APPALACHIAN PAGAN ALLIANCE
July 2004 Newsletter

Editress: Ginger Strivelli

July was a busy month for us APAers as usual. We tried to 
hold our annual Vacation Witchcraft School, but had to 
cancel the event again this year, alas. Summer is just 
such a busy time for everyone…matching conflicting 
schedules proves harder and harder.
---------------------------------------------

Ginger attend the Kerry-Edwards Political Rally in 
Raleigh on July 10th and reported on it in the APA's 
Yahoogroup, that report is below:

"Well I didn't get a 'real' frisk but it --was--- nice ladies...
y'all should have went...that was the highlight for the day 
until the big speeches for sure...cause after getting 
through security I then spent 6 straight hours standing 
in one spot (up against a security fence where the VIPs 
and press were walking through to the stage which was 
about 40 feet away....Erskine Bowls stopped and talked 
to me I was also interviewed and photographed by 
umpteen reporters.) with 25,000 people behind me....
in 96 degree heat in full sun....I was ok the first 
3 or 4 hours the last couple got bad...in the middle 
of Elizabeth Edwards speech I started seeing sounds 
and hearing colors (others had been dropping in faints 
all around me like an old Duran duran concert for hours) 
and I forced my way back 10 or 15 feet to where a drink 
stand was and enough room on he ground to sit down for 
a few minutes... 
25,000 people in 2 acres of park! It was wild...when 
they started chanting behind us up in front it was 
literally frightening...like the whole world was about 
to stampede down upon ya. There pinned against a fence 
with that 3 feet of 'air' right in front of ya but ya 
couldn't get to it! 
It was nice and a thrill to get to actually see and hear 
Kerry and Edwards speak.....but it would have been nicer 
without the 6+ hours standing in 96 degree sunshine in a 
fixed one square foot area pinned against a fence...
I can tell ya... 
I was literally doing my childbirth-breathing techniques to 
try to fend off the heat stoke for the last hour or so...
and 'finding my happy place' which in this case was a 
DESERTED iceberg floating off Antarctica! 
I feel like I was beat...still today.... sore head to 
toe...and still feeling hot...I don't think I'll feel 
cool again for weeks! Must have started cooking me 
from the inside out like a microwave! 
Did I mention there were 25 THOUSAND people there! 
Did I mention it was 96 degrees (if one was not sharing 
body heat with the 7 or 8 people pressed against them 
in the crowd....and not under the sun with no shade for 
hours on end...) 
And Beth had this plan of coming to the rally and 
'finding me' there...*rolling eyes*...tho at least she 
could have got searched by the secret service (many of 
them were wearing pale sage green silk suits instead of 
their regular black wool it was so hot!!!).. 
Anyway...it was great but YE GODS a trial..... 
We CAN make NC a Blue state on that news map this 
year tho....for once our votes are going to not count 
because the state is an automatic victory for the GOP
.....SO GET OUT AND VOTE Y'all! 
Blessings, 
Ginger 

FROM OUR BOOK OF SHADOWS:

Traditional Tsalagi (cherokee) Thankful Song-

O-da-li A-da-we-hi 
(Greetings Wise Protectors) 
O-da-li A-ni yu'n Wi-wa 
(Greetings Original People) 
O-su-da-su-na-ni 
(Let me see things clearly) 
A-we-he-he-ya, A-we-eh-eh-yi-o 
Ga-lu-lo-hi-gi-ni-du-da
Sky, our Grandfather. 
Nu-da-wa-gi-ni-li-si
Sun, our Grandmother. 
E-lo-hi-li-gi-ni-tse-di-nah 
Earth, our sweet mother. 
Ga-li-e-li-ga: I am Thankful. 
Si-gi-ni-ge-yu: We love each other.
O-sa-li-e-li-ga: We are grateful



SACRED SITES SECTION:

William Wordsworth
"Pile of Stone-henge! so proud to hint yet keep
Thy secrets, thou that lov'st to stand and hear
The Plain resounding to the whirlwind's sweep,
Inmate of lonesome Nature's endless year;
Even if thou saw'st the giant wicker rear
For sacrifice its throngs of living men,
Before thy face did ever wretch appear, Who in his 
heart had groaned with deadlier pain
Than he who, tempest-driven, thy shelter now would gain." 
Section XIV, "Guilt and Sorrow; or Incidents upon Salisbury Plain"

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