Pagans, Who Knew? Magic In The Most Unusual Places.

So, yesterday was one of those strange days. It was my older brother, Eddie (from the Saga) birthday, so I wished him a magical day. Lisa was working, so the General had left the camp. Bedlam was in the care of the inmates. I took care of some minor chores, after having had a productive Saturday knocking out all of the major ones. There were others to be dealt with, like interior cleaning, that I could have gotten a jump on, but I have never been overly ambitious when it comes to house cleaning. There really has to be a gun to my head. Literally.

But for the first day in a long time, I felt a bit directionless.

I checked my Horoscope, to see how things looked on a mystical level, and when I saw a roving intuitive moon that could be dabbling in the minefield of “sex, drugs, death, taxes, inheritances, and so on” I decided to follow the advice in the closing sentence. “Lean into this energy and see where it takes you; this is a mysterious day but it can be a powerful one.”

So, I leaned in.

I got one of those annoying text messages that, once glanced at, can never be recovered no matter where I look. The strange voices in my head remembered it had mentioned a Pagan Festival in Loveland.

I have been to many mystical places. Lily Dale was a regular haunt for me during the last Century.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_One_Dies_in_Lily_Dale

I recommend this documentary, including for the reason that one of the community members, Rev John White, predicted in 1992 that I would end up in NoCo.

But I had never actually been to a gathering of Pagans, at least not in this lifetime.

I knew Downtown Loveland was relatively manageable, so I figured I would give it a shot, drive up there, park my car, and look for goths all migrating in a single direction.

It worked. I found the location – they had commandeered an entire street. I put out my best Druid vibes and followed the migrating goths into NoCo Mecca.

It was a wonderful time. I did my first round of all the booths and tents to see what was what and then did a second circuit and let my intuition draw me into certain locations.

For some reason, I had been compelled to bring a copy of TWA along, in case I met someone who might respond to it and would enjoy a surprise inscribed copy. Word of mouth is the best marketing.

Now you fine, five readers will know, assuming you have read The Claire Saga, that it is packed full of lesbian characters. What can I say, I have a lot of lesbians in my life. I get their attraction to the female form.

Well, as I passed this Rainbow Outreach booth, I was drawn to the main occupant named Kat who was hustling like a carnival barker. She gave off a great vibe so I stopped to chat. She asked about the book and I explained that, given the number of lesbians in the series I was really hoping to find a surge of support from her tribe. She told me she sponsors a lesbian book club, and she would take down the name of the book and read it. I did her one better. I inscribed the book I had to her and told her that, if she liked it, I would happily appear at any book club they held to discuss it.

Now, Kat didn’t have a pen, so I stopped in the next booth and the lovely woman there graciously fished one from her purse.

Kat gave me a very cool stone.

When I returned – post inscription – to the other woman’s booth to return the pen, I felt it only right to purchase some of her items, which included a cool shirt for Lisa and a couple of cool mugs.

The candle you see in the center comes from another booth of candlemakers, a young local couple, and I intend to burn it on the release date for WTLLM.

I also stopped at another booth and bought a delicious Watermelon drink that the pretty proprietress swore would transform me. It did.

I also stopped at a Celtic flavored booth run by a family, that included a man in a kilt and women in medievalist dress. Scotch-Irish. I purchased a very cool windchime for Jack The Spruce.

Jack was thrilled.

But the highlight of the day was a very cool mystical booth run by a spiritually gifted young woman named Meredith, and her man Nick.

I had scouted a couple of tarot readers in my first round of the circuit. This booth drew me back. So, I stopped for a reading.

I am friends with a number of incredibly powerful, gifted mystics, including Kim Russo and Bobbi Allison, so I know a gift when I see it.

Meredith gave me the most amazing Tarot reading. All she knew from my introduction was that my name was Tom, and I was a lawyer.

I figured I would video it, and if it were really good I would post it.

I asked her if a project I was contemplating would bear fruit.

I’ve posted the video on FB. I will post it on TikTok as well.

I won’t bore you with the details. However, Hollywood, let me introduce you to The Claire Saga.

Anyway, after the reading, I headed home to drop off my goodies, hang the wind chime and then head off to pick up Lisa from work in Longmont.

Then I get a DM from a local who had posted a large old cement Gnome for sale on FB. Resin gnomes never last long, but a cement gnome lasts forever. I am always on the look out for the real deal. I had given up on this one since I never heard back from my inquiry.

This DM said it was still available. So, after I picked up Lisa from work, I drove another few minutes and picked up our newest gnome, presently referred to as Bad-Ass. He is tall and broad shouldered, like my brothers.

B-A has joined his remaining brethren – I have lost a large number of the resin ones to the No-Co harsh environment since my arrival – to watch over Casa Claire and keep our secrets.

He fit right in.

But when I returned to Casa Claire with B-A and Lisa, I found that some kind soul had dropped a bag of carrots in a bag on my front porch.

This were not just any carrots. These were what I call Mandrake carrots.

When you have chopped as many tons of carrots as I have since arriving at Casa Claire, you are used to coming across Mandrake carrots. Regular carrots are like the ones you see in the Peyronie’s Disease commercials – https://www.fiercepharma.com/marketing/endo-uses-carrots-to-illustrate-effects-peyronie-s-disease

You’ll see the poor guy checking out the slightly bent version among the otherwise natural straight carrots while his wife looks on sympathetically.

This bag of carrots were a whole different breed. Show that to your Urologist and they will send you home to die.

Mandrake carrots carry lots of magical mojo, given they are those carrots that could not for whatever reason grow long and straight, but refused to give up and die.

Whenever I come upon such a carrot, I always seek out the mules and feed them to them whole.

Claire heard me in the kitchen and came to the door and was instantly rewarded with a selection of these wonderful carrots.

So whomever stopped and dropped that bag of carrots, we are thrilled and thank you.

So, leaning into the day worked out wonderfully for me.

Thanks providence.

Well, today is Monday, and that’s okay.

We’ll deal with it.

You fine five readers go forth boldly and take on the world.

I will do the same, right after the kitty cuddle and my rounds.

But most of all, let us make today a great one.