kimberlysteele | Open Post

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Ash, 1 year old -- we got him in October 2021 from the local Humane Society

Shadow, also approximately 1 year old, is a former feral from my backyard. I picked him up in late July of 2021 when he was a few months old.

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From:

miow

Hi Kimberly Blessings to you and thank you for this and your Ogham readings. I was just too late to get this question into JMG's Magic Monday, so I was so glad to see your open post pop into my notifications. Long story short. I emigrated from a violent third world country many years ago. My family (mother, sister and her husband and kids) chose to stay/not even consider trying to leave. They have been guilt tripping me for leaving pretty much all the time. I go visit them once a year if I can because they can't afford to travel out of said country. I was utterly relieved not to be able to because of the so-called pandemic last 2 years. Every time I go back things are worse. And I mean really worse as in electricity more off than on. Gunshots heard in daytime not even just at night anymore. So many examples I could name. My family complain bitterly but here's the thing. They keep on staying exactly where they are. Even if they don't want to or at this stage it's too late for them to emigrate as they are too old, cannot leave the country, there are still safer and more pleasant places in the same country they could move to. But every time I raise the issue or suggest they move I get an angry response to the tune of it's easy for me to say. Then follows a list of reasons of why they are "stuck". As if it was easy for me to move, or due to pure luck! It wasn't! It was hard work and me making my own luck. But even if I lucked out, literally everyone else did too. All my friends from high school left the town, so did my sister's. They couldn't all have "lucked out", could they? Anyway, after yet another conversation with my sister where she explained to me why they *couldn't * leave, I did my SOP, meditated and then asked my Tarot: "Is my family safe?" I called on my guardian angel and determined to draw one card only. I shuffled the cards for around 10 minutes...and drew The Devil. You can imagine how I felt and feel. I then asked: "What should I do?" and got the Hermit reversed.
The message I got was loud and clear. Yes they are in dire peril. But no, there is nothing I can do or say.
My question to you, or anyone else who cares to answer, is should I say something?
I must add, my family are Christians. Not the rabid American kind, the softer African kind, but still. My mother was extremely upset when I did a few very accurate tarot draws for them (as in, took it for a bit of fun until the cards showed themselves as way too truthful and accurate). I love my family dearly. They are good people. What to do...?
I make use of your kind weekly Ogham readings, and this was what came up for May: "For the Outcome, you drew Coll or Wisdom ill-dignified. Be extremely wary of what you say and what you agree to this month. Take a hint from Louis XIV -- the fewer words, the better. Also, take your sweet time. You don't owe anyone an answer. Don't be afraid to pass the buck either -- if you don't know something, accept that, fess up, and try to point to another source that may have the answers"

Sorry for the long rambling post. Any and all advice or just thoughts would be much appreciated.

From:

ecosophian

Very cute cats, I love them!

I have a very similar black cat, Bats, almost a year old! He looked like a bat when he was little. Picked him up from a shelter last year, he was very shy at first, but he getting bolder now.

From: (Anonymous)

Here is a very good interview with Nurse Erin, who worked in NY hospital during the beginning of the cov thing.

https://rumble.com/v10qcm9-nurse-erin-411-.html

From:

k_a_nitz

Sometimes the only option is to wait until the person who needs help/advice asks for it AND is willing to act on it.

Sometimes people are very anchored to place - this can be good and bad. Yes, they may be in danger, but the act of moving may be more dangerous/scary for them (even if to a place thought to be safer). Best to give them your blessings and be ready to help if the time comes.

From: (Anonymous)

I hate to say it but I think the Supreme Court just won the Democrats 22 and 24 both. By kicking abortion back to the states they are giving every swing state full of previously Democrat voting women who just wanted SJWs to go away a clear signal that they *cannot* vote for a Republican ever until there is federal protection for abortion.

The Republicans seem to have this problem where they think you can solve a cultural problem with laws, completely ignoring all of history which shows that the only thing that happens when you legislate morality when your morality is the minority opinion is you get wiped out by a tidal backlash

From: (Anonymous)

Your cats look so adorable; are they cuddlers, or more like standoffish celebrities? :-)

Shadow reminds me of my cat who died in Dec 2016; I need to remind myself to submit an Ogham question about how my cat is doing in the afterlife.

-Eugene

From:

kimberlysteele

I agree with K.A. Nitz. There's not much you can do in this situation. Even if you had the resources to drug them to sleep and air lift them out, they would hate you for it. As much as it sucks, they've chosen this. I can understand why they've done it: I too feel bound by the spirit of place, and that's why I have never moved very far away from the place I was born. The suburbs of Chicago aren't anything compared to what your parents are dealing with, of course, but overall there are far better states to live in than Illinois. In mid-May, yet another one of my students is moving to another state. She's an unvaxxed teenager from an anti-vax family. Every one of her friends has had the vax. Fast-forward a few years: I don't think the vaxxed are going to have normal, healthy children if they can have children at all. MRNA spike proteins sit in the fatty tissues (ovaries) and who the hell knows how long it takes for them to express all of the damage they've got inside them? So yeah, I can see why they moved. I would move too if my children were young adults facing a dating pool of mostly-vaccinated people. Since my children are all felines, I'm staying put. I don't know how bad I'll let it get. Pretty bad, I think. I wonder if John Michael Greer will move away from Rhode Island if these laws pass:

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/04/20/metro/ri-bill-would-impose-fines-double-taxes-those-who-refuse-covid-19-vaccine/

From:

kimberlysteele

He's a darling! He does remind me of my Shadow guy... tons of energy!

From:

kimberlysteele

I dunno. I don't like Republicans at all, but there was no threat of food shortages under the previous admin. Additionally, I'm not so sure anyone will take them seriously when they cry "my body, my choice" considering the stance they've taken for 2.5 years on vaccines...

From:

kimberlysteele

Thank you.

From:

kimberlysteele

Thanks for asking! They're clingers. Ash's full name is Ashley Amore Reed Cockeburr Steele. Every morning, he jumps into my arms multiple times and clings like a burr. Shadow is more of a night-clinger. Sometimes he clings to me while I work out on my exercise bike.

Please feel free to submit that question next time.

From:

miow

Very sage counsel and I am following it. My thanks and blessings to you.

From:

miow

Thanks Kimberly. Yep, I decided to keep my trap shut. And I hear you about sense of place. After a lifetime of moving about for work and one Big move, I have finally found my place where I feel the land and its spirits talking to me. Here I stay, come what may. It was so useful to think about my family's situation that way. I am also mum to felines, always have had at least one cat, some felt like children, most felt like friends who think and live differently. Someone asked JMG about that proposal and he said he expected it to be a non starter. If not, I would expect him and Sara to move. Easy if you've done it before I guess...

From: (Anonymous)

Kimberly,

My memory gets fuzzy...but did you post something, maybe over at JMG's site, about using a vitamin supplement on your teeth? The reason I'm asking is I have receding gums and bone loss and am looking for things to strengthen my teeth. I'm not looking for health advice, just anecdotes on how people take care of their teeth. My apologies if you weren't the one to post about the vitamin supplements. But if you or other people on this forum have any anecdotes for strengthening teeth and gums, I'd be happy to hear them!

Psychedelic jocular puca

From: (Anonymous)

Someone asked him on his open Covid post and he said he would in fact leave if the bill passed, but he doesn't expect it to.

From: (Anonymous)

I have no doubt that that is the intended play, but I think it won't work, for at least three reasons:

a) The SJWs are making the same mistake you accuse the Republicans of making. There are a ton of people who are desperate enough for the SJWs to go away that they will vote Republican almost no matter what at this point.

b) Even ignoring the SJW issue, there are a lot of people who want to severely punish the Democrats for the vaccine insanity; and a good many are prepared to vote for anyone who may prevent it, unless they plan to start World War III or something like that, and even then would need to give it some thought.

c) I'm willing to bet that the last couple years have dramatically shifted the abortion debate; and that bringing it back into the public eye so soon after the vaccine madness will only serve to cement the shift, because the only serious arguments that can be made for abortion in American culture rely on bodily autonomy. Whether they realize it yet or not, most of the big names in the pro-choice movement have shredded their credibility to make those arguments by supporting vaccine mandates; and once people start dismissing everything they say as rank hypocrisy and stops listening, the pro-life movement, who also has some good arguments, wins by default.

From: (Anonymous)

First, I would like to present an article by Glenn Greenwald about the supposed pending overturning of Roe v. Wade: https://greenwald.substack.com/p/the-irrational-misguided-discourse?s=r

Greenwald’s reasoning about Roe is quite correct. I think the Ninth Amendment that grants rights not specifically enumerated elsewhere in the Bill of Rights is a good one, but using that as a basis for Roe always seemed kind of sketchy. The Ninth Amendment is useful for anti-discrimination laws (this is why the “state’s rights” trope is frequently associated with racist segregationists) and protecting negative rights (“bodily autonomy means the government can’t coerce you into getting a medical treatment you don’t want”), but I’m not so sure about using as a basis for granting new positive rights (“bodily autonomy means you have a right to terminate an unwanted pregnancy resulting from consensual sexual intercourse”).

Personally, I’m pro-choice for the first trimester of pregnancy as far as making laws is concerned, even though I think abortion in all but the most extreme cases including rape is a very serious spiritual error. Yet, I am not able to equate aborting a 12-week-old fetus with smothering a newborn baby in its crib the way conservatives do. From a legal perspective, such an equation seems an invitation to opening a Pandora’s Box of all kinds of crazy patriarchal legislation concerning fetuses in the womb. And besides, it just seems counterintuitive to any scientifically valid way of looking at the matter.

One thing is for sure, though, the militant pro-choicers are going to be very surprised and dismayed at how thoroughly they cratered their credibility where bodily autonomy is concerned by getting behind the attempt to force experimental gene-therapy on everybody!

From: (Anonymous)

Much sympathy for your distress for your family. I note that many ecosopians have similar concerns for our loved ones over a range of subjects just now.
If I may, I'd offer my read of your tarot results as I understand them. I read from the raider/waite deck.
The Devil is an interesting card with alot of negative connotation, especially for Christians. It suggests bondage to the material with an important nuance, being willingly bound. Please note that the shackles are loose, so loose in fact that they can be removed at any time.
The Hermit, for me, is a very positive card that implies a period of introspection and development, alone time with ones inner light. A most powerful card.
Both cards are major arcana indicating your situation, and theirs, are connected to fate or destiny.
I would read these as your family are willfully bound to their home and now is a time for you to embrace solitary self reflection/development.
As JMG and others have noted, we often embellish the magnitude of a tarot reading. Who knows, maybe the product of this stage of solitary development will produce an environment your family will embrace when the time is right. As they say, build it and they will come.
Gawain

From:

ecosophian

Something else I wanted to share, is some notes I took on planetary music. How music can help one attune to planetary energy.

I know you've put a number of Orphic Hymns to music (and they are very well done), but that's different, I'm talking about music that itself carries planetary energies in it.

Maybe you'll find this list amusing, comments are welcome:
https://ecosophian.dreamwidth.org/3824.html

From: (Anonymous)

It cuts both ways though. The average person isn't looking forward far enough to realize how bad things are going to be. Meanwhile, as things get worse the Democrat campaign ads could easily look like "While prices rise, jobs fall, and foreign enemies threaten world peace, Republicans are too busy focusing on telling women what they can and can't do with their bodies to solve any real problems. But together we can 'build back better'"

I think it can be effective. A lot of women will feel personally attacked by this, which tends to get more under the skin than just generalized incompetence.

From: (Anonymous)

I'm not so sure about these points. I'm definitely accounting for group A. I think the problem is that if they want SJWs to go away then they want them gone from both parties and they aren't going to stay with the Republicans if they turn back into the 80s right wing SJWs they always used to be.

For, this B could easily be countered by people who were angry that vax mandates failed and desperately want to pack the courts to have another shot at forcing shots. After all, since we're now in an era of overturning decisions you don't like because of political leanings then everything should be considered fair game for an activist court.

I think C is what remains to be seen. I don't think any credibility has been shred from the perspective of the rank and file. People follow and believe, and don't think critically. They know they have a conflicting and divided opinion and they find ways to rationalize it. "Abortion is a personal choice that effects only you but you not getting vaccinated literally kills me" Just like how the right is pro-birth, rather than pro-life.

From:

kimberlysteele

Hi PJP,

Yes, I have commented about it at JMG's sites and my own. Basically the goal is to reduce the acidity of your mouth, especially overnight. I do this a couple of ways. I make my own toothpaste out of arrowroot powder mixed with baking soda. I then saturate the mixture with olive oil until it becomes a paste. Usually I flavor mine with mint essential oil and stevia powder as well but those two things are extras and don't need to be in there.

After brushing/flossing, I take one of those calcium supplements that is in a gel-cap. Not the hard pill one, the soft one. If you cut the end off the gel-cap, you can squeeze out the white calcium goo. I take that goo and pack it into my gums, especially areas that have cavities, fissures, etc. For instance, behind my front teeth which used to be cavity central before the treatment. I use about one pill per night, but if I had a larger mouth, I would use two.

Thirdly, an alkaline diet helps teeth. Eating huge amounts of fruits and vegetables will strengthen your teeth. Don't seek to stop eating junky, stodgy food, instead seek to eat so many fruits and vegetables, you don't have room for other food. Eventually the interest in the junky food goes away. "Dinner" size salads have become a quaint thing of the past for me: I eat a salad or a giant pile of fruit in my mixing bowl and that is my meal. Stodgy meals should always be in the beginning of the day if they are going to be there, with fruit or salad meals at the end of the day so the digestive system can rest. It's also not a bad idea to taper off the amount of food you eat over the day: breakfast/brunch like a king, lunch like a knight, supper like a pauper.

Allopaths are either ignorant or lying when they say teeth cannot be re-mineralized. Teeth are bones just like anything else, and bones can be built up and healed.

From: (Anonymous)

And you don't think a lot of people will feel personally attacked by the vaccine mandates as well?

From: (Anonymous)

a) This is always a risk, but right now it's the Democrats who are causing grief for people, and all the Republicans have to do is not go insane. So far, while they have problems, they seem small compared to the Democrats.

b) Most of the people angry the vax mandates fail would vote Democrat anyway, while there are many who have been turned off of the party by it, and if enough change voting patterns based on it, this could easily be a game changer.

c) Most people are not part of the rank and file of either side. Most people are somewhere in the middle, and a lot of people don't give it a whole lot of thought most of the time. Those are the people who I expect to see change positions. The die-hard pro-choice people won't budge, but most people are not in that group.

From: (Anonymous)

I don't think I said anything of the sort. I know I felt personally attacked when my state governor literally called me a "domestic terrorist with a bomb in his backpack."

There's also a matter of recency and complacence. The Roe verdict will be far more recent, and a far more visceral affront. Meanwhile the OSHA ruling was, politically, ages ago and "settled" so far less likely front of mind.

Of course, it was "settled" in a very unsatisfactory way, in which Republican states can be left to allow employers to discriminate if they wish, and discriminate they do. But because this case was "settled" the pro freedom side may feel complacent about it. Meanwhile the democrats could easily use it as bait on the hook. They'll dogwhistle to their supporters to "Give us power. We'll pack the court, and we'll change America" while trying to pretend they'll do no such thing. Kind of like how ACB talked a big game about Stare Decisis and Roe being "settled" during her hearings.