I do not believed that I missed an inch of Scotland and so you have more pictures of the road back to Edinburgh again today.

I am dedicating August to Fantasy and Fiction–the

first week we did True Love

Last week it was Fairies and Elves

and this week Wizards and Witches.

Merlin: STAND BACK! Be silent! Be still!… That’s it… and look upon this moment. Savor it! Rejoice with great gladness!

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BUT FIRST MY EFFORTS TO HELP YOU SURVIVE DROUGHTLANDER

LIST ALL THE REASONS YOU LOVE (!!!!!) SAM:

HERE’S A START: http://www.eonline.com/news/766621/sam-heughan-from-outlander-showcases-hot-shirtless-body-in-haute-living

Drink heavily (only if you’re over 21) and you might try this as it’s right along those lines:

http://gizmodo.com/channel-your-inner-outlander-with-this-18th-century-whi-1784734386

Watch the sex scenes on all the sexy shows and write up which one you like bests and why (my reason is right above this paragraph.

http://www.glamour.com/story/sexy-tv-shows-better-than-porn

Wicked Witch of the West: Going so soon? I wouldn’t hear of it. Why my little party’s just beginning.

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My vision (someone else drew of course) of the traditional wizard & witch.

Simple Definition of wizard

: a person who is skilled in magic or who has magical powers : a sorcerer or magician

Simple Definition of witch
- : a woman who is thought to have magic powers
- : a person who practices magic as part of a religion (such as Wicca)
- : a very unpleasant woman
  
  Both From Webster’s Dictionary
- Merlin: Remember it always, for you are joined by it. You are One, under the stars. Remember it well, then… this night, this great victory.

When I think of the character in popular fiction as I was growing up an

d beyond I think for witches the green skinned Wicked Witch of the West in the wonderful but a bit silly Wizard of Oz…not an exactly flattering depiction of the genre.

While wizards to me are more like Merlin of King Arthur fame in Excaliber (all my Merlin quotes are from that movie) in my opinion one of the best of the genre on King Arthur and his legends.

Wicked Witch of the West: Just try and stay out of my way. Just try! I’ll get you, my pretty, and your little dog, too!

Oh and more recently we have developed a whole other wizard theme…with schools and sub cultures made of magical (the Wealeys)and mixed bloods (Harry Potter) as well as non-breed but still magical (Hermione Granger) which goes on with a life of its own long after the last movie is in the can.

Merlin:

Remember it well, then… this night, this great victory. So that in the years ahead, you can say, ‘I was there that night, with Arthur, the King!’ For it is the doom of men that they forget.

Yes wizards have been around for a long, long time and come in all manner of incarnations including the rich and famous

and the same goes for witches.

Wicked Witch of the West: What a nice little dog. And you, my dear, what an unexpected pleasure. It’s so kind of you to want to visit me in my loneliness.

They are sometimes good and sometimes bad.

Handsome or beautiful or a little or a lot of both in our popular fiction….there are movies to excess and a thousand times as many books on the subject and one can not even guess the number of blogs, cults, real practioners of wicca and odd (and possibly bizzare) magical groups based on movies, books, real dogma or pseudo messiahs (but then whom am I to judge?) that call themselves by one or both of these title.

There has most recently been a tendency to make the titles sexually specific–witches female and wizard male, but I have found nothing to indicate this in the traditions and histories I have read so I tend to ignore that tendeny.

Another tendency by some; though this has become less common as we move into a more “enlightened” (again not for me to say, just for me to repeat) age; to equate witches most commonly, with the devil….however the sect most commonly practicing witchcraft is called Wicca and they are pagan worshipers and the devil is Judeo-Christian and hence certainly not part of their belief systems, let alone their worship.

Merlin: Now look, I once stood exposed to the Dragon’s Breath so that a man could lie one night with a woman. It took me nine moons to recover. And all for this lunacy called, “love”, this mad distemper that strikes down both beggar and king. Never again. Never.

So this week we’re gonna start with Witches on Tuesday

Wizards on Thurs

and on Friday—who knows—you all know I have attention problems so it will be on a topic pertaining to the two but as yet I can’t commit.

Dorothy: [Toto is held hostage by the Witch and one of her monkeys] What are you gonna do to my dog? Give him back to me!
Wicked Witch of the West: Oh in good time my little petty. Oh in good time.
Dorothy: Oh please give me back my dog.
Wicked Witch of the West: Certainly. Certainly. When you give me those slippers.
Dorothy: But the good Witch of the North told me not to.
Wicked Witch of the West: Very well!
[to her flying monkey]
Wicked Witch of the West: Throw that basket into the river and drown him!
Dorothy: No! No! Here! You can have your old slippers but give me back Toto!
Wicked Witch of the West: That’s a good little girl. I know you’d see reason!
[the Witch stoops to steal the shoes but fire burns Dorothy’s toes and the Witch’s hands. Both react in pain]
Wicked Witch of the West: .
Dorothy: Oh! I’m sorry! I’m didn’t do it. Can I still have my dog?
Wicked Witch of the West: No! Fool that I am! I should have remembered! Those slippers will never come off as long as you’re alive. But’s that not what’s worrying me. It’s how to do it. These things must be done delicately or you hurt the spell.