing. There are several ways to cleanse a stone, however one of the simplest and most effective in my opinion is setting it in the sunlight. This recharges it as it absorbs the suns energy, and also burns away the negativity it may have absorbed.

Amethyst is a very spiritual stone. This makes it great for meditation as well as use in any part of your regular spiritual practices. It is said to assist in astral travel and also helps us strengthen our connection to the divine. It is also a great emotional healer, and helps to teach us self love.

Amethyst was associated with preventing intoxication, and is very useful in helping to break addictions. I do not recommend using this alone though, it is most helpful when combined with more traditional treatments in order to get to the root cause of the addiction and prevent relapses.

Amethyst has been cherished by royalty for centuries and is associated with several deities as well. Foremost for me, is Isis, my matron goddess. Others include Bacchus, Dionysus and Diana. It is also sacred to Buddha and is used in buddhist prayer/meditation beads. Christians associated amethyst with purity and chastity and is still worn by many Bishops. Most commonly, in modern times, amethyst known for being the birthstone of the month of February.

I personally wear amethyst nearly every day. It helps me feel closer to my goddess and helps me stay more spiritually aware. In my spiritual journey, Amethyst has been a constant companion that I'll always treasure.

It first appeared running across the floor near my bathtub and it quickly found a hiding place in the small pile of laundry on the floor. I was getting ready to take a shower and decided against it since I didn't know where that spider would be while I was in the shower. I was home alone so I couldn't even get my husband to rescue me as he nearly always does, and we'd made plans to go to town as soon as he returned from work so I really needed to get that shower done before he got home. After a little while, I mustered all the courage I could find and determined not to let this spider get the better of me, so I grabbed a trusty stick and decided to go spider hunting on my own. The little beast was still in the same spot in the laundry pile so I made a jab at it and of course it moved quite quickly to the side and avoided my attempt at killing it, which only served to make me scream and jump around like an idiot some more. So I called my husband to let him know that I was not going to be getting my shower until after he came home. Since we have two bathrooms he just told me to suck it up and gather my shampoo and stuff from the other bathroom and take my shower in the spare bathroom, which I finally did.

While I was in the shower, a thought came to me that I could take some control of this situation after all, so I sent out my magical intention to the spiders and bugs around our home. I let them know that I would no longer kill them on sight if they would just respect the boundaries of my home. They are free to live OUTSIDE anywhere they like and I would respect that as their home as well as long as they stay out of mine. I also specified that I would allow this one spider safe passage out, and if he couldn't get there on his own, I'd see to it that my husband would not kill him but would safely deposit him outside when he got home.

When my husband finally got home from work, I informed him of my little deal, and asked him to please try his best to get the spider outside without harming him. He's an eternally patient man, so he complied quite naturally without question. He used a decorative knife that we had hanging on the wall as a way to kind of shoo the spider into the cup, but when he tried this, the spider just stepped onto the end of the knife. My husband then just put the knife over the cup where the spider very cooperatively jumped into the cup where he stayed until my husband got him outside to a bush. Gabe said that the spider was more than cooperative and made no attempt to do anything but exactly what we wanted, so I find myself very grateful today that I was able to make a truce with the spiders that live around me. I'm not really any less afraid of the little beasts, but I'm working very hard to keep my word. I will not squish any bugs that are OUTSIDE, as long as they stay out of my home. It's funny, but I already feel safer INSIDE my home.

It's been over a month since this oil catastrophe began and so far all attempts to stop this leak have failed, while government officials and businessmen point fingers at one another as to who's at fault. In my opinion, we are all to blame. We as a society have become more and more dependent on oil based products and at the same time we villainize the oil industry for seeking to fulfill the demands we constantly place on them.

What will it take to make us all realize that we can not continue to rape, pillage and plunder the resources of our Mother Earth without consequences? Our dependance on oil, foreign or domestic, must be curbed. When is enough truly enough? How many species must go extinct? How many beaches and marshlands need to be covered in oil before we find better ways to live?

The challenge has been laid out before us. How will we rise up to meet it? I wish I had answers to all these questions. If I did, maybe my heart wouldn't feel so heavy. I know for myself and my husband, we will continue to find ways to reduce the quantity of oil products we use, but that may be too little too late even still. I hope we all learn something from this tragedy though. I'd hate for this lessen to ever need repeating...

Traffic Chant

Our trip is smooth, Traffic is flowing,

All the way to ____, Where we are going.