Hello All This week I was a bit worried about even having a newsletter. I have been fighting the flu all week. (I think everyone I knew suggested tons of ginger tea except one person who suggested I feast on tons of garlic.) This recipe for ginger tea was found here: http://www.epicurious.com/d_drinking/d02_non_alc/quench/coffee/ginger. html GINGER TEA 1/2 cup thinly sliced fresh ginger 6 cups water 2 tablespoons honey or brown sugar lemon wedges for garnish if desired In a saucepan simmer ginger and water 20 minutes, or more for stronger tea. Add honey or sugar and strain tea through a sieve set over a teapot. Serve tea garnished with lemon wedges. Makes about 4 cups. Gourmet April 1994 One of the drawbacks of my bout with the flu was I was not able to write much at all. The most I have been able to accomplish was part of an article on shields and wards. Luckily I was able to beg and plead for a couple of works from Mairwen. I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I did. Also remember the deadline for the April 1 issue is on March 25, 2002. Please see the details in the announcement section. So until next time, Sheila K. Watkins Editor: Whispers of a Stone Circle See last page of this newsletter for submission guidelines, forwarding guidelines, where you can subscribe to Whispers and copyright information. ~*~*~*~ Prayer to Arianrhod 11/20/2000 Mairwen Dearest Lady Arianrhod, Mother and Sister so sweet ... I thank thee for all thy comfort and blessing, for all the love and strength that thou hast given me ... Thou art the Moon Thou art the Stars Thou art the Goddess of the Wheel ... Thou art the blessings ... As they search, so shall they feel ... Ayea, Arianrhod! ~*~*~*~ Cool Link(s) of the week: THW Spring Equinox http://www.inetarena.com/~pdx4d/wheel/spring.html ~*~*~*~ Seeing the Grandfather By Mairwen "The Creator" or "The Great Spirit"... You know how I blather on about God-visitations ... I had the honor of seeing The Grandfather last September. It was awesome. I was at Chief Dark Wind's house visiting. (Silver Fox's mom and dad live just next door, and I was back in Harlan visiting with them, healing after my grandmother's passing last summer.) I decided that it was time to go home and go to bed, so I left, admiring the moon in the dark on the walk back over. In my room, I went to pull the mini-blind down, and realized Dark Wind's dining room light was still on. (She said she was going to bed right behind me, and had turned the lights on as I left, actually.) There was an old man sitting at her dining room table. Thinking nothing about it (people come and go over there all the time), I pulled the blind and sat down on the bed to journal and read. The next morning, I was at Dark Wind's smoking and drinking coffee, and suddenly said, "Who was here so late after I left last night?" Her jaw smacked the floor, and I swear it bounced twice! Trying to regain some composure, she said, "You saw him too?" All I could do was nod. She said that she'd gone into the back of the house intending to go to bed then decided she was going to check her email before she did. When she came back through, the dining room light was on, and there he was, sitting at the head of the table weaving some magic-something- or-other. She said she just stopped and said, "Oh." And he smiled at her and continued his work. And she said, "I am blessed by your presence, Sir, but I am going to the computer room. Make yourself at home." So she checked her mail and came back through about an hour later. He was still there (from the motions I saw him making, it was like he was sewing/weaving something in the air in front of him; it reminded me of Grandmother Spider). She said, "I am blessed by your presence, Sir, but it is late, and I am going to bed. Please make yourself at home. Good night, Sir." And went to bed. ~*~*~*~ Announcement(s): Feel free to forward announcement as you wish but please keep the total post together. Announcing for the April 1, 2002 special edition: The humor edition of Whispers of a Stone Circle http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WhispersOfAStoneCircle/ What is eligible: Deliberately cheesy poetry, Spoof articles on any pagan subject, Wildly inaccurate History whatever your little heart finds funny. LadyHighPriestessFaerieDawnLightbringer will edit the issue. Deadline: March 25, 2002. Judges: whomever I can con into helping me read through everything. Prizes: An honorary 1st 2nd or 3rd degree (depending on what place the person gets) in DanishWiccanGypsyGwyddonsBritishtradWelshroyalitygaelictradsNewAgeCrys talweareringllewellynfluffbunnyhophophopFamilyTrad complete with degree suitable for printing and framing. All submissions will be receiving an initiate degree as a thank you. Rules: 1) Submission must be an original work with the copyright still in the name of the writer. Copyright as always remains the author's but agrees to be published in the special edition if deemed the winner. The Winners as well as second, third and all runners up will be placed on a special website for the world to read. 2) I would prefer is submissions came in as the body of e-mail but if submitted as an attachment must be a .doc file and something I can read on MS word 97. 3) Author must submit under his or her real or craft name but also must provide a pen (goofy) name for the article to be published under as well as a fake bio for the pen name. The more outrageous the bio the better. The author's real name will be posted with the fake bio in parentheses unless the author begs to be protected from anyone ever knowing he or she wrote the submission. 4) Sections for the contest: poetry and prose, Articles, Other. Please place submission for April Fool's issue: Poetry & prose, submission for April Fool's issue: Article, or submission for April Fool's issue: Other as the subject line of the submission. 5) Submissions will be judged for creativity, originality, and humor. Bios will be considered as part of the submission. ` 6) Submissions should be made to: zeliziw@netins.net on or before March 25, 2002 ~*~*~*~ Writer's Biographies: Mairwen has been a Craft Practitioner for 13 years, and was formally initiated into Trefn Gwyddoniad at Beltaine 1995. She co-founded The College of the Blue Butterfly with Sebastio, High Priest, at Bridget's Fire 1996. As of Yule 2000, she was recognized as an Elder of the Gwyddon Craft. More recently, she received her Druid Masters after four years of study. More information on the Gwyddon Craft may be found at: http://www.dream-weaverz.net/gwyddon/index.html Sheila K. Watkins knew from the time she was 15 that she wanted to be a writer but did not really start writing until she entered college where she worked on her college newspaper and also worked as the editor of the feature section for one semester. She was also introduced to the love of writing poetry at this time. Fortunately for all of us most of the poems have been lost to the world of men. After college she worked several jobs during the next few years but none included writing. It wasn't until after both of her children had started school in 1998 that she went back to her love of putting words on a computer screen. Her first submission was accepted by publication by the IOWAN newsletter and it started her on the path of truly honing her work. In October of 2000, she founded and became editor of Whispers of a Stone Circle. ~*~*~*~ Submissions are always welcomed and can be made to: Zeliziw@netins.net In submitting materials writers are agreeing that if accepted I may post them in the newsletter and on the web page (whenever I finally get back to work on it.) Works submitted must be the writer's own work and they must still retain the copyright OR it must be verifiably public domain. Works can have been published before but please nothing that has been around over and over again. Copyright remains in the author's possession. The Author also realizes that they will not be paid. (If I had money I would be hosting this on something other then Yahoo.) If a submission is accepted, I will check for punctuation, capitalization and spelling in submitted articles. I will fix minor errors if they are present. I will NOT reword things (except for an occasional "an" for "a" and vice versa.) Poems are published as submitted. Forwarding information: If you chose to forward this newsletter, do so in its entirety, including copyright and contact information. People may subscribe to Whispers of A Stone Circle at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WhispersOfAStoneCircle/ All articles, poems, etc, except where noted are copyrighted by the writers and are used with permission. They are not to be republished without the express permission of the writers. Contact information may be obtained by contacting the editor of Whispers of A Stone Circle at Zeliziw@netins.net Copyright (c) 2002 Sheila K. Watson. All Rights Reserved