Hello once more, March is coming in like a lion here in Iowa. Today is one of the colder days we have had this winter. It's currently 10 degrees and there is about an inch of snow on the ground, with a winter storm expected. They are saying lots of blowing snow. Oh fun. Yep I'm staying inside where it is warm, Maybe even heading back to bed after I send this out. Too bad I don't have a nice stack of seed catalogues as of yet. It would be the perfect day to snuggle up in bed and dream of the coming spring. A friend said to me when I was talking about this subject, "you and your seed catalogs." My rely was, "OK I'm herbsessed" There are worse things to be obsessed with then herb gardening and at least I end up with a useful product in the end. A new opportunity appears to be opening up for me as well. The details have yet to be worked out but if it works out and the details are finally hashed out, I'm going to be announcing it here. This issue also contains an article on two subjects that are not usually spoken about in the same breath: role-playing and paganism. It is written from the perspective of one who is both. I hope you enjoy it. 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. ~*~*~*~ The Poet's Song By Sheila K. Watkins Like a butterfly (Or perhaps - a fairy?) Fluttering temptingly near (Oh! Come closer please!) Only to flee (Like a sun-kissed dream) Should I try to touch it? (Should I even try?) Softly I hear it calling (What does it say?) Incomprehensible (Oh! What does it say?) Then silent as I draw near (No, please don't go away!) Only to whisper (Yes, I'm listening.) And laugh (Taunting as I step away) Promising (Promising what?) Everything (A poet's dream) In one tantalizing breath ~*~*~*~ Cool Link(s) of the week: Pagan Downloads and Software http://www.geocities.com/lavenderwater37/downloads.htm Aura Color test http://www.auracolors.com/test.htm Celtic Attic Free Pagan Goodies http://www.celticattic.com/contact_us/free_goodies.htm Cross Stitch Charts http://www.paganlink.org/netstuff/Things_to_Make_and_Do/Cross-Stitch/ Psychic test http://www.psychicrealm.com/pn/index.phtml?2994700420 ~*~*~*~ I am a Pagan Role Player By Sheila K. Watkins I'm a role player, or a gamer as we call ourselves, and I am a pagan. I usually don't talk about both subjects unless I am talking to someone else is also both. Even then, we don't talk about paganism and role-play at the same time. There seems to be an unwritten law that if you talk about them both at the same time, you can't be serious or are rapidly going nuts. Still I feel that gaming has taught me some very significant lessons which make me a better person, a better witch and a better pagan. In the grand time line of things, I was a gamer first. I have been for half my life almost. I was introduced to it in college and fell in love. I could be anyone I wanted: a cleric in a fantasy world, a Super hero like those in comic books, an investigator hunting down Cthulu or a time traveler from a distant future. It hadn't occurred to me, as yet, that I couldn't have the character consistently be the character unless I was drawing on something that was in me. Somewhere along the line, I met a guy while gaming and some of the stuff he read worried me a bit. It had to do with magic and well "everyone knew magic was evil." (When I started out I was still nominally Christian but I was questioning things. I will admit I was more then a bit narrow-minded as well.) He suggested I not judge it until I looked into it. I will admit it was a bit strange I had the attitude I had because I had already started looking into psychic phenomenon. I had even stumbled across an exercise on how to meet your spirit guide and had used it. But magic? No never! Magic was evil. Still I liked to believe I was an open-minded person. So, after my boyfriend and I broke up due to unrelated matters a month or so later, I started to look into witchcraft. I bought a book from the half-priced bookstore started reading and it was all there - things that nourished my soul and which continue to do so. This is not a fact you admit in front of fundamentalist Christians. At least, not unless you want to be used as an example of how gaming turned people into Satanists. On the other hand you don't talk about it much in front of other pagans either. You might mention role-play in passing but you don't talk about it in depth (unless the person is also a gamer.) You especially don't talk about role-play and paganism if you want to be taken seriously. This is because gamers are seen as only playing, or they are trapped in a fantasyland, or they only want to do spells because they want to summon demons. I will admit there are people like who are like that. But you also have others who are very serious about their spirituality and who just happen to enjoy pretending to be demons with delusions of invincibility. I have noticed debates on using mind-altering chemicals in circle and discussions on sex and sexuality but gaming in a pagan discussion. Get real. Because chemicals and sex have a long history of their being used in paganism and spirituality, there is discussion on these subjects. Gaming though is new and most people, who don't game, don't understand it. When things aren't understood people have a tendency to see them as evil, as fundamentalist Christians do with role playing, or it's not seen as providing anything of value. I have found if you start discussing gaming with someone who just doesn't get it and you might as well sprout a second head. The looks you receive would not be any stranger. I will admit I prefer the weird looks to being told, "Don't mention that game in front of me. It's evil and you will go to hell because of it." But neither is comfortable, so you learn only to mention it in passing if at all. I think it's time to stop hiding it though. I'm standing up and saying I am a role playing pagan and I have actually learned a lot of things from playing games. I was a game master quite often when I was actively gaming off-line. To be a game master, you have to be disciplined enough to know and follow the rules but be flexible enough to change directions at the drop of a hat. You are in charge of a group of highly imaginative people and it is your responsibility to help them focus all their energy into a specific set of goals. (In this instance having fun and accomplishing the mission for the evening.) Notice I say help them focus because if you are too inflexible about what is supposed to happen and try to force things the group does to only your will then no one will have any fun and you will have failed your responsibility. You also need to take everything that is coming at you from various sources (ideas and actions) and weave them into something that flows together and makes sence. I have found this skill translates well to other areas of my life including magic. Gaming has helped me hone my creativity to a very sharp edge as well. Now I am not going to say I wouldn't be creative if I had never gamed but I'm used to thinking of creative solutions to complicated situations. I'm also used to coming up with creative solutions quickly. See one of my gaming experiences is with on-line gaming. Part of that experience is fighting "wars" with the battles being one on one matches or fights between two people. Now I admit that doesn't sound like much. But let me explain. When I started out there was a time limit. Once the person you were fighting acted you had one minute to comprehend what he or she did, react to it and do your own action. For a good fight it had to go along with the situation that was happening. I know I have surprised people before by taking in a situation and in a relatively short amount of time come up with a solution, which fits the situation. This is because I have a lot of experience thinking on my feet. I think anyone can agree those are good skills to have. There have been bits and pieces of other information I have picked up. From Rifts, I learned that rivers, creeks, streams and fault lines are also leylines. Real life experience with working with leylines has confirmed this information. From AD&D I learned that you have to be very careful how you make requests from those in charge because requests can and will be twisted into something you never intended. From on-line gaming I learned how to manage a group of people, how to deal with the politics, which happens whenever groups of people get together, and the importance of delegating. This is stuff I need to know but is very difficult to learn without experience. As a solitary, for most of my pagan life, I haven't had to delegate and with my personality it would take burn out before I would have learned if I hadn't already learned the lesson elsewhere. I am being shoved by Themselves into taking a more active role in my local pagan community. Will that result in a leadership position, well I will leave that up to Them, but if it does I will be ready. I've mentioned all of this stuff but I haven't mentioned the one area where role-playing has really helped me. See I play this female demon on-line named Rue. She was named after the plant but the pun worked well also. I created her as a thumbing of my nose at the comments that I was consorting with demons, which had gotten back to me. I knew the person who said them didn't get gaming. She thought that because I had played a dragon I believed I was one. So Rue Dragonsblood was born. I am not Rue but Rue is a part of me. Playing her I looked into the parts of my soul I didn't want to acknowledge existed and I found out I really wasn't so bad after all. Perhaps more then a bit kinky but not bad. I also found out I can't keep saying "I am marvelous" even in character and not have it start effecting me in real life. Now, I know I am not perfect, even though Rue knows she is, but she has also taught me I am not as bad as I was trying to convince myself for a long time either. And isn't one of the most important goals of being a witch to know thyself? So there you have it. I am a pagan role player. Is role-playing for everyone? Well no. But it can be used as a tool by those so inclined to learn things about themselves, which might have gone unexplored in any other way. ~*~*~*~ 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: 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