2008-2010: The Time of the Stone
We left off at about September of 2008, when I had honestly believed I had formulated the Philosopher's Stone from at least a personal and spiritual standpoint. Various things that I had wanted to return were returning. Things requiring change were changing. Let us recap for a bit.
July - Left Wal-Mart hopefully for good and was offered a tech job in Downtown Fayetteville.
August - Settling in with said tech job and learning the ropes. I quickly saw that my skills, my foundation, was shaky after being outside the box, even with the college training I had 4 years prior.
September - The waters returned to Hope Mills Lake and it felt as if the energies were in balance once more. Pagan shops sprang up like wildflowers to oppose the "Dark One's" store, and all of them in the same Flea Market. Raven began working with a store owned by the one called Rune in the previous chapter. We also got involved with more local pagans through Silver Stars and a newcomer store (Talisen). I felt a strong connection with the owner of the newer store and even joined her meetup group. Sadly, once again all was not as it appeared.
As time went on, while good things were starting and I could see the alchemical reactions forming, something inside told me that something was wrong. The foundation of the Stone's formulation was based on shaky physics and dodgy theory and more importantly inexperience. Things were not as they appeared and soon the reaction that started began to crumble.
October 2008
The market crash that lead to the Great Recession begins. As a result, many companies that had over-hired for new projects, including mine, let people go. The reason I was given was that I was not exactly what they wanted and I was incompetent for the job assigned. Bull! Since Sept, I was beginning to question the legitimacy of the company and of its owner. I mean what kind of an idiot has you fill out required paperwork to see just exactly what assets you own? Apparently I had nothing he wanted and he let me go. In retrospect it was a good idea to leave that job. At the time however, I thought I had created a false Stone and everything was falling apart at the seams. I was beginning to panic and regret even attempting the experiment. But what I did not see at the time was that the Stone was still transmuting my life in subtle ways, showing me what needed to be shown. It was through working at that Tech company downtown that a co-worker would give me a job lead. One that would give me the foundation I needed.
November 2008 - Enter the Jones Boys
In the middle of November, about 3 weeks into my unemployment, so short as to not have even claimed a cent of it, I was offered a position by Mr. Jones at his Real Estate company. The work was pretty much the same as it was for the other company, but for a smaller company that was family owned. It was shaky at first, but I began to expand my knowledge of PHP and Javascript. Mr. Jones was quite particular and a perfectionist and yes I would screw up every now and then, but for some reason known only to him, he never fired me. This was a great boost to my confidence and I would learn more as time went on. I would learn so much from Josh, my co-worker and all the little tricks behind coding. It was not a perfect situation and there would be ups and downs, but I think the 2 1/2 years I worked with them was the best experience I could have asked for.
2009 The Rebirth of an Alchemist
If 2007 was the Black Phase, in which the operation begins by removing the dark matter within, then 2008 was the White Phase wherein I was being lifted rather quickly to the realms above. Indeed it did feel very euphoric. That is until the transmutation began to move into the Red phase and that would sum up 2009. The Red Phase is reintegration. That which was false was seen for what it was and laid to the wayside. I would then reintegrate that which was true within me once more.
Early that year I would continue to work with the Jones' and see a new President inaugurated. We would then be moving to a smaller office to cut corners. Every day with that company I knew could be my last, since it was Real Estate after all. I learned how tenacious Mr. Jones can be.
Raven and I would be invited to the wiccan circle on post at Ft. Bragg. It was the first major pagan community since Florida we were associated with. It was also our first time ever on a military base. I would continue the networking of military people through my gaming activities at the Hobbit. Soon I was visiting with people on base like it was another town. I even did a class on basic alchemy for them. It was awesome!
The base on circle was good, but not exactly what we were looking for, as time went on we found that gas was getting more expensive and we started to look for closer alternatives. It would not be until after Dark Rune pulled his shop out that Raven would join with another.
Oh yes! The shops that sprang up last year would change or completely disappear in 2009, once again thanks to the crash of '08. Actually, I saw some of the magickal warfare that was going on, while leaving myself out of it. The "Dark One" and the "New One" went at it. But the new one did not have a strong foundation and soon her shop was closed all the time. She did people wrong and soon that shop, the largest ever in that flea market, would disappear. Mind you, I was beginning to question the owner as she considered me a newbie to magick. Of course I never did show anyone at that time what I had done and what I had been doing.
Soon only the Dark One and Silver Stars remained. But then another shop would come by. Silver Sisters moved in shortly after Talisen's shop left and then soon Dark Alcove would leave. The original owner of Silver Stars eventually left due to personal issues and left the shop to the co-owner, who would then become part of our new coven.
Late in the year Raven would join up with Silver Stars for doing card readings and consignments. The owner and her daughter combined with Raven and I formed a new "group". First it was a pagan meetup group at the coffee shop, eventually the inner circle became a new coven. Come to find out most of the members that joined in this coven were once part of the original Silver Star's owner's group back in the day. Once again Raven had picked up strays. I tried to get other people in the group as well, but sadly they ended up being "incompatible". I decided to let Raven handle it and became contempt to stand in the sidelines. However my guided meditations became a hit with the group. There was a bit of a squabble that ended in people not liking each other and with me thrown in the middle of it. In the end, those two stopped showing up entirely and it was quite frankly better for all concerned. I was not getting into yet another witch-war. I have bigger and better fish to fry now. This "incident" happened right around the holidays and would trickle into the 2010 year.
For a while we were having meetups at a coffee house called Xtasy Ice Cafe. The most awesome shop I knew. Once a month we would hold a "stitch and bitch" to generally combat the one the "J-dites" had. It would be through this that I would meet Faerybliss, daughter of some witches that have been around this town for years. And though her would I cross paths with someone I had not seen in 14 years. But before all that, Raven would fall ill.
2010 - Year of Changes both Great and Terrible.
April 2010
The same date that the oil rig in the Gulf exploded and gushed millions of gallons of crude into the water, Raven would fall ill and be sent to the hospital. She had been coughing quite a bit since the winter and we thought she had walking pneumonia exacerbated by her smoking. Sadly we found out that she had a heart condition. Congestive Heart Failure, although they called it "mild". Needless to say I was devastated by this. Once again I was put into a relationship with someone who was chronically ill. Of course Raven took it all in stride while I was the once freaking out. I had a feeling that this may have not been a natural occurrence. Why would she just get hit with heart failure like that? I had to look into the aether once more and make absolutely sure.
I hate it when I am right...
Raven was hit magickaly. Somehow someone had used her great heart against her. I had a number of suspects, but it didn't matter. Each one of them would feel retribution, and by 2011, they all did, but that story is to come up later.
As I said, I could feel that Raven was hit by a magickal attack. I did what I knew would help, based on alchemy and hermetic science. I help speed her recovery and so did the many hearts that Raven had touched before this began. A shining field of love enveloped her and everyone who visited her in the hospital could see it. She even looked like she did before she went in. I truly believed she was cured. Yes, my Raven was cured of the magickal ills, but the damage to her body would be permanent. I felt as if I lost part of her that day. Now she can never become the golden one, as the transition into that level of reality may become too great for her body to cope with now. The shock of that level of transmutation would definitely kill her, or so that is how I believe it to be. Nevermind the "lifestyle changes" she had to make for her heart. When did we become old?
Life continued in 2010. Raven survives, I continued to do my work with the Jones' and the coven continued to grow. It was almost like it was back home. And then I would meet someone from my past. Bri.
I knew Bri since I was living with Raven's cousin. She was only a teen in those days. We met at the Xtasy Cafe during one of our meetups and I just had to ask since I saw her FB profile, if she was the one who ran the Vampire LARP back at Crane's Roost in 1996. Sure enough, it was her.
Through Bri I reconnected with my past, but also bolstered my future. Bri lives on the property of a wealthy, tho eccentric, matron of the town who has various pagan evens on the property. My father had managed to attend one of these gatherings back in '07. Now it was my turn to experience this and also add more persons in the local community to my network. it was on her birthday that I got to go to the property for the first time. It was awesome, even if it wasn't a pagan gathering.
Enter the Masons
In May of 2010 I received an email via witchvox. The mail simply stated that the sender represented a small group of a half dozen men who get together and have a dinner once a month and discuss various esoteric subjects. He saw my profile on wtichvox and thought if I would like to be their guest speaker. In no way did he ever imply in the message who or what he was, but somehow I knew that it had to be from an esoteric order. I even had a memory in my subconscious that swears I've seen a group like this mentioned on witchvox. Could it have been a precognition? What had the Stone done this time? Have this order finally found me? Are they Masons? Yes. I suspected they were Freemasons even before I found out. In my mind as I read the email I was saying that "they have found me." Imagine my astonishment when I did a Google look-up on the guy who emailed me and found out he was indeed a Mason, and from the same lodge I had walked past a dozen times before downtown. Truly this had to be the work of the Stone.
I met with the man at the local coffee shop, the very same one in which the "Dark One" held her little gatherings and on the same evening. Yes she was there, but we ignored each other, or I at least her. As I met with the man he told me that all they wanted was someone to talk about alchemy and other esoterica over diner which would be at a fine dining restaurant, their treat. I was overwhelmed by this. I had never, ever been approached as an "expert" in anything before. Other than from witchvox, how else could this man even know about me. Was this the work of the Philosopher's Stone? For I had only done one class on alchemy before and that was on post. Had my reputation preceded me? There was no logical way. I never announced or proclaimed my skill that greatly. Perhaps I was overreacting at the time.
The dinner was very nice and while I felt intimidated at first, I opened up little by little. I had the first 3 chapters of my written alchemy lessons from when I was still in Florida, and years before the Stone experiment. But I forgot that I had mentioned Freemasonry in those notes, specifically about the corn, oil, and wine (the wages of a Freemason) being related to the philosophic salt, sulfur, and mercury. It was this kind of thing they were looking for, someone to show them what the symbols meant, for apparently there are those who want to bring that understanding back to the order. I was honored to be in the presence of like minds that night, and while they were quick to point out that this was not a Masonic event of any kind and they were not allowed to "recruit", I began to debate within myself if I wanted to be a part of that order. "What could I learn from them? What keys do they hold? These guys are based in alchemy, but most don't even know it! Would I benefit? Could I exchange my knowledge?" Many such thoughts ran through my head.
For the remainder of the summer, the thoughts of the masons and the dinner ran through my head. I was contacted by the man who set up the dinner sometime before October. At that time I believe I and Raven had just been to our first event on the property I mentioned earlier, thanks to Bri. things were looking up, finally. We were planning a major event for Samhain at our house and I had invited the man who invited me to that dinner, her invited two more from his order. That was it. I needed no more convincing. I was going to ask to be a Mason on Samhain.
Samhain 2010 was impressive. Raven managed to be part of the first ever Zombie walk. We went to a Halloween party, the first time in 4 years. and we had our coven open Samhain, must have had 15+ people, including representatives of both Silver Stars and Silver Sisters. It was a blast. It was on that night after everything that I "asked 1 2b 1". The petition was done in November and then began the lengthy process of waiting for it to be announced to the lodge, me being interviewed and reviewed and then voted on. This entire thing would continue into the next year. Oh the hopes and the fears. The thoughts of being with people of like mind and the possibilities.
To be continued in 2011 - The Year of Weirdness
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