Anyway. As usual, Gordon was annoyingly right as he generally is (but I'm still holding onto reality television with my claws for the moment) and it's not like any other magic book I've read (which is a huge plus because I like maybe ten books total). It's just full of beauty and glamour. It's not a direct "how to" in terms of tips 'n tricks that some of you still stubbornly cling to, but it is a how to in so far as if you can't use it to open your heart, soul and junk to beauty and being present in physical experience, then . . .you're not there yet and that's okay too. I really liked that Peter expresses that there needs to be a place for the mythic past that never was.
During this time, I got super into The Red Tent and Mary Magdalene (who has rather persistently been circling me). I know, we're all supposed to free ourselves from the shackles of our (recent) ancestral religion and whatever, but frankly? 1. They don't have to live with MamaFran and she lives three blocks away from me. 2. For me, it has been way more freeing and deliciously blasphemous feeling to instead embrace the parts of Catholicism that resonate with me and nesting it into my magical nesting dolls of ritual practice. It's been a very ecstatic experience for me and it's been particularly satisfying as it vaguely offends both my radical occultist friends and my Catholic family.
Reasons Why I Personally Like Mary Magdalene:
1. She fights with her sister
2. She clearly has money
3. She does whatever she wants to do
4. She's the Apostle to the Apostle
5. She has a cult of French fan girls in 12 AD
6. She's the patroness of perfumers
7. She believes anything is possible, including resurrection
8. She tell Caesar that Jesus' trial was bullshit and he listens to her
To me, that seems like enough to qualify as a red Goddess. Whatever occupation she ever actually had, she was clearly a sexy woman and she (much like [St.] Bridget) can't be stamped out by The Man which is also a huge deal to me. She represents rebellion to me in every way - she doesn't let her sister tell her what to do, she doesn't let the apostles tell her what to do and she doesn't let the government tell her what to do. What a freaking badass that we still know her by a full name and she's been in all the gospels.
Even though it was right after tax season, I spent a full week feverishly preparing for my circle.
We started with this as our meditation (which rips my heart open in ways I can't describe every time I hear it):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVXp5cWfBVM&feature=youtu.be