LTD ANNUAL HOLIDAY PARTY
Saturday Dec. 20, 7 pm to ???

December 20 LTD Annual Holiday Party

Latkes and Christmas carols/songs about the Macabees, dreidels and Winter Solstice ritual. We'll light the Hanukkah Menorah--this is the second night. Did we forget a ritual important to you? Tell us and we'll add it! BRING stories/songs/poetry to share, your favorite holiday dish for pot luck supper, wrapped science fiction, fantasy or magickal gift ($5-$10) for GIFT EXCHANGE. Kids bring kid gifts to exchange with each other.
Sharing our holidays is part of what weaves the bonds of Family in a group like ours. Understanding what is important to each of us during this festive season and how we celebrate it is a way to grow closer and delight in our diversity.
Enclosed, clothing optional Jacuzzi (with holiday music playing inside it!) available all evening-bring sandals and towels. Cost $5 for members, $7.50 non-members, children free.

Location: Penfield Group House at 8515 Penfield in Winnetka-the west San Fernando Valley between Roscoe and Chase (nearer Chase). Penfield is between Tampa and Winnetka. Phone number is the same as the LTD hotline-818-886-0069.

DARKOVER DISCUSSION / ROLEPLAY
Saturday Jan. 17

January 17 Discussion on Marion Zimmer
Bradley's DARKOVER novels,
Filksinging
(Darkover song verses included)

(Location: same as Holiday Party, 8515 Penfield in Winnetka.)
11 am to 4 pm: DARKOVER novels by Marion Zimmer Bradley: Discussion/ Role Play

Marion's fascinating novels are based on the concept of a world on which a few hundred Terrans were marooned in a crashed space ship hundreds of years ago and were forced to build a viable community from this limited gene pool. Many women found themselves unable to bear children on the new world. This resulted in a society where a fertile woman having more than one child by the same man was considered a kind of selfishness. Psychic "laran" abilities were then deliberately bred into this gene pool. Group marriage became the norm and ties of fosterage frequently stronger than ties of blood...
We'll focus on SPELL SWORD and FORBIDDEN TOWER, two novels based on a real life two couple group marriage which lasted 16 years! How can we use this info to get the relationships we want in our lives?
Pot luck lunch--bring something healthy and delicious to share. Hot tub available all day (clothing optional). Bring towel and sandals.
6 pm: pot luck dinner and Filk (science fiction folksinging) on Darkover and many other stories. It's bardic circle: request what you like, sing one yourself, or sit back and listen, "Pick, pass or perform."

NEW Heinlein Novel!

For Us, The Living is a brand new, never before published novel by Robert A. Heinlein.
Written in the 1930s, this book was deemed unpublishable, mainly for the racy content. So racy was the content that at the time the book could not even have been legally shipped through the US mail!
Its "raciness" consisted mainly of an emphasis on the poly lifestyle. Heinlein, who himself was at the time in an open marriage, wrote about the difference between love and jealousy in much the same way the concept appears in Stranger In A Strange Land. For Us, The Living introduces many of the characters and ideas later seen in Heinlein's future history series and the stories of Lazarus Long.
The money earned by this novel will be going to directly support Heinlein's dream, and the dream we, Heinlein's Children, share. Earnings will be going to the advancement of human exploration of space. When you purchase this book you are also contributing, in a real and meaningful way, to the furtherment of our country's space program.
Finally published in December 2003, For Us, The Living is a book worth reading!
(A lengthier article will appear in our next issue.)

- Yule Ritual -

Abbreviated Yule Ritual-You can try this at home!

"I AM THE ETERNAL GODDESS,
EVER CHANGING, EVER LIVING, EVER LOVING, EVER GIVING, YET I CHARGE YOU, IF YOU WOULD, BE MINE AND FOLLOW MY WAYS.
(pause)
THEN SHALL YOU GATHER YOURSELVES ONCE IN A MONTH, AND BETTER IT BE WHEN THE MOON IS FULL, AND ASSEMBLE IN SOME SECRET PLACE. THERE YOU SHALL ADORE THE SPIRIT OF ME WHO AM QUEEN OF ALL WITCHES. THERE SHALL YOU DANCE, SING, FEAST, MAKE MUSIC AND LOVE, ALL IN MY PRAISE, AND TO THOSE WHO WOULD LEARN SORCERY, TO THESE I WILL TEACH THINGS AS YET UNKNOWN.
KEEP PURE YOUR HIGHEST IDEAL; STRIVE EVER TOWARDS IT; LET NAUGHT STOP YOU OR TURN YOU ASIDE, FOR MINE ARE FREEDOM, KNOWLEDGE AND REJOICING, THE ECSTASY OF THE SPIRIT, THE EARTH'S LOVE FOR HER CREATURES. MINE IS THE SECRET DOOR OF LIFE AND DEATH, AND ALL THESE I DO GIVE FREELY TO THE CHILDREN OF WISDOM.

I GIVE UNIMAGINABLE JOYS ON EARTH, CERTAINTY, NOT FAITH, WHILE IN LIFE; UPON DEATH, PEACE UNUTTERABLE, REST, ECSTASY. NOR DO I DEMAND SACRIFICE, FOR BEHOLD! I AM THE MOTHER OF ALL LIVING AND MY LOVE IS POURED OUT UPON THE EARTH."
Priest says:
"HEAR YE THE WORDS OF THE STAR GODDESS, SHE IN THE DUST OF WHOSE FEET ARE THE HOSTS OF HEAVEN, WHOSE BODY ENCIRCLETH THE UNIVERSE."
Priestess continues with the Charge of the Goddess:

"I, WHO AM THE BEAUTY OF THE GREEN EARTH, AND THE WHITE MOON AMONG THE STARS AND THE MYSTERY OF THE WATERS AND THE DESIRE OF THE HEART OF MAN, I CALL UPON THY SOUL TO ARISE AND COME UNTO ME, FOR I AM THE SOUL OF ALL NATURE, WHO GIVETH LIFE TO THE UNIVERSE.
(pause)
"FROM ME, ALL THINGS PROCEED; TO ME THEY SHALL ALSO RETURN. LET MY WORSHIP BE IN THE HEART, REJOICE, FOR ALL ACTS OF LOVE AND PLEASURE ARE MY RITUAL. THEREFORE, LET THERE BE BEAUTY AND STRENGTH, POWER AND COMPASSION, HONOR AND HUMILITY, MIRTH AND REVERENCE AMONG YOU.
AND THOU WHO THINKEST TO SEEK FOR ME, KNOW THY SEEKING AND YEARNING SHALL AVAIL THEE NOT, UNLESS THOU KNOWEST THE MYSTERY; THAT IF THOU SEEKEST AND FIND IT NOT WITHIN THYSELF, NOTHING IS THERE FOR THEE TO FIND, FOR BEHOLD! I HAVE BEEN WITH THEE SINCE THE BEGINNING, AND I AM THAT WHICH IS ATTAINED AT THE END OF DESIRE."

Priest says "WELCOME, LADY." and kisses Priestess. Priest then stands with feet together and hands crossed on his chest, similar to Priestess earlier, as Priestess says:

"I CALL UPON THEE, LORD OF THE HUNT, GUARDIAN OF THE FOREST AND ALL WILD CREATURES
BY SEED AND BY ROOT,
BY FLOWER AND BY FRUIT,
BY STEM AND BY BUD,
BY LIFE AND BY LOVE,
HERE BELOW AS ABOVE,
DESCEND NOW INTO THIS BODY OF THY PRIEST"

Priestess takes the pentacle as Priest spreads his feet shoulder width or as far apart as needed so Priestess can reach his head, and raises his arms out to the side like Priestess did.
Priestess touches the pentacle gently to Priest's forehead, LEFT foot, RIGHT hand, LEFT hand, RIGHT foot and forehead, then puts it back on the altar.
Priest then reads the Charge of the God from a scroll.

"I AM THE STAG OF SEVEN TINES;
I GO ACROSS DARK WATERS.
I AM BORNE UP BY THE WIND--I DESCEND IN THE TEARS OF THE SUN; I FLY LIKE A HAWK TO MY NEST ON THE CLIFF.
I PUT FORTH LEAVES AND FLOWERS IN THE MEADOW--
I AM THE OAK AND THE LIGHTNING THAT DESTROYS IT.
I AM THE COURAGE OF SPEARMEN; I GIVE WISDOM TO JUDGES;
I BREATHE IN THE WORDS OF THE POETS.
I ROVE THE HILLS LIKE A WILD BOAR,
I RETURN AGAIN, DRAWN LIKE THE TIDE.
WHO BUT I MAY KNOW THE SECRET OF THE UNBUILT TEMPLE?"

Priestess says "WELCOME, LORD," and kisses Priest.

GIVE US YOUR STORIES. We need your stories for research purposes--your names will remain anonymous. If you have been hassled by the government for your lifestyle, particularly by any child services department, we want to hear from you by phone, in writing or by E-Mail.
Our phone number is 818-361-6737.
Our mailing address is
6454 Van Nuys Blvd #211
Van Nuys, CA. 91401.
Our e-mail address is: [email protected]

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