The Eighth Sermon to the Dead

In the name of Light returning, I also summon URIEL, Dark Lord of Earth, who bringest all at last unto the Nether Shore, Companion of all who offer up their lives in the defense of others, guard this Chamber and witness the acts here taken. Come, mighty URIEL, and grace me with thy presence. The past couple weeks, I've been meditating on St. Uriel.  He gets sort of a bad reputation.  In the above invocation, he's known as the Dark Lord of Earth, and sort of acts as the Ferryman. However, in my meditations, I've come to a slightly different understanding.  He's the Lord of Earth.  All growing, living things come from the earth.  They all pass away, true.  But they all start here, as well.  His color is green for a reason:  He's the Lord of Growing things, as well.   So by being the Companion of the dying, he's also the shepherd of the living. For the two are intimately intertwined, of course.  They are the flip sides of each othe...

I've gone through some changes since my last post. I've lost my job.  I'm having trouble finding a new one.  In this economy that's to be expected.  So, I'm also looking at alternatives:  Project work, industry switches, etc. Today, I had to go out and visit my old place of work.  I never liked it much.  And I went to visit the restaurant where I went to lunch, which I'll miss a lot more. It's odd.  Never liked the job, never liked the people I worked with.  But it was part of my life for 2 years, and I think I got used to it.  So, I'm sad to be leaving.  I don't think I should be sad, and I can only tell I'm sad by the strange, bad habits that are starting to come up.  It's nice to be aware enough to at least realize I'm slipping into bad habits, even if I'm having trouble stopping them. I'm not terribly sad, though.  I'm looking forward to the new adventures that are coming.  However, it's hard not to stand and ...