The obvious blessing in this chapter is for Mildred and everyone else who is living with fear - whether it's a nebulous anxiety/phobia like Mildred's fear of the dark or fear of something more concrete. May the be comforted and safe.

My less obvious blessing is for whoever embroidered the samplers with quotes from the Book of Spells that every pupil had in the otherwise plain rooms. My headcanon is that stitching them is something the final year students do to welcome the next lot of first years who will take over their bedrooms - but it could be one particular teacher who makes them or was a group project one particular year and they've just lasted well - but whoever made them they seem to be the only decoration and hint of specialness that the pupils have in their rooms. I hope that they help then to feel more at home and cared for as well as helping them to remember the spells. I'd like to bless everyone who creates beauty and homleyness - may they also be welcomed, nurtured and surrounded by beauty and skilled crafting

My first blessing is for Lady Alice and for any one who thinks that they have lost their chance at love and/or who feels trapped by other people’s expectations of what their relationships should look like. May anyone who has had their heart broken be comforted. May people who have been disappointed or thwarted by circumstances be able to give themselves and each other a second chance and May everyone be free from unfair society always/community or family restrictions on their relationships.

My other Blessing is for the dragon and for any one who judged on their appearance and expectations of “their kind” rather than their own actions. May they be seen clearly as individuals and treated with compassionate responsiveness

I would like to bless the Doctor for his kind and creative care. Presumably when he says that he ordered pretty toys, those dolls and games and picture books.....instead of medicine he did that because he was confident that the Princess didn’t need medicine or other conventional treatment (possibly after the Princesses physical health issues have been treated and she’s in a convalescent phase). As well as his unconventional and developmental-and-emotional-needs-aware approach he listens to the Princess when she says what she needs and that Gobbolino is helping her. So I would like to bless him and all medical and caring professionals (and informal careers) who try to care with creativity and holistic awareness - may they be supported in their work and be nurtured themselves as they nurture others.
Which brings me on to blessing the Princess for knowing what she needs, recognising what will help her and working to make it happen. I’m obviously now more identified with being a child-carer rather than a child myself because when she feigns a relapse rather than finding a more constructive way to stay with Gobbolino I feel frustrated rather than admiring her cleverness. Perhaps she is aware that this is an argument that she won’t have a chance of winning? Anyway recognising your needs when you are ill and miserable is hard and I admire the Princess for being able to do it and for making the effort to have those needs met. May everyone who is suffering be able to recognise the things that will help them and be able to communicate their needs - may they be able to access the things that will heal them in body and mind

I'm sorry, I've realised that I jist have the spoons to write up our next Gobbolino chapter before I throw myself into the HPST Summer School/Retreat. Instead I'm going to do a quick write up of the HPST Night of BlessingsLiveShow methodology. This weekend, before the summer camp proper begins they did two liveshows for people living in European and Australian Time Zones (because unlike me a lot of people aren't able to turn their lives upside down for a week). I attended the Europe session which was in the early evening for me (lunchtime -ish for the Hosts).

First of all they welcomed us and encouraged us to share (in the text box) our "dungeons and towers" for the week as a check-in and to help us come together in the (virtual) sacred space talked a little about the idea of Blessings (which is discussed further in Casper's book The Power of Ritual - i've finished reading it now and highly recommend it). They spoke about things like Blessing and Sacred Reading Practices as "Spiritual Technologies" which i really liked.

The way the evening worked was that each Host choose a Character from the Harry Potter series who is particularly important to them ( Vanessa choose Molly Weasley and Casper chose Dumbledore) and spoke a little about why they resonate with them (keeping a gently critical eye on their character's flaws).
Then we did a Sacred Imagination on a couple of passage that particularly exemplifies those characters. The passages were read on video clip by "Friends of the Show", slowly and carefully to give us time to fully enguage our imagination but with expression and a touch of humour. It reminded me that reading out loud can be such a great gift.
The Sacred Imagination excecisrs lead the Hosts and then us to bless the characters - similarly to the Blessings I give at the end of each chapter.
We then moved from blessing fictional characters to blessing real people (and creatures and things). Using Gobbolino as an example, after reading I might ve inspired to Bless everybody who is homeless as Gobbolino keeps search for a new place to live. Then focusing in on more specfic resonances to bless LGBT people who are rejected by their family of orgin in the same way that Gobbolino is rejected by Grimalkin, Sootica and the Witch. And moving even more specifically to bless a particular friend who is looking for a new job/career as Gobbolino explores different roles.
Finally we we encouraged to move to blessing ourselves. Again using the example of Gobbolino i can Bless myself for my (existing/ongoing) care of children or in the hope that I will be able to develop some of his optimism and ease in making new friends...

Obviously any online event lacks something compared to in person ones but this had a lovely atmosphere. I always enjoy listening to Vanessa and Casper and I felt for/with the attendees sharing their Blessings in the text box (C&V read a selection out loud, which was useful for accessibility). I'm looking forward to using my reading to inspire more Blessings - and for my act of blessing to inspire changes in my attitude and behaviour even if it doesn't have any more metaphysical benefits for whoever I have Blessed.

My first blessing is for the Lady Mayoress who is so deeply affected by her irrational fear/discomfort/dislike - it must be really difficult for her to cope with sharing her home and the love and care of the children with Gobbolino. And she tries so hard to do the right thing for the Brothers and for Gobbolino and to overcome her head-weasels. We don’t know why she feels like this about cats - perhaps she’s experienced a cat related trauma or is it part of a wider pattern of mental distress? But we do know that she is owning her emotional baggage and trying her best to overcome it. So a Blessing for everyone who experiences irrational fears and intrusive thoughts and responses or other kinds of emotional distress. May they be comforted and supported.

My less obvious blessing is for the Lord Mayor and for anyone who is stuck in the middle of an interpersonal conflict and who isn’t sure what to do for the best. And for people who work to mitigate the distress of innocent bystanders/any one who is “collateral damage“ in interpersonal conflicts like his comforting of the distressed Brothers by having just the right kind of treat ready in his pockets after they have had to say goodbye to Gobbolino. May they be blessed with insight and wisdom for how best to respond and may they also receive comfort and consolation.

My first and I think obvious blessing is for all of the orphans who, before Gobbolino moved into the the Orphanage kitchen and could magic up treats, only had horrible gruel to eat at breakfast - and who had to make the choice between going hungry and eating something unpleasant and not as nourishing as they deserved. For everyone who is subject to uncaring and uncareful “care” - May they be properly valued and nurtured and have everything they need to grow and thrive and advocate for themselves.
And my second blessing is a bit more personal - it’s for the Porteress and for everyone else who isn’t good at mornings (like me!) and for everyone who is doing their best but has very human limits like the need to sleep. However much she wants for the orphans to be well cared for 24/7 she can’t be awake And looking after them and supervising her staff all of the time. May we/they all be able to get as much genuinely refreshing sleep and emotionally, physically and spiritual nourishing time-off as we need to be our best selves and do what needs to be done.

My first more obvious blessing is for the children who rescue Gobbolino from the mill-stream. They see him in danger and act quickly (and effectively) to save him. I'm a little bit uncomfortable with the way their actions and words are split up on gender lines. When they are discussing Gobbolino after they have pulled him out of the water there's a back and forth commentary between the sisters abd the brothers where they boys are more quick to point out Gobbolino's "faults" (ways in which he is like a witch's cat) and the girls defend him by pointing out his more mundane and homely features. I have a lot of feelings about it - I don't think being like a witch's cat is a good reason to reject a kitten and I don't like the implication that boys are naturally more critical/protective or that girls are more soft hearted/welcoming. But if i'm going to stick to the process of trusting the text I have to accept that those are the attitudes and opinions of these particular boys and girls - shaped by the (fictional but obviously very traditionally gendered) world they are growing up in. And both attitudes are necessary/useful. The most important thing is that when they see a creature in danger they work together to save it. So a Blessing for (and much Gratitude to) all first-responders - formal or informal and for everyone who sees something concerning and acts to make a difference. May they be safe, physically and emotionally, in their work to help others, may they be alert to what is needed and may they have whatever they need in order to ve able to act effectively.
The less obvious and slightly harder for me to get my head around blessing is for the Farmer. I've already discussed not knowing if he is acting with sensible caution or from prejudice and it's too easy to just see him as the baddy for not immediately fully acdepting Gobbolino. But he isn't a simple baddy - he sees something that concerns him and he doesn't act impulsively (which is an interesting counterpoint to the children needing to act immediately to save Gobbolino from the mill wheel). He makes sure his children are safe and expresses his love for them before he does anything about their worryingly magical new pet. I would like to bless everyone who is not sure how to respond to something that may be a threat or may be a blessing, for everyone who is trying their best to protect the people they love and have responsibility towards. May they have compassion and thoughtfulness and may we all be careful, thorough, kind and open to new perspectives in our identification of what is and isn't a threat, may we all have the strength to resist prejudice and when we do have to make difficult judgements may we have everyone's wellbeing in our hearts and minds

One fine moonlight night little Gobbolino, the witch's kitten, and his sister Sootica tumbled out of the cavern where they had been born, to play at catch-a-mouse among the creeping shadows....

I choose to read Chapter 1 Gobbolino in Disgrace because of the current pandemic - the entire world is experiencing adversity at this moment. But I don't want this journal/journey to be focused on Covid-19 - a lot of us read to get away from anxiety-making things. I am going to mention it where it's appropriate (because inevitably our current situation informs our reading) but I want to be thinking about other things too. My current adversity is living with a chronic health condition - asthma - that means I am officially classified as "vulnerable", which is frightening and i'm very much on my own. I was have suffering from isolation and a lack of a local-friends group (even though I have awesome online and long-distance friends) before the outbreak even started. I am still very aware that as adversity goes I'm comparatively lucky; I'm not actually ill and I haven't lost anyone. Which doesn't cheer me up or mean that my anxiety and loneliness isn't real (I have never been a fan of "it could be worse" being seen as a good thing - for me it's a recipe for feeling overwhelmed and even more anxious!) just that I need to have perspective - and have compassion for (and ideal offer support to) those who are suffering more.

9 Sentence Recap:
Gobbolino and Sootica are witch's kittens.
They go outside of the cave they were born in for the first time.
They play and talk about what they want to be.
Gobbolino wants to be a kitchen cat.
He says "people don't love witch's cats"
The moonlight shows Gobbolino has a white paw, is faintly tabby and has blue eyes.
Sootica calls their mother, Grimalkin, and the Witch.
They attack Gobbolino.
He's left in the "darkest, dampest" corner of the cave.

3 Sentence Recap (I'm challenging myself to phrase this slightly differently than the 9 sentence one)
There are two, very young, kittens exploring the world
Gobbolino looks different!
He is attacked and abandoned.

Obviously the main adversity in this chapter is Gobbolino being assaulted and rejected. Significantly it's for something he can't help, wasn't previously aware of and has no way of changing in the future. (which is not to say that assaulting someone for something they do have control over is OK). I think it's important that it happens the first time that Gobbolino and Sootica venture into the outside world - in their infancy, safely contained (nested?) within the cave they've been protected (obviously even infants can experience adversity, for example if they're ill, but I think it's a slightly different kind of experiencing and processing than an older child or an adult has). Kittens' eyes are closed when they are born so they have no sense of what they or their litter mates look like. Gobbolino and Sootica have developed and learned enough to know what a witch's cat "should" look and act like. Gobbolino is already reacting against that, he wants to be a kitchen cat and be loved, before he even knows that he can't physically fulfil the requirements or a witch's cat.
I love the description of Gobbolino and Sootica's eyes full of wonder and excitement and how Ever leaf that blew, every dewdrop that glittered, every rustle in the forest around them set their furry black ears a-prick - it's that wonderful curiosity and engagment that young children have when they are learning - but that includes learning about difficult and upsetting things.
I find it a bit harder to understand how Grimalkin and the Witch haven't noticed Gobbolino's difference already. The book says it's because of the darkness of the cave (and this process depends on trusting the text). Thinking about how babies eye change colour after they are born maybe Grimalkin was assuming that her son's eye would eventually turn green? She was trying to hold off - or maybe even outright deny - the potential adversity. Which is an understandable maternal response but those of us who grew up with differences know that longer-term denial or minimising are unhelpful.
When Grimalkin and the Witch do finally realise and acknowledge Gobbolino's difference his adversity begins - it's an impressively vivid and active description of an assault even though it's a children's book so not detailed or graphic in less time than it takes to tell they had knocked the unhappy Gobbolino head over heals, set him on his feet again, cuffed his ears, tweaked his tail, bounced him, bullied him. It's horrible and all consuming, like a whirlwind. Then there's a very good description of someone who is understandably numb with shock and confusion. They so bewildered him that he could only stare stupidly at them, blinking his beautiful blue eyes as if he could not imagine what they were so angry about.
Poor Gobbolino. He doesn't deserve this. Even if he had actually done something wrong he wouldn't deserve this but there's something particularly horrific that this has happened just because of the way that he looks ...

I'm starting the Scared Practices with Lectio Divina (mostly because I think it's the most straight forward practise (which certainly doesn't mean simple!). I'm going to do this one on my own but I'm hoping that we'll work out ways to make this more of a group practice. Do please add you comments and insights.
I've chosen to work with the final sentence of this chapter Gobbolino was afraid of the toads and shivered and shook all night.
Lectio Divina is a four level process and the first level is "lectio" - the literal reading and narrative. This sentence is at the end of the chapter after Gobbolino has been rejected and assaulted by his mother and his "mistress". He has just been though a cascade of big, confusing experiences - starting of playing and getting to explore the world of the first time, then having his differences noticed and straight away being attacked and then thrown into this horrible dark corner with frightening toads. He's still very young and he must be exhausted but he's too hurt and frighted to sleep.
The next level is "mediatio" - the allegory, symbols and metaphors. It's quite a literal sentence but I'm drawn to thinking about what the symbolism of toads might be - they are a bit icky and other, reptile and not mammal. I know that toads aren't actually slimy in real life but that is how I imagine them, with unpleasantly warty and potentially toxic skin. The are associated with magic and unpleasant practices (medieval "toad swallowers"). I'm not surprised that Gobbolino is frightened. I'm thinking of Baron Greenback from DangerMouse! Which is possibly not terribly helpful. But I'm also thinking of how magical creatures aren't always what they seem and the frog prince and other tales of people transformed into frogs or toads (yes, I know that frogs and toads are different). Maybe the toads have also experienced their own adversity? If Gobbolino was less frighted would they be able to communicate with him and maybe help him? Or would they, as magical creature living in a witch's cavern, have the same reaction to him as the other cats and the Witch and would trying to reach out to them make him vulnerable to more abuse?
The next level is "oratio" - reflection. How is this text connected with my own life? I'm drawn to the shivered and shook all night part of the sentence. My sleep cycle is always quite erratic and during the time I've been self-isolating it's drifted further from the conventional day/night pattern. Even when I nap in the day I do find it frustrating not to be able to sleep at night. In the dark and quietness worries seem bigger and I feel even more adrift. Usually I do sleep eventually even if it is in short snatches (in fact with chronic fatigue I sleep too much rather than too little) but there have been times when worries and memories have gotten so big that i haven't been able to rest from them. Gobbolino isn't even in a safe place - the toads could turn on him, the Witch or Grimalkin (or even Sootica and his other siblings if they follow the adults' example) could come back and attack him again. He must be full of adrenaline, which is what is making him shiver and shake. There have been times when I've been in that state, fortunately not recently.
The final level is "contemplatio" - the invitation. What action is this text prompting me to take? In my imagination I desperately want to comfort Gobbolino - to stroke him or wrap him up in a blanket and sit with him until he can sleep. But I know when someone is in such a heightened state of distress even a friendly approach can feel threatening and the traumatised person may lash out without thinking. I think this sentence is inviting me to be extra gentle around other people's hurts and to try not to assume that things I might not perceive as troubling or as only a minor threat (the toads) may feel extremely distressing to them. To try to have (and express compassion) in a way that doesn't assume that they experience the world as I do.

Finally (and even though I have been thinking about this chapter and what I want to say about it for several days I am surprised at quite how long it had taken me to wrote up) Blessings.
The obvious blessing is for Gobbolino - and for everyone who is judged or mistreated for who they are and for how they look and other things about themselves that they can't help or have no control over. May they/we be accepted and valued
The less obvious blessing is for Sootica - and for everyone who doesn't know the best way to talk about differences and other complicated topics and for people who's unguarded words cause a reaction they never imagined and then have to live with the consequences. May they/we be able to find mindful ways to express themselves and may they/we be able to take appropriate responsibility but not blame themselves/ourselves for things that are their/our not their/our fault.

Please do add your comments and insights (and feel free to disagree with me)
Next week I will be reading Chapter 2:Gobbolino is Left Alone through the theme of Expectation.