The Threads That Bind Us

What a great time we had yesterday with Natasha J. Rosewood!  Thanks, Natasha, for coming by our little shop!  We had a few readings with her (I got one myself; she was amazing!) and a very inspiring talk about reaching our full potential and pursuing our life purpose, guided by some psychic advice.  It was a lot of fun and I really hope we can do it again sometime!  Natasha was talking about coming back to the Okanagan in the fall, so here's hoping!

I don't know if you know this, but really, it was Natasha's book that inspired our little triumvirate, "The Medium, the Witch and the Shaman," to get our crap together, start writing, start teaching more workshops, start our Discussion Panel, get to some of the local fairs and festivals . . . and we're working!  We hope to be at the Wise Woman festival in Naramata this fall, and Victoria is offering more EFT workshops, starting with "Tapping Your Way to Abundance" on May 15.

This weekend I'm heading down to Vancouver for our Lower Mainland Beltane Fair, which was highly successful and a lot of fun near Yule.  I've been looking forward to it all winter and I'm especially looking forward to seeing my friends in the Lower Mainland again!  We will be featuring the finest Pagan merchants and crafters, as well as some live entertainment with CJ Jackman, Angelica Gallant, and me, and we will be selling muffins and putting out the hat for Pirates for the Cure, our Run for the Cure team to raise money to fight breast cancer.  There will be Vernon and Vancouver team members there!

April 21 is our next MWS Discussion Panel; this time the topic will be "Opening to Channel."  By donation, come on out!  Also available by Skype!  Starts at 6 pm.

April 22 we will be having our THIRD annual "Reduce/Reuse/Recycle Sale" for Earth Day!  Don't miss the great savings!  Make sure you bring in some plastic shopping bags and/or pop cans and bottles to benefit from the savings!

My next "Eight Paths of Power" Workshop, this one on "Trance," will be offered on Saturday April 24, and please note that the store will be CLOSED that day to further the class!  $25 per person, CWABC members free.  I will teach you all about how to achieve a trance state, and how to use that to create magick.

Thanks for your support and hope to see you soon!

At this special time and place, deep in the woods of British Columbia, celebrants call the gods to join them in their festivities here on earth . . . and the gods answer!

The CWABC invites you to join us their first Pagan festival, Starfall PaganFest! This event will happen on the Canada Day weekend in the beautiful Okanagan Valley in Cherryville, the perfect place to bring together Northern and Southern BC, the Interior and the Coast, the Kootenays and even Alberta. The site is 45 minutes from Vernon along Highway 6, in the woods along a winding road; there is no cell phone service and not even any internet access; imagine that! The scenic terrain lends itself to lovely hikes, beautiful camping, and clear mountain views.

The site can accommodate about 30-40 people in indoor spaces, and the rest will be tenting space; priority on indoor spaces given to those with disabilities and families with small children. Overall capacity is 60.

Priority registration will be offered to CWABC and CWAA members, starting immediately at $125. Early bird registration opens May 1 at $150 per person; last minute registration starts June 1 at more or less $200 and will be on a first postmarked, first served basis. Children 6 and under free; children 7 - 15 and elders over 65 will be offered a discounted rate.

In the model of the Gathering, each person will be expected to volunteer for one 1-2 hour duty over the course of the weekend, setup and/or takedown.  Details on the registration sheet.

Participants are invited to contribute workshop ideas with registration.

Site is discreetly wet; it is also used as a treatment centre.

Please make cheques out to the "Congregationalist Wiccan Association of BC."

Event Location: 63 Begbie Rd. in Cherryville

Event TIME Details: site opens 2 pm Fri., closes 2 pm Sun.

Phone: (250) 540-0341 (Business Phone for The Threads That Bind Us)

Mailing Address: Starfall Pagan Festival, 5583 Silver Star Rd. Vernon, BC V1B 3P7

Website: http://starfallpaganfest.webs.com

Just a heads-up on some upcoming shop events and related:

Tomorrow (March 17, St. Paddy's Day,) I'll be offering a Practical Magick class in the basics of Numerology.  Then on Saturday we're hosting the first of a series of 8 workshops in the Eight Paths of Power or the Eightfold Way of Wiccan magick.   The first is on "Intent," concentration, visualization, meditation and focus.  Cost of the workshop is $25 for non CWABC members, and members get it for free!  The CWABC Ostara Ritual will follow.  The second issue of our newsletter, "The Tapestry" will also be available on that date!

Next Wednesday the 24th we're having our second "The Witch, the Medium and the Shaman" discussion panel.  The topic this time will be "Walking Between Worlds: Incorporating Metaphysical Ability and Spirituality in Everyday Life."  These discussion groups then proceed from there as directed by the participants.  All are welcome; by donation.

Then on Saturday the 27th we're having our next Mini-Metaphysical Fair!  Noon to 5 pm, come and check out psychics and practitioners for a discounted rate!  This time we also welcome Astrologer Gayle Hunter to the team!  $2 door fee (donated to the Horse Rescue Society) and $5 for about 15 minute sample services!

On the 31st of April we'll be doing our last Practical Magick class in May, this one in "Directing Energy."

In April we have more Practical Magick, another Meditation Night, another Medium, Witch and Shaman Discussion Panel, and a couple of unique events; April 14 at 7 pm we welcome author and psychic Natasha J. Rosewood for a Soul Talk, some short readings for people and some book signings; $20 per person, all welcome!  And also, on the 17th of April we'll be organizing our Lower Mainland Beltane Fair to showcase the works of Pagan crafters in the community!  Vendors, your table will cost somewhere between $20 and $25 if you are interested.

Blessed be!

WHAT IS SPIRITS MESSAGE FOR YOU?

Join

NATASHA J ROSEWOOD

Psychic Coach*Author* TV & Radio Personality

for a SOUL TALK

Reconnect with your intuition and/or psychic ability. Tune in to your spirit, and others-dead or alive-who want to reach you.

$20

We will have both her books, "Aaagh! I Think I'm Psychic (And You Can Be Too)", and "Aaagh! I Thought You Were Dead (And Other Psychic Adventures)" for sale at the shop to be signed; please indicate if you would like copies ordered in email or on the Event Wall so we can make sure we have one for you:

"Aaagh! I Think I'm Psychic" retails at $25 plus tax

"Aaagh! I Thought You Were Dead" retails at $19.99 plus tax

Both books are currently available for sale at our shop, and copies are also available to read in our metaphysical library, if you would like a preview.

For more information on Natasha or her work, check out her website at http://www.natashapsychic.com/

This might be Natasha's only appearance in the Okanagan Valley, and we are the only metaphysical store hosting her, to my knowledge, outside of the Lower Mainland! If you've ever considered the notion that you might be psychic, or ever wanted to be, this is the event you want to be a part of.

Well, after a considerable rearrangement, we have decided that we will be attending Investiture after all.  Rowean, Shanna and I will be there on SATURDAY ONLY with the shop, putting our best medieval foot forward!  Come out and support our effort!  Thanks!

Well folks, for those who were looking forward to us making Investiture, I'm afraid we have to cancel.  Because you must register in advance to make the event as a vendor, and the deadline to do that was today, we simply didn't have the available cash between the hotel reservations we needed to make, the gas and the registration fees.  January has been a rough month for everyone and based on the financial return compared to expenses at September Investiture, this is a fairly high-risk endeavour for us, one that we just can't afford to make right now with the need to replenish stock and acquire new stock being more paramount.  We'll try to come out to the next big event in the area though!  It sure is nice to be playing with the SCA again, I missed it!

Well folks, I'd like to start by thanking everyone who made the Penticton Open House a success!  It was a great time seeing all the people I never get to see!  I may make this a plan a couple of times a year or so!  Plan for me to be there in the fall for sure!

This weekend, we're doing a Fair and Open House in Cherryville at the Lodge Inn (63 Begbie Rd.)  $5 admission to raise money for Haiti, and then you can come in and see a variety of alternative health practitioners, psychics and readers, and shop with our vendors (us included, of course.)  We will be offering our services at our usual rates but we will all be in one place for you to access.  And we're coming out Highway 6, rather than expecting you to come to us!  Stay afterwards if you like at the Lodge Inn for a discounted rate and enjoy!

Next weekend, I am offering a level one Reiki Workshop & Attunement on Saturday at 3 pm.  Registration is required or there will be no class!  Cost is $22 per person, and it should take about 2 hours.

Feb. 19 - 21 we will be at the SCA event Investiture in Kamloops with the medieval period products of our store!    We won't be there until Saturday morning, however, so don't spend all your hard-earned gold Friday night, my lords and ladies!  The store, of course, will be closed on Saturday the 20th.

On Feb. 27 we are hosting Victoria Willard's Emotional Freedom Technique workshop!  This is back by popular demand and we hope you'll make it out!

March events will be listed shortly, but off the top of my head we will be presenting a Reiki level 2 workshop & attunement, another Mini-Metaphysical Fair, CWABC Ostara celebrations, and more!

We are also looking forward in April on the 14th to hosting Natasha Rosewood, author of "Aaagh!  I Think I'm Psychic! (And You Can Be Too)" and "Aaagh!  I Thought You Were Dead! (And Other Psychic Adventures)" who will be doing a talk on being psychic and on her book.  Details TBA!

We have been hard at work updating our website!  You will find a complete listing of Practical Magick classes for the next year, plus up and coming special events that we intend to attend (but for those, we're only a month ahead of ourselves).  We've added a contact form so you can reach us, some changes to our metaphysical services page, a page on Art & Artists, since we now have so many wonderfully talented artists who are making a gallery of our little store, and on the "About Us" page, you can find the first issue of our new store magazine, "The Tapestry," in a downloadable pdf format!

For those who are getting this message via Facebook, you can find us at http://www.thethreadsthatbindus.net.

Have updated the website today to include upcoming events in our Calendar page, as well as our new contact information.  You can reach us now on Skype: the.threads.that.bind.us.  You should be able to get us Monday to Friday from 11 am to 6 pm Pacific Time.  I especially invite our long-distance customers to give us a call; the video function will let you have a look at our products directly before we ship them, and since our website is currently limited as to the number of products we can display, it also expands your selection!  And of course, from Skype account to Skype account, your call is absolutely free.

There's quite a lot of things coming up in December so it may be easiest to have a look at the Calendar to see what interests you, rather than make a list.

Practical Magick continues in December, but we're trying hard not to schedule things around Christmas, so they will be on the 2nd and the 28th, and we'll be studying "Psychic Self Defense" and the third part of our Tarot series respectively.

Our big announcement is that we are coming to Vancouver for a Yule Fair on December 12th, from 10:30 am to 3 pm at the St. James Community Square; see the Calendar listing or our Facebook group for more details.  So far, we have eight confirmed merchants and practitioners, including ourselves, and there may yet be more as this all comes together!  This event is geared specifically to the Pagan and metaphysical community and is a family event, open to the public in a conveniently-located wheelchair accessible building.  Updates daily!

We also intend to bring our goods to the CWABC Yule Ritual at the Okanagan Centre Hall in Winfield on December 19th at 6 pm.  Email us for more information about the event.

Reiki Level 2 Workshop will be happening on the 9th of December at 6 pm; $44 per person.

We'll also be offering some new features on our Facebook group, with offers on products and services available solely to our Facebook group members.  For instance, we'll be featuring a new pendant and a new pendulum each week, which will be available at a discount.

Please note that we intend, at this point, to be closed for the 21st (Yule,) the 24th through the 26th (Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day,) the 1st and the 2nd of January (New Year's Day and the following Saturday,) and we will only be open from 11 am to 3 pm on the 22nd, 23rd, and New Year's Eve.  This plan may yet change as our families announce their holiday plans, so there will be one more announcement before Yule, finalizing these details.

But, don't forget to stop in before then!  Moonlight Madness happens on Wednesday the 16th of December; in order to facilitate your last-minute shopping, Threads, along with numerous other downtown merchants, will be open until 9 pm!  And for that day, and every Friday up until Christmas, we will be offering 10% off on anything purchased as a seasonal gift for someone else, including ritual items, metaphysical supplies, statuary, gifts, incense, gift certificates for our metaphysical services, bath salts, jewellery and more!

So as you can see, there are lots of exciting things coming up just on the horizon!  See you soon!

Thanks to everyone who came out and made our Mini Metaphysical Fair a success!  We had a great time, got the word out about our services, and managed to raise about $60 for Breast Cancer Awareness.  Our next Mini Metaphysical Fair will be December 12, so mark your calendars now!

Coming up still in October and November we have:

Wednesday October 28 - Practical Magick: Magickal Herbalism 101

Saturday October 31 - Trick-or-Treat Trail

Sunday November 1 - New Witches' Question and Answer Night

Wednesday November 4 - Reiki Level 1 Workshop & Attunement

Saturday November 7 - Quantum Touch Workshop with Victoria Willard

Thursday November 12 - Practical Magick: Introduction to Tarot Part 2

Wednesday November 18 - Paranormal Discussion Group: Paranormal Investigation Night!

Wednesday November 25 - Practical Magick: Colour Magick

Saturday November 28 - Yule Goddesses Ornaments Workshop

Also, either on the 14th or 21st of November (TBA) we will be having a special event Tarot Deck Signing!  The creatrix of the award-winning Pearl of Wisdom Tarot Deck is LOCAL and she will be telling her amazing story of her journey through the Tarot, how she used the paintings as a focus to overcome her grief for the loss of her mother and her son, and she will be signing her Tarot decks that we at The Threads That Bind Us will be making available for sale!  This is going to be a unique, one-of-a-kind event!

So just because the weather is cold and miserable doesn't mean that we stop having cool things to do!  Come on out and check it out!  Blessed be.