By Cat Gina Cole
Wow! I have to say it is an honor to be here, writing in The Green Egg Blog that I helped create. I never would have thought my journey would lead me here. As stated in my book, Psychic Skills for Magic and Witchcraft, my life changed when I met three people. It was a complete timeline jump and I did not even know it. Those people were Phaedra Bonewits, Katrina Rasbold and Oberon Zell. In September of 2019 Phaedra took me to my very first Pagan Pride Festival in Sacramento California. There I got to meet my Facebook friend, Katrina, in person for the first time, where the two of them spun cosmic webs and planned my life and said I was writing a book.
My shocked reply was, “I am?
In December of that year, Oberon Zell was finishing his walk about and through our mutual friendship with Phaedra, Oberon came to stay at my home for a few nights. He came back for a second visit in January 2020 where he and my friends decided I was to accompany him to the Pantheacon the following month and present a book to Llewellyn based on the school material for my students.
Again, my shocked reply was “I am?”
By March, I was under contract and writing a book. These three never left my side. Katrina, Phaedra, and Oberon coached me through the entire thing. More than the book, what developed was friendship and love with these three amazing people. It made my head spin and I wondered how little ol’ me ended up in this cluster of stars.
While writing my book, I also became a contributor for Oberon’s Green Egg Magazine. I fell in love with the history and mission of The Green Egg Magazine and developed a passion to see it continue. Now I am the Staff Coordinator and I greatly admire the team behind the magazine. All of this made me more of a “public figure” on social media, and I find it interesting the perception many get from an individual’s public life versus their personal life.
For example, years ago I became a fan of a female author on Facebook and later, a friend of mine connected us as friends. As I viewed her posts, I began to look up to her. Later, we began to chat and got to know each other. I remember telling her in a text once that I would love to sit one evening and drink with her. She replied she was not that exciting and that is when I began to really know her instead of what I perceived through social media. Yes, Katrina, I am speaking about you! Today I admire and respect her even more.
If you follow me on social media or have read my bio, there is much you will know about me. However, life behind the scenes is much different for me than it seems to be online.
A friend once told me things were not as easy for her as they are for me. I about choked. She had no idea how hard it is for me to do simple things on a regular basis. I have to work very hard to accomplish things. This is because I have ADHD, or as I have come to learn, I am Neuro-Diverse and impulsive. Sometimes I struggle with obsessive thinking too. This means change can be difficult or even anger me when I can’t figure it out. I equate my memory and thinking process to Swiss cheese and you never know which hole it will flow through. It is also why I say I am the most difficult child I have ever raised!
Much of my mental time is spent managing my impulsiveness with self-talk like, “No, you are not going to do that,” “No you do not need to do that” and so on. This all has to get wrangled and pushed aside for me to focus on a task or to make a plan of action. I get on my own case about it all the time; it is my inner discipline. This is why I tell folks I am well aware of the messes I leave behind. I get frustrated with my messes and incomplete tasks too. Often this means when I am working on a task or project it will be to the exclusion of everything else, property, dishes, laundry, and so on.
I do my best to accept that it is okay for me to be scattered or not to get the huge to-do list I have done. It is okay to leave things partially done, even if it is difficult for others around me to deal with that, because that is who and what I am. Occasionally I will work a project to the exclusion of all else and when done the awareness of everything else comes flooding in.
Suddenly my head is full of, “It is Friday and I have a blog article to write by Sunday, oh then there is my magazine article due next month, oh and I’m going out with friends Sunday, oh look at the weeds in that garden! and damn my foot and back are killing me!”
And so my life goes and I love every bit of it. I have often said life is messy so enjoy the mess.
One time in a pathworking with Odin, he told me life is lived in the midst of chaos. It was very validating for someone like me. So I guess it is a good thing I have that Neuro-Diverse hyper-activity to keep me going through the string of messes that compile my wonderful, unique, and spontaneous life that I love. Now I see my messes as creation in process, and dust in this Witch’s house as the leftovers of that creation and it is all magic.
My cluster of friends and the stars in my life, Oberon, Katrina, and Phaedra saw something in me I did not see and they pushed and supported me with their belief in me until I became the writer and Witch I am today. After that, it was up to me what I wanted to do with it.
What I believe in and what I am passionate about is growing the Pagan community in any way I can and the Green Egg and my friends gave me the place and voice to do just that. Now it is with great pleasure and honor and lots of love that I begin the next leg of my journey with you, the reader, as a columnist in the next generation of the Green Egg Magazine in The Green Egg Blog.
As my friends now know, I have a lot to share, and I hope, Dear Reader, to keep you fully engaged. Many blessings to all!
Cat Gina Cole is a Herditary Witch and author of Psychic Skills for Magic and Witchcraft (Llewellyn, 2022). She is the founder of The Coven of the Rising Phoenix and Staff Coordinator for “Green Egg Magazine.” You can reach her at www.catginacole.com.