Merry meet dear friends,

as you may know I belong to several Wiccan groups at the MSN community and we are sharing this message with all we can... Please, if you are interested, help:)

Here's the Orginal Message from My Friend Lady Winter Wolf: 

"Merry Meet sweet sisters:

My online friend Vila Spiderhawk is an author and was advised, earlier this week, by her publishers, Spilled Candy Books, that as of September 30, 2007 her book Hidden Passages: Tales to Honor the Crones, will no longer be in print and no longer available through them. She is devastated and has reached out to her friends to spread the word about her book. I have advised her that I am posting something to my online groups to try to assist her, if just a little bit...

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Writing for the Love of the Crones

Vila SpiderHawk lives in the hills of Pennsylvania with her husband, her six cats, and her many woodland friends.

She is a gourmet vegan cook and a retired teacher who has taught at every level from preschool to the university level.

She has been a practicing witch for about five years.

You can get to know Vila better by visiting her personal homepage: http://www.vilaspiderhawk.com

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I have not had a chance to read the book myself but it seems that almost anyone who has, has great praise for it. I am going to approach our library branch sometime next week and see if they would be interested enough to order one for the branch. That way I too will be able to read it. I would love to be able to purchase a copy myself but being on the tight budget we are, such luxuries are not on our list of things to do...  

ISBN-10:189271857X - 296 pages

Available, until September 30th from Spilled Candy Books :

An anthology (containing 8 stories) about girls and women of different cultures and epochs, each of whom seeks and finds wisdom with the help of one or more Crones.

These reviews that can found on the book jacket:

Vila's love of the Goddess shines through in every word she writes. These stories have deepened my veneration of womankind as being holy. They have deepened my cherishing of the cycles of life. Anyone who reads her work will find themselves living life with more love for life itself. The book is a gift... a precious and priceless one.

-Esmerelda Little Flame, author of "The Temple of the Twelve"

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Goddess fiction is still all too rare in our blooming literature, and Vila is breaking some precious ground with her wonderful stories. Readers will find aspects of themselves here, as Maidens, Mothers, or Crones, as well as inspiring messages of passion, wisdom and magic. A great read, too!

-Shekhinah Mountainwater, musician, priestess, foremother of the womanspirit movement and author of "Ariadne's Thread, A Workbook of Goddess Magic"

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Vila's prose captures my heart with the way she picks up tiny facets of life as a woman, holds them up to the light, and lets them sparkle! If there was ever any doubt about how special it is to be a woman, Vila SpiderHawk has penned an anthology that will speak to the soul of any woman, at any stage of her life.

-Lauren Hartford, author of "The Priestess Diaries - Celebrating the Tower Card"

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Her book can also be obtained through Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/Hidden-Passages-Tales-Honor-Crones/dp/189271857X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/105-9657636-4815618?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1188532145&sr=8-1

Read more reader reviews at Amazon.com - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/customer-reviews/189271857X/sr=8-1/qid=1188532145/ref=cm_cr_dp_all_helpful/105-9657636-4815618?ie=UTF8&n=283155&qid=1188532145&sr=8-1#customerReviews

She asks, if possible, that anyone wanting to purchase her book, purchase it through Spilled Candy Book because any stock that is left in their office, as of October 1st, will have to purchased by her, out of her own pocket.

On behalf of Vila, I thank you for passing the word along to your friends and family and/or for purchasing a copy of Hidden Passages for yourself or as a gift for a loved one...

Love and Light! Goddess bless!

Lady Winter Wolf"

Thank you and Blessed All Be!!!

Well my friends, after a week of rest I've decided that it was time for me to post something...

I've been working on my herbal study and I've also started gathering information on stones, crystal, gems and metals so I can start on them too... Fascinating subject...:)... I'm not doing well at my Dianic study (I've not been reading as much as I should have been) but I'm going to apply myself from now on...

In another news... I finally got my project for the Masters Degree!!! I've just started reading it (ok, 20 pages) and it seems fascinating... I'm going to work with rheumatoid arthritis in humans and in animal model but I do not know foir certain what I'm going to do...

As you may have noticed I've not been here much and I'm sorry but I'll try to be more present here...:)..

Thank you to all my friends*

*In Perfect Love and Perfect Trust*

Misha

Well... we're off to day 13...

 Day 13 - We started at St. Malo, a funny town who was completely destroyed by the WWII bombardments... It was all reconstructed but the buildings are all alike...lol... so we took a picture of the sea pool  (you can't see very well but it's there next to my shoulder)... We the headed to Point du Grouin, Cancale and then to the Mont St. Michel...  a lovely town with lots of people and lots of stairs...!... it is really lovely... we then went back to Dol de Bretagne and to the Menhir of Champ Dolent ... This is the Biggest Menhir in all Brittanny... It's 9,5 m high! (well.. just compare my size with it...LOL!!!!... We then returned to Rennes to sleep...

Day 14 - We started with Vitre... (another 2-star-village) with a castle and a wall... and lots of typical houses... we headed to Fougeres that has a lovely garden  and a HUGE castle and medievel houses (some of them destroyed by WWII too) and is placed on a well spoted defense place... from there you can see all around... it's a lovely town too (2 stars!)... We the headed to Paris where we spent the next 4 days...

Day 14 - PARIS - We dedicated this day to the Louvre... I saw the Egyptian part, the Etruscan, the Assyrian, Persian, and of Course... some of the most famous paintings in the world... The virgin on the Rocks... La Gioconda... The Wedding at Cana and some more... and of course the greek statues... ... it was a well spent day:)

Day 15 - We started at La Concorde where the Luxor obelisk is, we went down the Garden of Tuileries and we visited Notre Dame... We ate at a little restaurant at Ile de St. Louis and then we took the Bateaux Mouche around the Seine... it was lovely... we then went to La Defense and back to the Quartier Latin where we dinned at a greek restaurant...

Day 16 - We Started at the Natural history Museum and saw some of the Biggest Crystals I had ever seen in my life!!!... We also saw Le Jardin des Plantes and then the Lutece Arena... We then went by foot to the Sorbonne and ended at the Quartier Latin to dinner at an Egyptian restaurant...:)

Day 17 - The Eiffel Tower... We spent 2 hours waiting to go to the top but the 3rd floor closed in the mean time... so we only got to the second (around 130m high)... Lovely view but not worth the 7.80€ we payed... I really think the Eiffel Tower is best seen from the outside like at the Gardens of Chaillot where we took this picture ... We went next to Monmartre to see the Sacre Coeur and the lovely view of the city... we then went to the MOULIN ROUGE by foot (no, we did not enter...:P...) and then we headed back to the hotel...

Day 18 - We were supposed to go to Versailles... but it had rained the most part of last day and my mother thought it would be best for us to return... and so we did... that night we slept in Bordeaux and the next day we arrived here in Portugal...

I loved this vacations... Unforgettable...

*Misha*

Well... Here I am, again... writing about my fantastic journey through France:)...

Day 7 - We started the day at Quimper, a beautiful City with a lovely typical neigborhood... We then went to Point Croix (wich we loved:)..) Audierre and Point du Raz... ... We went to Poulen sur mer, Douarnenez and we made the Douarnenez peninsula (we didn't like it very much... too smelly!!!!) we finnished the visit with LOCRONAN... The wonderful town of LOCRONAN!!!!!... It's a little characteristic village of Britanny and it's where I got a lot of presents for myself including my four equal arms cross... That nigh we slept in Quimper again...

Day 8 - We went to the Celtic worshiping place at the Menez Hom... Needless to say it was a wonderful experience to me (unfortunately I have no pictures there....). It's a hill with no more than 333 m high... with a lovely view... the sun was still low when we got there and I could feel the Earth pulsing with life beneath my feet... It was a magical experience... We then went to see Crozon, Camaret sur mer, Pointe du Pen Hir, Le Faou  and then Brest (we saw Brest that day, and slept there)

Day 9 - We went to Daoulas, Sizun (we really liked Sizun), St. Rivoal, Brasparts, Loqueffret, Brennilis and Huelgoat. Yhis was an incredible lovely walk (driving)... We went to Roc'h Trevezel (the highest hill in Brittanny - 384m) and to Commana:)... The lovely town of Commana where we met a Portuguese immigrant and a bar called "the mists bar"... We bought a book about Celtic knots and Jewellery (so my mom as something to do when she retires, she said...LOL)... We finally went to Lampau, La Roche Maurice and Landernau... We then went back to Brest...

Day 10 - We started the day at Lesneven, went to the Goulven Bay and to Plouescat a lovely town by the sea where we had lunch:)... We next headed to Roscoff - Very beautiful too!!!, St. pol de Leon (I really enjoyed beeing there!!!) and the lovely medievel town of Morlaix where we went shopping and where I bought my Dragon chalice... We slept in Morlaix...

Day 11 - We started at Cairn Bernenez but we had to make time fly a bit (we got there it hadn't opened yet) so we did some rock lifting ->....LOL!!!! We visited Cairn Bernenez (The biggest in the World!!!) and we went to Lannion (what a magical town too...), Treguier (my oncle gave it 2 stars - the biggest in our classification!)... Lezardieux and Pointrieux ... We really loved it... We then went to St. Breuc and slept there...

Day 12 - We started our day with nature going to a birdwatching point at Maison de la Baie in Hillion, We then headed Sables d'Or les Pins and Cap Frehel... a lovely place with lots of bushes and wildlife, next we headed to Fort de la Latte nearby and then Dinard (too touristic for our taste...) We then took the left side of the Rance river and came down to Dinan... A great town:)... We passed Lehon, Becherel and ended up sleeping in Rennes:)...

Well... Part II ended... Just wait for the next one:)

*In Love and Light*

 Misha:)

Merry meet dear friends...

After some days of rest here is a (not so) brief resume of my vacations in France... I hope with all the names of the towns you can search them in google or plan your trip there too:)...

As you may know I'm from Lisbon but I have a little hiding place called Castelo - the little village where my grandma and grandpa from my mother's side where born. It's near Mação, Abrantes (for more details go to http://www.cm-macao.pt/site/principal.htm to the portfolio section or just google it!)... My trip starts there... We (me, mom, dad and oncle) left at 6 a.m. (my mother drove) and we crossed the border to Spain at 8 a.m.:)... We lunched near the French border and we got to Bordeaux around 6 p.m. and we slep there...

Day 2 - We left Bordeaux early and we drove to St. Andre de Cubzac (where you can see me feeding the ducks:P... We then went to the lovely town of Bourg ("hanging" in the mountain over the Gironde river)... We then drove to Blaye, Talmont sur gironde, Royan (very interesting indeed), Pointe de la Coubre (one of the many capes we visited) and then the lovely Ile d'Oleron, Marennes, Vieux Chatelaillon and La Rochelle...

Day 3 - We started at La Rochelle visiting the city... We then went to the lovely and very beatiful but touristic Ile de Re... We passed trhough St. Michel en l'Herm, le Bernard and Avrille (where we started our trail of pre-historic monuments)... we then went to Talmont St. Hilaire, Les Sables d'Olonne and then the Ile d'Olonne... what a lovely Island linked to the continent by a bridge... We then went to St. Gilles Croix de Vie, St. jean de Monts, Noirmoutier en l'Ile and then Pornic, St. Nazaire and Nantes where we slept...

Day 4 - We started our day in Nantes, Pornichet, La Baule and Le Croisic (with a beautiful savage coast!). We then stopped at the lovely medievel and Walled town of Guerande ...:)... (you can see that it was really a lovely town...)... We then went to Kerhinet and Herbignac where there are a lot of pre-historic megaliths... We next drove to La Roche Bernard... A beautiful medieval town of artisans where everyone had an open to the public atelier... Glass blowers, paintors, sculptours, jewellers... you name it...LOVELY!!!... We then went to Vannes where we slept...

Day 5 - We started with Le Bono (no, I didn't see U2's vocalist there...lol) and Auray (a very interesting town!... We then went to Locmariaquer... a place where there is a lot of diversity of pre historic monuments... it's one of my all time favorites because it shows us that the neolithic people weren't as "retarded" as many may think:)...we went to La Trinita sur mer and then to Carnac (to the museum and also to the famous Carnac Alignments and Cromlech! :) ...:)...) The spread of the alignments reaches 13 Km... WOW!!!...We then drove to Plouharnel and Quiberon and ended up sleeping in Lorient...

Day 6 - We started by doing some of the coast near Lorient and then we went to the also lovely town of Quimperle:)...... We then went to Pont Aven (very beatiful too:)...), Concarneau:), Pont l'Abbe, Pointe de Pennarc'h and then we slpet in Quimper...

 Well... These were my first 6 days... Wait for more... (we drove around France for 21 days:P...)

 *In Love and Light*

Misha