Welcome…

Welcome to The Other Side – my little corner of cyberspace where I write about my experiences and thoughts on Witchcraft, Pagan Spirituality, the Paranormal, Autism, Asperger’s Syndrome and sometimes the interconnectedness of these topics, as well as my day-to-day family stuff here in Sydney, Australia.

This blog has recently undergone some reorganization, which will hopefully make it easier to navigate. I also have 5 other blogs (which could be considered as sub-sections of The Other Side) that are linked to on the appropriate pages here.

Please use the top menu to find the various pages and posts on topics you are interested in. The menu to the right contains links to my most recent posts in addition to a very extensive ‘blog roll’ containing other websites and blogs on related topics. I hope you enjoy browsing my ‘inane ramblings’.

Festival of the Minds

Click here to see website

14th March – 15th March 2015

Liverpool Girl Guide Hall (Sydney, NSW Australia)

Sponsored by the Pagan Awareness Network Australia Inc. with a discount for PAN members!

Festival of the Minds is a celebration of wisdom, curiosity, and the search for knowledge within ourselves, our fascinating world and the mysteries beyond.

It is a weekend of lectures for the pagan practitioner looking for something new or challenging, or the inquisitive mind who craves to be mentally stimulated. The Festival aims to provide unique topics, hard to come by information or alternative viewpoints to enhance the minds of our attendees.

Theory finds that individuals with Asperger’s Syndrome don’t lack empathy – in fact if anything they empathize too much

Originally posted on seventhvoice:

Art work by Aegis Mario S. Nevado

“A ground-breaking theory suggests people with autism-spectrum disorders such as Asperger’s do not lack empathy – rather, they feel others’ emotions too intensely to cope.”

“People with Asperger’s syndrome, a high functioning form of autism, are often stereotyped as distant loners or robotic geeks. But what if what looks like coldness to the outside world is a response to being overwhelmed by emotion – an excess of empathy, not a lack of it?

This idea resonates with many people suffering from autism-spectrum disorders and their families. It also jibes with the “intense world” theory, a new way of thinking about the nature of autism.

As posited by Henry and Kamila Markram of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, the theory suggests that the fundamental problem in autism-spectrum disorders is not a social deficiency but, rather, a hypersensitivity to experience…

View original 1,054 more words

Einherjar at Lugarno Lions Club Spring Festival 2014

Spring has sprung once again so it was time for the 35th Lugarno Lions Club Spring Festival on Sunday 21st Septemeber 2014. Son2 & Son4 as members of the medieval re-enactment group called Einherjar, participated in some of the combat re-enactments on the day. I made a video of Einherjar’s afternoon show featuring Son2, the horn-blowing Viking in green tunic who wasn’t fighting on the day — and Son4, the Hospitaller knight in black tabard, plate armour on arms and legs wearing the Great Helm (the “Ned Kelly” shaped helmet). A tiny bit of the ending got chopped as my iPhone presumably ran out of memory and shut off automatically …lucky it was right at the end though! :D

Winterfest 2014

Click image to see Einherjar website.

Winterfest Medieval Fair was held on 5th & 6th July, this year at the Old Kings School Parade Ground at Parramatta. Son2 & Son4 were there of course, to do display battles as members of Einherjar. Husband and I, plus Son1 and his GF went on the Saturday to see the boys fight.

The photos below were taken by “What A Big Camera” and posted on Facebook. There are many more photos of Winterfest 2014 by WABC in their Facebook album but you must be logged into FB to see them. I’ve only chosen the ones that show my boys to display here on my blog. Click on the first photo to enlarge and scroll through the collection…

Ironfest 2014

Ironfest 2014 was on Friday 25 to Sunday 27 April — 3 days instead of the usual 2 due to the Anzac Day public holiday. Son2 and Son4 (they don’t want me using their names on my blog) are now part of a new re-enactment group called Einherjar which made its public debut at Ironfest this year. They also took part in Sutherland Medieval Regiment (SMR) show fights at Ironfest though Einherjar is now their primary focus for medieval fighting plus learning and showcasing other medieval crafts and general “lifestyle” (whereas SMR is purely a combat group and not into the artsy crafty stuff).

Click image to see Einherjar’s website

Einherjar on Facebook

Here’s a couple of videos I put together on the Saturday (filmed by Son3 and me). Unfortunately we didn’t arrive in time to get a good position to film Einherjar in the morning fights but I did get the SMR show fight later in the morning and the Grand Melee at the end of the day. (Son2 is the Viking with the green and white shield, Son4 is a black Hospitaller knight with plate armour.)

2013 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 56,000 times in 2013. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 21 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

SMR at Lugarno Lions Club Spring Festival 2013

Click image to enlarge or download as a PDF