#0021: Circle of Three Series #7: Blue Moon, by Isobel Bird

[orbitaldiamonds]

Circle of Three #7: Blue Moon
by Isobel Bird

p.17 "When I see you with him," said the guy into the microphone, "my heart breaks open and my anger spills across the floor like those oranges that fell from the paper bag when we were running across the street in the rain after our first date."

p.135-136 "There are two of me," she began, her voice ringing through the space. "The one I take outside and the one I let roam free when I'm alone, safe from what you think and what you feel."
     She had written that piece after her fight with T.J. It was about him, but it was also about the people who were listening to her, the people T.J. worried about. Now Cooper felt as if she were facing them, telling them how she felt about what they might think of her.
     "The me you see when you pass me on the street is the one I dress up to hide her from your fears," she continued. "I don't want you to see her and look away or call her names. I don't want her to have to see the ugliness that his your misunderstanding. So I keep her covered, tucked inside my coat or sleeping behind my sunglasses."
     She was reaching the part of the piece she liked the most. She stood up straight and tall, looking defiantly out at her listeners. "But when we get home I tear off her disguise and the two of us run around my room," she said, her voice rising. "We hold hands and we spin and spin and spin, making ourselves dizzy with laughter while we laugh at you and what you don't know. We dance and sing and make noise like the wildest of all wild things. And when we're done we sleep in one another's arms, dreaming of the day we can be one person again."

NAMES: Oya, Brigid, Astarte, Ixchel, Rhiannon, Freya, Eulalie

#0022: Circle of Three Series #8: The Five Paths, by Isobel Bird

[orbitaldiamonds]

Circle of Three #8: The Five Paths
by Isobel Bird

p.11-12 "We're going to cast the circle in a different way tonight," Annie informed them. "I want to try something new. Since there are four of us I want us to take a different direction. I'll be east, Sasha will be south, Cooper will be west, and Kate will be north. I want us each to think about our direction, the element it represents, and the qualities associated with it. Then we're going to go around the circle, each of us saying a word that comes to mind when we think about our direction. We'll go around a couple of times. Try to imagine a circle of light forming as we do it."
   She paused for a moment as they all thought about the elements they were representing. Then she said in a clear voice, "Inspiration."
   "Passion," Sasha said, following her.
   "Mystery," said Cooper.
   "Strength," Kate said, finishing the first round.
   They continued, each of them saying a word. As they did the words formed a kind of chant, their voices rising and falling as they thought of differrent things to say. "Flying, dancing, diving, planting, wind, fire, waves, stone," they said, the words coming to create a rhythm. "Bird, dragon, whale, bear, birth, life, sleep, death."
   After they'd gone around several times Annie said, "The circle is cast." She let go of Sasha's and Kate's hands and motioned for them all to sit down. Then she took a bottle of clear liquid, opened it, and poured the liquid into the cauldron. Striking a match, she dropped it in as well, and the cauldron sprang to life with bright flames that burned without smoke.
  "Rubbing alcohol," she said as the others looked at the fire. "A little trick I picked up in chemistry class."
  "Very nice," Cooper said.

p.59 "It's called a pentacle," Cooper said. A pentagram is when you draw it on something. A pentacle is when it's in physical form."

p.84 "Just as they are during the Spring Equinox, or Ostara, the hours of light and dark are equal on Mabon," Sophia told them. "But where Ostara herself aids the growth of the light, we're now entering the season of darkness. The days will shorten and the sun will become weaker and weaker. This is a very important time of year for witches. Samhain, or Halloween, is coming up, followed by Yule in December. These are two of the most meaningful and wonderful of the sabbats."