Pagan Cluster Update #1
by Andy

Angels and hand-grenades

There are just a few of us in town right now, but more are coming in on the weekend. Our first decision here was to have a Pagan Cluster orientation party, instead of a meeting on Friday night. The party is at 7:30 and it is BYOM (bring your own magic).

We spent much of last night walking the city and doing magic to tune into its energy. Security is light, but signs for the BIO confrence are everywhere. Banners saying "Philadelphia Welcomes the BIO Confrence with our every MOLECULE."

The convention center is dominated by a huge metal sculpture of a DNA double helix, and another of a human chromosome. Everyone we asked just said it was some weird art, and no one had any idea what they were trying to show, so that money was a little wasted.

The worst though were the corporate ads. 50' by 40' banners from the drug companies dominate the transit center, and even the floor became an advertising space as SmithKlien welcomes you and hopes you will buy their drugs. Like last year, the images all focus on smiling people and miracle cures. No talk about control of the food system.

There was a chilling poster of a cop with a billy-club in front of a picture of a double helix. He was the "Intellectual Property Policeman".

To finish, we walked to the Clark Park, where the Reclaim the Commons festival will be on Saturday, to drop into the energy of the city.

We welcomed and honored the elements, including Spirit, in the form of the Spirit of the City. We did a dropped and open trance, stretching out our awareness. The first image we got was of a hole, a darkness. And there were things happening in the darkness, things that needed light shined on them.

The BIO Tech industry keeps its less palatable work out of the light of public knowledge. It seems like our work here is to change that.

We looked at the energy & intentions of the police. It seems they consider us a minor threat, easily dealt with.

The darkness we saw, was also a psychic one. The city and the people are asleep. Life goes on here without people ever awakening to the real truths. We saw a web of energy behind the dark, bright and glowing, if we could only take hold and peel the dark away.

Our trance ended, but then the City decided it needed to speak. A tall, thin black man approached us where we sat. He was drunk and had a beer in one hand. He sat down and asked us what we were doing. We told him we were trying to figure out how wake up the City.

"Hand Grenades", he said. He said he had some grenades. "We could throw them and that would wake everyone up. We could just watch every scramble around." We looked at him. We needed another way, one that would shine a light on what is really going on.

"Is that an angel?", he asked, possibly looking at Jennifer. It was an angel he was seeing. Angels were here. He said he didn't really have hand grenades, but the angel would would help. A strange look came over his face. "You have to clean all the garbage out of the way, then we can come through..."

He went quiet after that, and we opened our circle. We thanked the elements, thanked him and went home.

We need light here, angelic or otherwise, to shine into the dark places. For our part of the Solstice magic, we are going to focus on bringing the light of the longest day into our work....