Your son displays an astonishing level of self-awareness about his dragon. And I can't help but think that knowing the dragon makes it easier to control it, in the long run... or at least second-guess it. I showed both your post and the HuffPost article to my own son, who was mis-diagnosed as a child (and I was blamed for *everything* he did that was "unacceptable"), and is now a clinical psychologist. He liked the dragon/Great Dane analogy, but he cautions against rejecting *all* of the popular analogies, because many of them *can* be useful in developing empathy for people with those misunderstood conditions.

Exactly! People make mistakes, especially when they're young and can't tell love from lust - as Johnny Cash put it, "We got married in a fever, hotter than a pepper sprout; we've been talking 'bout Jackson, ever since the fire went out..." Or people get married to get out of a dysfunctional parental home. Or because they think they're supposed to. Or any one of a thousand other reasons. Being able to get a divorce without too many legal complications gives them a chance to get it right the next time.

You are absolutely right about Mother Nature always having the last word. When it became clear that Superstorm Sandy was going to clobber a large chunk of the East Coast in ways that couldn't be predicted in detail (and were largely unprecedented), the only thing left to do was to order everybody in the affected areas to evacuate. We did, and at least we were not physically harmed when the storm surge rose up into the first floor of our house and submerged everything that was there. But as the storm approached, there was no other measure that could be taken for public safety. Like hiding in tornado shelters, at least it was better than nothing.

Whatever helps, I'm glad you found it! *hugs*

Life *IS* awesome! Being alive is awesome! Having wonderful friends is awesome! Modern technology is awesome! "Boom-De-Ya-Da" is awesome! ;-D That's why the "title" of my LiveJournal is "Whatever tomorrow brings, I'll be there, with open arms, and open eyes..." (the chorus of the song"Drive", by Incubus). I take "open arms" to mean that I'll greet it joyfully, and "open eyes" to mean that I'll pay attention to *everything* about it. I always want to see what happens next!

That's true for my husband and me, too. It's not any particular "thing", because, like you and Tom, we have very different interests. It's our *attitude* toward life. We are committed to making a better situation for ourselves, by our own efforts and fueled by not much more than sheer determination (although this is temporarily taking second place to my recovery).

"Home is where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in..." (Robert Frost)

The explanation I've always heard for why the knife is the tool of the will is that the primary act of the will (and/or the mind) is, "Draw a distinction!", and the knife divides and separates things. Basically, though, it's a case of "this is the way X taught it to me". I could make an equal case for the wand, since it came from a living tree, is the instrument of the life-force. *shrug*

Well, first of all, that list of magical tools is about as relevant as a book by Silver RavenWolf, which is to say, not very :-( Each different tradition of magic will use a somewhat different assortment of tools, although there's a lot of overlap. The athame probably comes out of "Ceremonial Magick"; it is considered the magic-user's primary tool. Each individual imbues his or her athame with a great deal of their personal power. Its function is to *direct the will*, as in delineating the Circle, or aiming power at an object. That's why it has to be made of metal, preferably iron or steel (in some traditions, it's supposed to be slightly magnetized), and be at least theoretically capable of being sharpened. The wand is a far less personal tool, although of course any object can be personalized as much as the user desires. Its function is more to invoke, or call upon, external forces. Unlike the athame, which is made of substances that were produced and worked by human effort, a wand is usually made of "natural" substances such as wood, crystals, feathers, etc. (A sword is basically just a bigger athame, and a staff is just a bigger wand.) The cup was *not* borrowed from Christianity; the ritual sharing of drink (and food) is considerably older. In the Norse tradition, the participants in a ritual pass around a drinking-horn filled with mead or ale. HOWEVER...*none* of these tools are necessary for magic, or even for ritual. My son demonstrated this to a group of wannabes at a LARP once. It was Midsummer, and these people had somehow gotten the impression that he was a powerful "wizard" whose training went back generations. They wanted him to lead them in an impromptu Midsummer celebration. "But all our ritual gear is in our cabins! How can we do a ritual with no equipment?" My son proceeded to use a single small birthday-cake candle (already partially burned), a crumpled paper cup that had held McDonald's lemonade, and a twig picked up off the ground... and showed them that all the magic power they needed was within themselves. (I'm so proud of my boy!)

My favorite time of year is winter - especially a clear, piercingly cold winter night, with brilliant stars shining down on a snow-covered landscape. But in general, the colder the weather, the more energized I feel. Spring and fall, the times when the battle between Cold and Hot can go either way - the times of changes - both tend to induce that gypsy restlessness in me. I get the urge to just jump in the car and drive, destination unknown, direction unimportant, and not stop until I need to buy gas. There's a feeling in the air as if anything might happen, and it's just about to, any moment now... It's only just barely getting fall-like here on the East Coast; I've been able to shut off one or another of the air conditioners occasionally. I'm going to a pagan festival in less than two weeks, in upstate New York - I do hope the weather is "seasonable" by then!'

In most forms of Wicca, the basic casting of a Circle involves adding a bit of salt to water (Earth and Water), and lighting some incense (Air and Fire); these two pairs are then used to consecrate just about anything. But Fire and Water do make Steam, and Fire and Air make Smoke; Air and Water make Fog; Water and Earth make Mud; Fire and Earth make Ash; and Air and Earth make Dust. Humorous alternatives are many ;-) Then there are the combinations of *three* Elements: Earth + Air + Fire = Soot Fire + Earth + Water = Pottery Water +Earth + Air = Adobe Air + Water + Fire = Lightning (You get the idea...)

My husband had a special bond with our cat Loki, and someone once joked that Loki must be his familiar. I replied that it was the other way around - Loki considered my husband *his* familiar. I was only partly joking.

I was once fooling around while showing some friends my new ritual knife, and I held it above my head and intoned, "For the honor of Greyskull!" - and damned if I didn't get a little bit of a charge out of it :-)

A person pretty much can't go wrong with Scott Cunningham's books. They are always very informative and clear, while not dispensing dubious information that could get a person into magical trouble. On the other hand, avoid anything and everything by D. J. Conway!

Basically, what we call "goddesses" and "gods" are concentrated points of the energy of the Universe. Here's a useful analogy: An icon on your computer screen isn't the program itself, but when you click on it, you activate the program. When you invoke or pray to a deity, you activate the particular form of energy it represents. There's no reason that an ancestor (biological or metaphorical), or a personal hero (real or fictional), can't also function in the same way. All that matters is that the person doing the invoking has a strong emotional response to the entity being called upon. And, of course, there are huge accumulations of emotion attached to Isis, Thor, Aphrodite, Buddha, Kali, and Jesus... or Leonardo da Vinci, Elizabeth I, Abraham Lincoln, Florence Nightingale, Thomas Edison, and Amelia Earhart... or even Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley.