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The first image I created for today's post
Sep. 7th, 2025 05:20 pmAlthough it's the fifth image in 'The Penguin' has already won 8 Emmys, but could lose to 'Adolescence' and appears over the jump.
Ogham Readings on Saturdays
Sep. 5th, 2025 09:21 pm
I am happy to read your Ogham free of charge -- that's how I hone my divination skills. Please limit your reading request to four or fewer Ogham cards: though this can take many forms, here are some common ones (all of them are basically combos of 4 cards):
-a single three card reading for the week or month and a one-off, one card reading
-four questions about four separate items that require one answer (card) per item
-a one card reading to answer a specific question and a three card for a more nuanced question
-Two separate readings, two cards a piece exploring the positives and negatives of two different choices
-a one card reading to answer a specific question and a three card for a more nuanced question
-Two separate readings, two cards a piece exploring the positives and negatives of two different choices
I am happy to do Ogham readings confidentially via email -- just email me at k steele studio at gmail during the allotted time/before deadline. I cannot answer health questions. If you have a question about health or another sensitive, private matter, provide a bunch of non-identifying information and the Ogham will be able to figure it out even if I don't. I'm serious... the Ogham actually tend to "know" things without me being privy to what is going on.
Please note I take time off during Solstices and Equinoxes for Druid stuff and because sometimes I simply need a break.
My next planned break is from October 23 - November 6.
My next planned break is from October 23 - November 6.
I take reading requests from whenever this post goes up on Friday night until 8pm US Central Time Saturday.
For a more in depth look into how I read and interpret the Ogham's symbols, please visit my website druidogham.wordpress.com.
I am currently trying to minimize my use of PayPal. If you'd like to make a donation, I would be grateful if you did it here:
For a more in depth look into how I read and interpret the Ogham's symbols, please visit my website druidogham.wordpress.com.
I am currently trying to minimize my use of PayPal. If you'd like to make a donation, I would be grateful if you did it here:
http://buymeacoffee.com/kimberlysteele
Your prayers of blessing to the deity/deities of your choice are welcome whether or not you can donate.
Diary: Cruising
Sep. 5th, 2025 04:29 pmI think that I have a pretty fair life. Oh, granted there are things about it that are less than optimal, but on the whole, the present is pretty damn tolerable.
Here is my problem. With only two exceptions (identity withheld to protect the innocent) most of my social circle feels contempt for what I have "settled" for. I am still sorting out how I should feel about this kind of thing.
Whether one likes it or not. A large part of self worth is (unfortunately) a reflection of what others think of you. Why do you think churches breed fanatics? The internalization of a moral/intellectual precept and then refining of the outward symbols of belief lead to greater and greater acceptance/credibility with the group.
Thus my heresy. By rejecting the outward symbols that show conformity with the group belief system give the group no motivation to allow you into its sphere of influence and protection. I am walking the line now. I am trying to keep just inside the limited protection and rewards of the system. I want to be as far from the center, out in the low density fringes just this side of what is considered failure by the system.
I need to work on this explanation/narrative more. It isn't going to end up a political treatise or anything, it is just an explanation of where I stand and what I have to watch out for to maintain my distance from the center.
Frugal Friday
Sep. 5th, 2025 09:27 am
Welcome back to Frugal Friday! This is a weekly forum post to encourage people to share tips on saving money, especially but not only by doing stuff yourself. A new post will be going up every Friday, and will remain active until the next one goes up. Contributions will be moderated, of course, and I have some simple rules to offer, which may change further as we proceed.Rule #1: this is a place for polite, friendly conversations about how to save money in difficult times. It's not a place to post news, views, rants, or emotional outbursts about the reasons why the times are difficult and saving money is necessary. Nor is it a place to use a money saving tip to smuggle in news, views, etc. I have a delete button and I'm not afraid to use it.
Rule #2: this is not a place for you to sell goods or services, period. Here again, I have a delete button and I'm not afraid to use it.
Rule #3: please give your tip a heading that explains briefly what it's about. Homemade Chicken Soup, Garden Containers, Cheap Attic Insulation, and Vinegar Cleans Windows are good examples of headings. That way people can find the things that are relevant for them. If you don't put a heading on your tip it will be deleted.
Rule #4: don't post anything that would amount to advocating criminal activity. Any such suggestions will not be put through.
Rule #5: don't post LLM ("AI") generated content, and don't bring up the subject unless you're running a homemade LLM program on your own homebuilt, steam-powered server farm.
With that said, have at it!
Diary: Jerky
Sep. 4th, 2025 02:35 pmSo, as a reminder of my past life as a dad and almost-prepper, I still have a cabelas dryer (the little one, not the big one).
Why this is important is that lately I have been trying to seriously reduce (though not eliminate) sugars and carbohydrates. White rice needs to be watched carefully.
I have restarted my romance with jerky. I really do love the stuff, but buying it at the store is ungodly expensive. Rule of thumb is that it is over a buck an ounce for the cheap stuff. Homey cannot afford that. So I need to break out the dryer and get cracking on jerky. First effort will be chicken jerky. I picked up some skinless boneless chicken thighs and marinated them:
Marinade: 1/2 cup soy sauce 1/3 cup honey 1/2 tsp curing salt teaspoon of cayenne (lets call the marinade 50 cents
Cut the 20 ounces of chicken thighs ($2.99 at costco) into thickish strips and marinated them for 24 hours, then they went into the cabelas. The cost of the chicken was $3.75
Pasteurization chart for chicken The following profile can achieve the same level of bacterial reduction (specifically, a 7-log reduction of Salmonella) as cooking chicken to 165°F ((74\degree C)) instantly, as long as the temperature is held for the specified time:
140°F ((60\degree C)): Held for 30 minutes. 136°F ((58\degree C)): Held for 68.4 minutes. 130°F ((54\degree C)): Held for 112 minutes (for beef, lamb, and pork) or 6 hours (for chicken).
I put the dryer on high and let 'er rip. I waited until my fancy-schmancy thermometer and probe hit 136 F. and then waited for an hour and a bit and pronounced the jerky done. The energy use was 3.1 kWH at an average cost of $0.19/kWH or $0.58
Weighed the results. 9.5 ounces of yield for $3.75+$0.50+$0.58 = $4.84/9.5 or $0.51 per ounce ($8.16/lb) which is half of the cost of store bought.
another one bites dust
Sep. 4th, 2025 04:13 pmNow @earthworm_uk has gone too.
(Sorry for the bleak pun in the subject. I have this peculiar ability to joke while feeling bleak.)
It was fabulous reading, talking to and learning from you, Earthworm.
Time to move on, you say. If there is somewhere better I need to know, please, please?
All the best to you and Miranda. May robins visit you every spring.
I think about you both sometimes while gardening and wonder what tips you would give me towards a little patch of horticultural harmony at my place in the Antipodes.
Scientology and Satanism
Sep. 3rd, 2025 10:02 pmL. Ron Hubbard, founder of Scientology, was said to have been a malignant narcissist. L. Ron Hubbard’s son changed his name to Ronald De Wolf. Of L. Ron Hubbard’s seven children by three different wives, DeWolf was one of two who were estranged. DeWolf called Scientology “the self-created fantasy of one man brought to deadly reality for others by a simple word: agreement”. DeWolf also gave sworn statements that his father was “deeply involved in the occult and black magic.”
It is common knowledge when Hubbard was discharged from the US Navy after WWII, he chose to move into the Pasadena, California mansion of Jack Parsons, a rocket engineer who was a superfan and disciple of Aleister Crowley. Parson’s residence, called The Parsonage by the free-wheelers who came and went from it, was where Parsons reconstructed Crowley’s magical rituals, most of which revolved around copulation and chemically-assisted altered states. At the time, Parsons was attempting to impregnate his second wife, Marjorie Cameron, with the Satanic equivalent of the Second coming, despite her supposedly knowing nothing about his intentions. Meanwhile, both Parsons and Hubbard were taking turns with Sara Hollister, Parson’s ex-wife’s younger sister, who had been sleeping with Parsons from the age of seventeen while he was married to her older sister. All of these people were members of The Agape Lodge of the Ordo Templi Orientis, and Jack Parsons along with his order members funded Crowley in his ailing dotage. Nevertheless, Aleister Crowley expressed disgust when he learned that Parsons and his live in friend, L. Ron Hubbard were trying to create a Moonchild second coming of the whore of Babalon working, calling them idiots. Within the span of a year, L. Ron Hubbard and Sara tricked Parsons via a swindle involving multiple yachts. They ditched Parsons, absconded with most of his fortune and the proceeds from the sale of the Parsonage, and got married when Sara was 22 and Hubbard was 35. Hubbard was still married to his first wife at the time, and yes, that means he committed bigamy.
Ronald DeWolf says that “black magic is the inner core of Scientology” and that his father “did not worship Satan. He thought he was Satan”.
The birth of Scientology came about in Southern California from a time and place that also spawned Anton LaVey’s Church of Satan and Michael Aquino’s Temple of Set. LaVeyan Satanism, Aquino’s Setianism, and Scientology have a great deal in common, with Scientology taking the gold star for its evolution of Crowleyan principles and philosophy. Of the three Crowleyan solipsist religions, Scientology is by far the most profitable of the three. Hubbard, a prolific writer of science fiction, stated “You don’t get rich writing science fiction. If you want to get rich, you start a religion.” and he seems to have done just that. Scientology’s methods of interrogation and confession, lifted from Crowleyan magic, would go on to become the foundation for the practices used David Raniere’s NEXIUM cult.
As Scientologist escapee Jenna Miscaivage (niece of David Miscaivage) states, the cross emblem of Scientology is a joke and a fake. Scientology was invented for one reason alone: the enrichment of L. Ron Hubbard.
Diary: Unpleasant
Sep. 3rd, 2025 04:50 pmI have a sneaking hunch that the next five years will be a period of accelerated decline. It is not going to be "the end of the world". I have no idea how bad it may be. Sitting at the kitchen table and looking out at the high thin clouds and a sunnyish day have got me thinking about the guesses that I am formulating in my brain.
I am a mediocre guesser. Everyone is. Oh, folks can preen and sift through their guesses and crow about the ones that they got right. But it is like going to a casino. Almost everyone who goes to a casino and wins is quite forthright about their exploits (though I think most are exaggerated). I rarely, if ever, hear folks declaim concerning their losses.
I am guessing around a 66.6% chance of things heading south in the next five years (sorry, the Ouija board and the crstal ball that I use are from Walmart and have limited vision). Now this needs to be broken down somewhat.
- 40% is just a steady and slow decline. Things will be a little more expensive, jobs will be a little harder to find and pay a little less. Governments will get a little more nosy and provide less. Truth is, it will be enough to complain about but folks will deal.
- 20% will be a faster ramp. I think that the rebuilding of the manufacturing sector isn't going to go well. The banks and the rich folks will accelerate their greed and the modicum of tickle down that is happening now will go away. Folks are going to get damned grumpy and the vast majority of expectations are going to go unmet. Expect some acting out.
- 6.6% will be something bad that I prefer not to think about.
The other 33.3 percent can be broken down as follows:
- 17% will be that things will stay pretty much the same and the status quo remains.
- 16.3% will be maybe things will actually improve. Congress will put a leash on banks and the rentier class and AI will prove to be a bust (fingers crossed) and we can start digging out of the hole
0.1% will be reserved for Alien attacks, the second coming, and a new, non-polluting energy source that can be built from lawn clippings.
Diary: An unpopular opinion
Sep. 2nd, 2025 04:08 pmHere's the deal. I spent the greater bulk being a toady to the medical profession. Research scientist for around half and mid level bureaucrat for half. For a total of around thirty years. My education is comparable to any. Having now presented my bona fides, I can state that I have no problem with AI replacing around half of the current medical profession.
I have been using Dr. Google for years now. I have the good fortune of being able to cross check the results of human visits against Dr. Google and to be honest, the results have panned out the same with a slight edge going to Google.
Now the laboratory and the direct inpatient hospital care will always be there. But even those will be changed. I don't really see any way around it. Such is life.
Nope, especially here in the US, the medical profession is going to be seriously impacted by AI. Since the bulk of the medical profession is for-profit, the bean counters will use use AI to ruthlessly reduce provider headcount both in the administrative and peripheral specialities.
I am not sad. I don't think the current system is all that good, it is probably bordering or inside the "bad" descriptor. What we will get will probably lie within the same level of care but without the lower ranks of the "care pyramid" being around to provide service.
Sorry, but the current system here in the states is a bad idea. We are smoothly transitioning from one bad idea to another bad idea. Enjoy the ride.
Open (More or Less) Post on Covid 211
Sep. 2nd, 2025 10:02 am
We are now into the fifth year of these open posts. When I first posted a tentative hypothesis on the course of the Covid phenomenon, I had no idea that discussion on the subject would still be necessary all these years later, much less that it would turn into so lively, complex, and troubling a conversation. Still, here we are. Crude death rates and other measures of collapsing public health remain anomalously high in many countries, but nobody in authority wants to talk about the inadequately tested experimental Covid injections that are the most likely cause; So it's time for another open post. The rules have been slightly expanded due to a recent discussion here:
1. If you plan on parroting the party line of the medical industry and its paid shills, please go away. This is a place for people to talk openly, honestly, and freely about their concerns that the party line in question is dangerously flawed and that actions being pushed by the medical industry and its government enablers are causing injury and death on a massive scale. It is not a place for you to dismiss those concerns. Anyone who wants to hear the official story and the arguments in favor of it can find those on hundreds of thousands of websites.
2. If you plan on insisting that the current situation is the result of a deliberate plot by some villainous group of people or other, please go away. There are tens of thousands of websites currently rehashing various conspiracy theories about the Covid-19 outbreak and the vaccines. This is not one of them. What we're exploring is the likelihood that what's going on is the product of the same arrogance, incompetence, and corruption that the medical industry and its wholly owned politicians have displayed so abundantly in recent decades. That possibility deserves a space of its own for discussion, and that's what we're doing here.
3. If you plan on using rent-a-troll derailing or disruption tactics, please go away. I'm quite familiar with the standard tactics used by troll farms to disrupt online forums, and am ready, willing, and able -- and in fact quite eager -- to ban people permanently for engaging in them here. Oh, and I also lurk on other Covid-19 vaccine skeptic blogs, so I'm likely to notice when the same posts are showing up on more than one venue.
4. If you plan on making off topic comments, please go away. This is an open post for discussion of the Covid epidemic, the vaccines, drugs, policies, and other measures that supposedly treat it, and other topics directly relevant to those things. It is not a place for general discussion of unrelated topics. Nor is it a place to ask for medical advice; giving such advice, unless you're a licensed health care provider, legally counts as practicing medicine without a license and is a crime in the US. Don't even go there.
5. If you don't believe in treating people with common courtesy, please go away. I have, and enforce, a strict courtesy policy on my blogs and online forums, and this is no exception. The sort of schoolyard bullying that takes place on so many other internet forums will get you deleted and banned here. Also, please don't drag in current quarrels about sex, race, religions, etc. No, I don't care if you disagree with that: my journal, my rules.
6. Please don't just post bare links without explanation. A sentence or two telling readers what's on the other side of the link is a reasonable courtesy, and if you don't include it, your attempted post will be deleted.
7. Please don't post LLM ("AI") generated text. This is a place for human beings to talk to other human beings, not for the regurgitation of machine-generated text. Also, please don't discuss large language models (the technology popularly and inaccurately called "artificial intelligence" these days) except as they bear directly on the Covid phenomenon. Here again, my finger is hovering over the delete button.
Please also note that nothing posted here should be construed as medical advice, which neither I nor the commentariat (excepting those who are licensed medical providers) are qualified to give. Please take your medical questions to the licensed professional provider of your choice.
With that said, the floor is open for discussion.
Top posts of 8/2025 at Crazy Eddie's Motie News
Sep. 2nd, 2025 08:57 amCrazy Eddie's Motie News earned 278,360 page views and 19 comments on 31 posts during the 31 days of August 2025. The page view goal for August 2025 was 26,000, 26,009 if I strictly followed 839 page views per day. It passed both goals at ~10:10 P.M. EDT July 31, 2025, the earliest ever thanks to my Vietnamese readers.
( Most read, commented on, shared, and liked posts of Crazy Eddie's Motie News last month behind the cut. )
( Most read, commented on, shared, and liked posts of Crazy Eddie's Motie News last month behind the cut. )
Virgo II - the Hammer and Anvil (2-12 September 2025)
Sep. 1st, 2025 09:29 am Virgo II, The Hammer and Anvil (September 2-12, 2025), is associated with craftsmanship (artisanship, to use a more gender-neutral term), but also with the work of the Moirai, or fate-weavers: Clotho the spinner, Lachesis the measurer, and Atropos the cutter. What fate are you weaving, and who is intertwined with you in the business of making the tapestries of your community
(locked to Patreon-only members): https://andrewbwatt.com/2025/09/01/virgo-ii-sun-the-moirai/
(locked to Patreon-only members): https://andrewbwatt.com/2025/09/01/virgo-ii-sun-the-moirai/
Magic Monday
Aug. 31st, 2025 10:50 pm
It's almost midnight, and so it's time to launch a new Magic Monday. Ask me anything about occultism, and with certain exceptions noted below, any question received by midnight Monday Eastern time will get an answer. Please note: Any question or comment received after that point will not get an answer, and in fact will not be put through. If you're in a hurry, or suspect you may be the 341,928th person to ask a question, please check out the very rough version 1.3 of The Magic Monday FAQ here. Also: I will not be putting through or answering any more questions about practicing magic around children. I've answered those in simple declarative sentences in the FAQ. If you read the FAQ and don't think your question has been answered, read it again. If that doesn't help, consider remedial reading classes; yes, it really is as simple and straightforward as the FAQ says. And further: I've decided that questions about getting goodies from spirits are also permanently off topic here. The point of occultism is to develop your own capacities, not to try to bully or wheedle other beings into doing things for you. I've discussed this in a post on my blog.
(The image? I've finished the sequence of my published books; while I decide what I want to do next, I have some memes to share.)
Buy Me A Coffee
Ko-Fi
I've had several people ask about tipping me for answers here, and though I certainly don't require that I won't turn it down. You can use either of the links above to access my online tip jar; Buymeacoffee is good for small tips, Ko-Fi is better for larger ones. (I used to use PayPal but they developed an allergy to free speech, so I've developed an allergy to them.) If you're interested in political and economic astrology, or simply prefer to use a subscription service to support your favorite authors, you can find my Patreon page here and my SubscribeStar page here.
I've also had quite a few people over the years ask me where they should buy my books, and here's the answer. Bookshop.org is an alternative online bookstore that supports local bookstores and authors, which a certain gargantuan corporation doesn't, and I have a shop there, which you can check out here. Please consider patronizing it if you'd like to purchase any of my books online.And don't forget to look up your Pangalactic New Age Soul Signature at CosmicOom.com.
***This Magic Monday is now closed and no further comments will be put through. See you next week!***
Links from and about partners shared at the Coffee Party USA Facebook page during August 2025
Aug. 31st, 2025 05:10 pmPotential gig for competent internet person
Aug. 30th, 2025 03:30 pm
A few days ago I had tea with an old friend who runs a small but successful firm in the occult publishing field. He's pushing seventy, though he's in good health, and the firm has younger people involved and will still be purring away when he's gone. The relevance of his age is that the internet is still mostly a foreign country to him. Nonetheless he's interested in building a web presence for his firm and its products. The firm already has a more or less functional (if minimal) website, but he's looking at a blog, Patreon and SubscribeStar accounts, and whatever else might help his firm make the transition to the internet age. This is a part time paying gig; he asked me for help finding someone competent to handle this, and so I figured the first thing to do was to ask my commentariat, so that one of my readers can benefit from the opportunity.
My friend needs someone with experience setting up websites, who can build the sites and then run them. If you're interested, you'll need to be able to show me sites you've set up and managed. Please either post something here or send me a private message; I'll screen inquiries and then forward the ones that seem serious to my friend, who will make the decision. Let's make this happen.
