Earplugs make a world of difference in drowning out the scritching of the unwelcome guests. I cleaned out the sink and threw out all the foodstuffs that looked like they'd been nibbled at. The kitchen is remarkably clean. Now if the weather would warm up and the buggers would go outside instead of in.

I got the latest issue of RFD last night, for those who don't know this is the international Radical Faerie journal. The last 3 or 4 issues have been city oriented, showcasing different faerie tribes around the world (Santa Cruz, Seattle, NYC, and EuroFaeries). This one was a "then and now" issue on Country Queers, and they reprinted articles from the first 11 issues of the magazine (over 30 years ago). I had the most amazing amounts of synchronicity with this issue, more than I've had with any other issue of RFD so far, because there were elements of Faerie history, and DC faerie history that I gleaned as I read between the lines.

The first thing was learning about Rick Graf and reading and seeing some of his early written and artistic contributions to RFD. Rick was one of the first people to work on the magazine back in the pre-faerie days. He and his partner Donald Engstrom were among the original progenitors of RFD. But in the department of synchronicities, Rick was Donalds husband for 24 years, and before he passed away from AIDS related complications he had the vision of the Red Dragon. Rick in a fevered state had a visitation by a Chinese styled dragon, who said if she were honored that she would manifest healing in this world for people with diseases in their blood. Now, this is BIG in D.C. Every year we DC Faeries hold the Red Dragon Feast and we've raised thousands of dollars for foundations working to cure and support people with bloodborne diseases. But in the three years I've gone, never once did I hear Rick's name. We all knew about the dragon through Donald, and so his name has become synonymous with the feast. But rather, it was Rick who had the vision, and Donald was the messenger. This year at the Red Dragon I'm going to make sure and share the info about Rick.

The other synchronicity was reading about Blue Heron Farm in upstate New York. When I was dating Arc, I heard all about Brian and Gary who run Blue Heron, because Arc attended a gathering up there once. I say once, because he had a lousy experience with some tweaked out faery who stole his wallet, and that soured his view of the faeries immensely. Reading that article gave me a little bit more insight into the folks at Blue Heron, and not just the stories I'd heard from him.

I think that personally this was the first issue of RFD that spoke to me, because I connected to the Faerie past in a very real and very intimate way. I read the whole thing in nearly a single sitting (I did move from dinner to bed).

Blessings to the beauties who put this issue together.

Reading all this, and working on putting together the new and improved DC Radical Faeries website has been really REALLY good for me. I feel like I'm starting to finally understand, and know deeply the connection I have to the Faeries. It's wonderfully amazing. Last night I also sat down and sifted through the rituals folder that was entrusted to me by jeanne_d_arc. Teddy and I are going to be scanning and posting a bunch of these old rites, and last night as I was going through them I saw some of the most AWESOME things I've never seen. The one that stuck out to me the most was:

A Ritual for the Beatification of
Mathew Shepard and Divers Other
Martyrs Departed This World Because
Of Loyalty to the Image of the Divine in
Which They Were Created

WHOA! I knew that DC Faeries had beatified Mathew Shepard, but here I found the entire text of the process by which we canonized him. Wow.

This and many other of the rites of the DC Faeries will be put online over the next few months. Keep looking.