Video Video: Mental Skillness

July 3, 2011 By Guest Contributor

VIDEO: “At TED’s Full Spectrum Auditions, comedian Joshua Walters, who’s bipolar, walks the line between mental illness and mental “skillness.” In this funny, thought-provoking talk, he asks: What’s the right balance between medicating craziness away and riding the manic edge of creativity and drive?” Joshua Walters is also a mental health educator. VIDEO: Joshua talks about mental state cycles of bipolar disorder and what happens when people decide to stop their medication because they want to be “normal”. For more... Read more

Thank you Star Foster

July 1, 2011 By Guest Contributor

Star Foster is the editor of the Pagan portal at Patheos. She also assists many Patheos bloggers with their tech issues. Within a couple of hours of my email to her, she had cleared out all of the spam and I haven’t gotten a spam comment submission in several days. If you are looking for a website for your religion themed blog, choose Patheos. Read more

The Pagan Community Is Preparing To Aid Members In Health Care Facilities

June 29, 2011 By Guest Contributor

On March 8, I addressed the lack of trained Pagan clergy who could meet the needs of community members in health care facilities. “The Pagan Community Isn’t Ready to Aid Members In Health Care Facilities”. Motivated by this need, I networked with Pagan clergy, writers, counselors, and professors to start the Pagan Health Care Resource Team. Our goal is to create an open health resource for Pagans and helping professions regarding the needs of Pagan clients. We are still deciding... Read more

Spam-A-Lot and Community Linkage

June 28, 2011 By Guest Contributor

It takes some time to go through all of the comments submitted to the Staff of Asclepius. I appreciate the views reader’s express and I am so grateful when a few extra minutes are spent contributing information that wasn’t included in the original post. Those informative comments assist in shaping our community. It may take a day or two for your comments to appear because all submitted comments must first be approved. I approve all submissions that are relevant to... Read more

Netflix Sued for Lack of Closed Captioning

June 22, 2011 By Guest Contributor

IMAGE: Symbol for Closed Captioning. Two C’s in a box resembling a TV. Special thanks to Ocean from the Deaf Pagan Crossroads for informing me about NAD’s lawsuit. “The National Association of the Deaf (NAD), the nation’s premier civil rights organization of deaf and hard of hearing individuals, announced the filing of a major federal lawsuit against Netflix today in U.S. District Court, District of Massachusetts, Western Division in Springfield, MA. The lawsuit charges the entertainment giant with violating the... Read more

Summer Solstice 2011

June 21, 2011 By Guest Contributor

Each day is a new opportunity to bring into balance our spiritual, physical, and intellectual being. The full lunar eclipse on the Winter Solstice of 2010 was an exceptional opportunity to start mastering the three worlds: spiritual, physical, and mental. (Staff of Asclepius “Winter Solstice 2010: A complete picture of three worlds.”) Six months later, our world enters a tilt where the northern hemisphere receives maximum hours of sunlight during the Summer Solstice. There is a saying that life is... Read more

Community Linkage

June 17, 2011 By Guest Contributor

Every week there are new press releases, articles, information, and videos popping up concerning Paganism, spirituality, health, or disabilities. Community Linkage is a collection of useful information and sometimes entertainment for you. Patheos.com is now hosting The Wild Hunt blog by Jason Pitzl-Waters. Jason has highlighted important issues to disabled Pagans and linked to Staff of Asclepius posts. The Staff of Asclepius has been with Patheos since last year. Welcome, Jason! Janet Callahan and her husband were blessed with a... Read more

Why You're Affected by McCollum v. CDCR (California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation)

June 12, 2011 By Guest Contributor

Patrick McCollum and legal advisors released a nine page response to the denial of their employment discrimination case. “The employment discrimination ruling is especially disturbing and is one that all religious people should be worried about, not only Pagans. It creates precedent that gives the state the power to discriminate on the basis of religion for chaplain jobs, for example chaplains in prisons, hospitals, the veterans’ administration, and the military. The court ruled that the state could choose to prefer... Read more

Victory Gardens

June 11, 2011 By Guest Contributor

UPDATE: In semi-related news, Starhawk announced early production of a movie version of The Fifth Sacred Thing. Click here. “Starhawk’s epic tale, set in 2048, California. In a time of ecological collapse, when the hideously authoritarian and corporate-driven Stewards have taken control of most of the land and set up an apartheid state, one region has declared itself independent: the Bay Area and points north.” During WWI and WWII, citizens planted produce and herb gardens at private residences and public... Read more

Community Linkage

May 26, 2011 By Guest Contributor

Every week there are new press releases, articles, information, and videos popping up concerning Paganism, spirituality, health, or disabilities. Community Linkage is a collection of useful information and sometimes entertainment for you. IMAGE: Woman wearing an animal pelt and computer boards, types on a keyboard that is part of the landscape. Cover art by Julie Foo. Yahoo! Accessibility “Original Cyborgs: Disability and Technology” by Jennifer Cole, Program Director of the Gimpgirl Community yaccessibilityblog.com/wp/original-cyborgs.html Jennifer has an artificial spine and she... Read more