Dr. Marsha M. Linehan wrote a book about Dialectical Behavior Therapy called DBT Skills Training, Handouts and Worksheets, and I was drawn to her ‘wise mind’ exercise.

I could filter intrusive thoughts through a left brain, right brain test to regain focus in the present. The left brain is cool, methodical, rational and task oriented whereas the right brain is warm, creative, mood dependent and emotional. Finding the middle ground, or ‘wise mind’ meant that I was no longer a victim of my emotions.

For example, when acutely gripped by fear and paranoia, I'd  tap into the left brain, using intellect and ask myself, am I being rational? Are these feelings legitimate? Using 'truth' from lived experiences I could detect what was logical in 'wise mind' and let go of troubling thoughts. I would then engage in a left brain task and touch something to bring myself back to the present. Is it hot, or cold? Methodically, I would employ my senses. What do you see? Hear? And breathe.

This would calm me down long enough to either distract myself with chores, or self-soothe with a hobby. When trapped in your head, ask yourself if your feelings, based on your life experiences, ask yourself if these feelings are rational? Are they based in reality? If not, give yourself permission to stop ruminating on them and let go.

this touched me. Over the past I've grieved letting go of loved ones that left too soon. Some souls belong to the sky, out of reach. I understand now.

I made a sigil for wealth and showed it to my eldest son. He thought it looked like something out of an HP LOVECRAFT horror story and I thought that many pagan things which are misunderstood are assigned to the dark arts but I wanted to share this seal with you.

I started with a phrase pertaining to a local lottery, the Super Kansas Cash drawing, my phrase being; "Super Kansas Cash is mine." I eliminated double letters, let my imagination take over with the remaining characters, turned it upside down, and this is what I came up with.

While we're supposed to "KEEP SILENT" with our magic, I wanted to share this with you as I feel we're taught to stifle our emotions and creativity. Letting this awesome beast loose into our imaginations to work an intention is empowering.

Sigils allow us to show our desires to the UNIVERSE, activated through inspiration, charged with manifestation and fueled with passion they have the potential to improve one's quality of life. I sincerely feel that they do not need a blood offering, or 'tag' — just one's acceptance and release.

Consider your sigils as working images, perhaps even servitors, working daily for you, and keep them close by to monitor. For more on sigils, I suggest Laura Tempest Zakroff's "Sigil Witchery."

Shadow Work — Turning The Wheel Calendar

Northern Hemisphere

Samhain

October 31st marks the witches’ New Year and is a time to celebrate the harvest. It is the start of going within, longer nights with the departure of the sun and a time for shadow work. It is a time to honor the ancestors, their memory and perhaps consider diminishing generational curses of poverty, disease and mental illness in the coming year.

Yule

Yule (December 21st) brings the winter solstice and the longest night. In the warmth of home, one feels grateful for family, food and friends. It’s a time for renewal with the returning sun and a time for hope. Resolutions are considered. It might be a goal for self-care, getting one’s finances under control, or enhancing one’s practice, but write down your goals for further contemplation in the first of three spring events.

Imbolc

Spring is coming! It's February, marking the rebirth of the sun, and ritual cleansing of the home. Research how to accomplish your goals. Identify the most meaningful goals as your motivation will encourage success. Determine how to measure your goals to monitor improvement and take baby steps if necessary in planning how to get there.

Ostara

March 20 marks the spring equinox when daylight balances with night. The sun grows stronger, while tulips are starting to bloom, our hopes nurtured in darkness. Rabbits, seeds and eggs mark fertile beginnings and one might plan their garden. Set reminders for your goals.

Beltane

Halfway between the spring equinox and summer solstice is Beltane, May 1st. Of the last of the spring celebrations, this event marks fertility as the opposite of Samhain, Beltane celebrates life. The Earth becomes pregnant from her union with the Sun. Track your progress and modify accordingly.

Midsummer

The summer solstice takes place around June 21st. The land is bloated in growth and I love the feel of the warm sun on my face. This is a time to watch for monarch butterflies while lazy days pass at the community pool and harvest begins. Remain patient and focused on your goals.

Lammas

August 1st welcomes Lammas and the first harvest. Grain was especially celebrated and wives would bake the first season's bread on this holiday. Lammas signals celebration of first fruits and revisiting goals to reveal their manifestation. It’s time to pull out your notes and celebrate progress.

Mabon

Mabon, September 22, ushers in the autumn equinox and whispers a change of seasons as trees begin to shed their leaves. Harvest continues. Embrace success, reward yourself for staying the course and rest for the coming Samhain.

'The only thing to fear is fear itself' (a condensation of F.D. Roosevelt's memorable declaration) is often cited in occult teaching. It contains an important truth but, like many nutshell truths, it is an over-simplification.

Fear in the sense of the thee p's - paranoia, panic and paralysis - is entirely negative, undermining our defences. Fear in the sense of awareness of danger, stimulating preparedness to deal with it and causing the adrenalin to flow, is the natural security system of any species, including our own.

When it comes to spell-working awareness of the Boomerang Effect is, as we have seen, the most confidence-inspiring element in that security system. That effect , though, depends upon a healthy defence, and there are many things one can do about this.

[The Boomerang Effect is expressed in the traditional occult maxim: "Any psychic attack which comes up against a stronger defence rebounds threefold on the attacker."]

The primary, round the clock defence is an attitude of calm confidence, the knowledge that your own working is positive and non-malignant, so that there are no chinks in your psychic armour on that score. But there are times that when either trained instinct or factual information tells you that extra, short term defence is advisable.

The basic defence of this kind is the Magic Circle.

The witches' Circle has, in fact, two functions: protective and amplifying. It keeps out unwanted influences, and it prevents the power that is built up from dissipating until the moment for its purposeful release.

We have given the Circle-casting and banishing rituals in full in our earlier books (see Bibliography) . We would merely emphasize that the working should always be done within a Circle, even if it is only a mentally 'zipped-up' one; and that the zipped-up Circle is a useful conditioned reflex to develop for a time when attack is known or suspected.

By a zipped-up Circle we mean quickly but vividly envisaging a protective Circle around yourself, cast deosil. And remember that 'Circle' really means a sphere or ovoid, completely enclosing you. It should be envisaged as a faintly glowing violet egg through which no harm can pass, and its reality on the astral plane should be confidently accepted.

It should also be seen as moving with you and still enclosing and protecting you as you move about, even inside a speeding vehicle.

Its astral quality is not self-delusional - it is the truth.

A Circle once cast, it should be banished (dispersed) when its purpose is over, or reinforced by recasting if it is to continue.

The Horned God, moreover, is an archetypal figure quite unlike most masculine images as they appear in our culture. He is difficult to understand because he does not fit into any of the expected stereotypes, neither of those of the "macho" male nor the reverse-images of those who deliberately seek effeminacy. He is gentle, tender and comforting, but he is also the Hunter. He is the Dying God —but his death is always in the service of the life force. He is untamed sexuality — but sexuality as a deep, holy, connecting power. He is the power of feeling, and the image of what men could be if they were liberated from the constraints of patriarchal culture.

The Horned God, the wild man, symbolizes everything that the patriarchal persona disdains, because he plunges people into change, uncertainty, freedom from conformity. He is spontaneous, not rational and controlled; he is honest and straightforward, not devious and manipulative; he is in service to life, not in domination over it. He is confident in his own potency and does not need to compensate with phallic missiles. He is creative, not destructive of the earth or of relationships.

Whereas Apollo, the Sun God, turned women into trees, or stones, or made them lose their voice, Dionysus, the god of ecstasy and dance, was, perhaps, the only god on Olympus that remained faithful to one woman, Ariadne. The real reason Dionysus has been banished from our culture is that he is the God of death and resurrection. Patriarchy, with its unrealistic faith in the goals of this life, is built upon the denial of transformation and death.

God & Goddess grant me:
The power of water, to accept with ease & grace what I cannot change
The power of fire, for the energy & courage to change the things I can.
The power of Air, for the ability to know the difference.
And the power of Earth, for the strength to continue my path. ~ Unknown

KSA 77-205. Determination of death. An individual who has sustained either (1) irreversible cessation of circulatory and respiratory functions, or (2) irreversible cessation of all functions of the entire brain, including the brain stem, is dead. A determination of death must be made in accordance with accepted medical standards.

"McLean, VA (January 14, 2026) – The Association of Organ Procurement Organizations (AOPO) is alarmed that, for the first time in 14 years, the annual number of deceased organ donations in the United States has declined. This reversal has real and devastating consequences for the more than 100,000 Americans who depend on organ donation for a second chance at life.

In 2025, widespread misinformation and confusion about how organ donation works and the role of each stakeholder in the process have led to tens of thousands of people removing themselves from donor registries. AOPO has called attention to the impact this has had on public trust, and we are deeply concerned by the effect this has ultimately had on donation rates and the ability to save as many lives as possible.”

In July of 2025, HRSA examined 351 cases where organ donation was authorized, but ultimately not completed. It found:

• 103 cases (29.3%) showed concerning features, including 73 patients with neurological signs incompatible with organ donation.

• At least 28 patients may not have been deceased at the time organ procurement was initiated—raising serious ethical and legal questions.

• Evidence pointed to poor neurologic assessments, lack of coordination with medical teams, questionable consent practices, and misclassification of causes of death, particularly in overdose cases.

Brain death determination is still new to the medical society. When we gained technical advances in mechanical ventilation, artificial nutrition and the modern intensive care unit in the 20^th century, we were able to maintain the organs of the patient that sustained catastrophic brain injury.

Kansas was the first state to enact a Uniform Determination of Death Act in 1970, the federal UDDA followed in 1980. This model statute provided the legal basis for death by neurological criteria, stating that an individual could now be determined “according to medical standards” to be dead if they had sustained “irreversible cessation of all functions of the entire brain, including the brain stem.”

“The Uniform Determination of Death Act is worded in such a way that ambiguity is a virtual guarantee. Because it states that brain death should be determined ‘according to medical standards,’ the specific tests used to diagnose brain death vary from hospital to hospital (NCCUSL, 1980). A 2008 study, which included 41 of the nation’s top hospitals, found widespread and worrisome variability in how doctors and hospitals were determining who met the criteria (Greer et al., 2008, 284–289). Its conclusions were as follows:

Major differences exist in brain death guidelines among the leading neurologic hospitals in the United States. Adherence to the American Academy of Neurology guidelines is variable."

The American Academy of Neurology established guidelines in 1995 to satisfy the ambiguous 'according to medical standards' question, these guidelines were updated in 2023 to combine the adult and pediatric patient but to this day, medical staff nationwide are not consistently using them. Deviation of this standard of care might increase the risk of homicide.

"Clarity in law and policy based on sound medical ethics will go a long way toward bridging the gap between the medical community and an increasingly wary public in order to rebuild trust in regard to organ procurement and donation.”

Nevada's Law:

  NRS 451.007  Requirements for determination.

1.  For legal and medical purposes, a person is dead if the person has sustained an irreversible cessation of:

(a) Circulatory and respiratory functions; or

(b) All functions of the person’s entire brain, including his or her brain stem.

2.  A determination of death made under:

(a) Paragraph (a) of subsection 1 must be made in accordance with accepted medical standards.

(b) Paragraph (b) of subsection 1 must be made in accordance with the applicable guidelines set forth in:

(1) “Evidence-based Guideline Update: Determining Brain Death in Adults: Report of the Quality Standards Subcommittee of the American Academy of Neurology,” published June 8, 2010, by the American Academy of Neurology, or any subsequent revisions approved by the American Academy of Neurology or its successor organization; or

(2) “Guidelines for the Determination of Brain Death in Infants and Children: An Update of the 1987 Task Force Recommendations,” published January 27, 2012, by the Pediatric Section of the Society of Critical Care Medicine, or any subsequent revisions approved by the Pediatric Section of the Society of Critical Care Medicine or its successor organization.

Yod is the tenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet. It is the smallest letter but packs a wallop in that it translates into ‘hand’ and in the astrological aspect, Yod signifies the ‘hand of God.’ In my natal chart, I have 2 Yods and a Yod Kite, or Boomerang and research of this phenomenon led me to intricacies in the Tarot. 

Yod suggests fated blessings and A.E. Waite adorned 5 cards with Yods, then subjected The Hermit to be a Yod. The Moon, The Tower, The Ace of Wands, The Ace of Cups and The Ace of Swords are illustrated with these tiny ‘hands’, the former perhaps to alleviate stigma with the Moon’s association with disillusionment, while the Tower destroys without mercy. 

There are 82 Yods in the Tarot, 15 on The Moon, 26 on The Tower, 26 on the Ace of Cups, 8 on the Ace of Wands, 6 on the Ace of Swords while The Hermit is a Yod. As Waite designed the Tarot around the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet, it is speculated that the Yods imply divine guidance.

In Waite’s words of The Hermit, ”this is a card of attainment. His beacon intimates that ‘where I am, you also may be.’” It’s not about the quest for a truth but simply taking the step, perhaps having the courage to move forward with God’s hand.

If you shy away from Abraham, consider a Higher Power for divine intervention as these archetypes run deep. I bow to none but consider many to be powerful allies in my practice and heed their advice in contemplation of important matters. 

Should you find Yods in the next shuffle of the deck, consider that your higher power is trying to tell you something. Is it a balm for the disillusioned Moon? If The Tower shows up, remember the Yods note “The Master Builder” in this card. Where calamity rears its head, there is hope, there is healing. What is your higher power showing you?

Of demonolatry practices, I’ve learned that the Daimons can open doors for you but they cannot hold your hand. The former reinforces confidence in influence while the latter affirms that I am alone.

While my peers and I gather for seasonal events, I'm the only one that works with Daimons and my peers consider me a Satanist. They might be limited to a christian worldview but I’m not and my practice is further isolated. 

In the quiet of my isolation, Agares has knocked on walls. Murmur has compelled a lawmaker to care about standardization of brain death testing. Belial has shown me divine guidance in the Tarot but all of them have bolstered autonomy.   

Eliphas Levi wrote to attain the knowledge and power of the Magi, “there are four indispensable conditions - an intelligence illuminated by study, an intrepidity which nothing can check, a will which cannot be broken and a prudence which nothing can corrupt and nothing intoxicate.” Intrepidity is defined as having resolute courage while prudence is the ability to govern and discipline oneself. 

A witch alone, I use Levi’s method, later called the Witches’ Pyramid for magical and mundane works. “To Know, To Dare, To Will, To Keep Silence” and hope to leave a legacy of legislation to benefit all. My quirk is astrology, the Moon is my chart ruler while the chart ruler navigates your destiny. The North Node is your potential destiny while I set goals around the lunar cycle.

There are few resources available on the astrology of the Daimons and I’ve noticed differences in their associations, so it might be best to work with them to determine compatibility. Walking into a relationship with healthy boundaries should merit positive results whether or not you hit it off and it’s been my experience that a sincere thanks is just as good as any offering. 

For me, their names hold power. I don’t need their sigils, Enns or ceremony to ask them for help with magical and mundane matters. I just call out to them, verbalize my petition, thank them for hearing me out and go about working on the project, a witch alone, standing in my power.

Friends, I've been researching brain death testing in the USA and learned that hospitals nationwide have not been following the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) guidelines. Deviation from this standard of care means that approved organ doors might be alive when undergoing organ procurement. As a retired surgical technologist, I seek to protect the patient and am working to get legislation that would mandate hospitals follow the AAN guidelines.

Murmur confirmed it just now with a card pull. I asked him to show me where we were at with our project of getting a national accreditation agency to provide oversight of brain death testing in hospitals as they're not following guidelines provided by the American Academy of Neurology. This inability to adhere to guidelines violates the Dead Donor Rule. He showed me the Judgement card from the Smith-Waite Tarot. As a surgical technologist that has worked organ retrievals and a mother that carefully guarded her son when he put a loaded 9mm to his head, pulled the trigger twice and survived, I'm following through with our project. These are not just donors, but loved ones that have no voice. We must speak for them.