The Romance of Pirates

Welcome to Pirates for Pagans 7! We’re so glad you could make it! Do check out the other Pirates for Pagans groups on the other networks. Sorry to have been away for so long but we had computer issues for a few months, and Stephen is awaiting the return of his laptop with bated breath. Tegwedd’s computer issues are over with, as she has a new computer. Tegwedd won’t let Stephen use her computer, since he has a negative psychic field around him that kills computers. He’s killed at least 5 computers, and she has no intention of allowing him to kill her new one.

This is one of Stephen’s favorite groups that we’ve created. Yes, we know that the group just has Tegwedd’s name on it, but we share the group. He loves the pirate attire, both 17th century and 18th century. Tegwedd has a decided preference for the 17th century attire, especially the hats. Stephen also likes the spirit of democracy the pirates fostered. Unlike on the naval ships where the word of the captain was law (this was true whether the warship was British, Spanish, French or Dutch), the pirate captain was elected to the post, and had to keep his men happy if he wanted to keep his job. Tegwedd likes the romance of the pirates. She likes the way they talked. She’s looking forward to September 19th, which is global “Talk like a Pirate Day”. Mark yer calendars, me hearties, cos that’s the day fer it. Aye, maties, arrrrrgh, shiver me timbers.

Stephen just adores pirate computer games, and has several. He can’t wait to get his computer back so he can play them again. He even has one he hasn’t even played yet, Piratesville, which is the other game on his Mysteryville game. He recommends Sid Meier’s Pirates Live the Life, which is the 3rd and best of Sid Meier’s Pirates games. The other 2 are Pirates of the Burning Sea and Pirates’ Gold. He likes the graphics, music, and plot. He has a couple other pirate games; Pirate Cove and Pirates of the Caribbean. But of his pirate games, Live the Life has the most options. Right now we feel we should spell out that his games are games about pirates, that they are NOT pirated games. He got them the legit way, walked into the store, and paid money for them. In that game your character can rise in society by getting letters of marque, getting land, and marrying the governor’s daughter. Your pirate character can become a pirate hunter, and go after other pirates and other criminals. Combat is more realistic. Stephen doesn’t know whether a 4th installment is coming out.

When Tegwedd was a mere countess, and occupying the throne in the absence of the Queen, she would invite the pirates into the pavilion so that she could visit with them.

Teresa are a couple myths about pirates. One is that they made people walk the plank. There’s no evidence that pirates ever made their captives walk the plank. There is also no evidence that they buried their treasure anymore. What treasure they did get was distributed right away, and spent just as quickly. We’d like to hear what your research has shown. What other pirate myths are there and what is the truth underneath? Let’s talk about the opportunities for a pirate. He had some choices. He could be a rogue, unattached to any ship or flag. Or be a pirate hunter, as was mentioned above. He can progress within his own nation, get a letter of marque and go after your country’s enemies. Act like a pirate policeman and bring in other kinds of criminals, as a pirate, you can get into places other law enforcement officers couldn’t get into. Many of these criminals wouldn’t surrender without a fight, and you could always bring them back dead. Many times the hunter would bring back only the head as proof he had been apprehended. Another fine pirate game, a board game this time is Blackbeard. There is a computer game by the same name, but Stephen hasn’t been able to find it. If you can find it and send it to him, there’s a reading, a class or research in it for you. The board game is pretty amazing. You really get a feeling for what it was like. There are the long days of boredom, scurvy when you couldn’t find enough fruit. The board game also has very good graphics. It came out in 1991; it’s very educational, teaching the players about all the famous individual pirates, and how they met their ends. It uses a random system, so you never know what’s going to happen. Each player can have as many as 4 pirates. There are many dangers in the game. You can think you’ve encountered a juicy slow moving merchant ship, and it turns out to be a warship. Your options are then limited. You can turn tail and run, or if you think your balls are hot, you can take on the warship in a fight. If you win, you get to roll the dice again, and if it’s doubles, you get the ship, if it’s a better ship. “The combat rules were created by me. The game as it was made didn’t have them,” said Stephen.

Grainne O’Malley, born 1530 died 1603 AKA the Sea Queen of Connaught. As a young girl, she cut off her long hair to shame her father the O’Malley into taking her on a trading expedition to Spain. She was called Grainne Mhaol, (the bald one) formally educated and fostered to another family as was done with noble children back then. At the age of 16, she was married to Donal O’Flaherty and bore him 3 children. He was killed in a pitched battle a few years later, and she married Risdeard Bourke in 1566. They had one son. They demanded a toll from the ships that plied the west coast of Ireland. The Lord Deputy of Ireland, an English lord, got complaints that Grainne and her men were behaving like pirates. She attack ships as far away from her northwestern base as south central Ireland. She also attacked fortresses. She captured Doona castle From the McMahons in retaliation for their killing of her lover Hugh de Lacy, a man 15 years her junior. She captured their boats, killed the men responsible for killing her lover, and still not satisfied with her revenge, captured Doona Castle and took it for herself. She was called the “nurse of every Irish rebellion.” Richard Bingham, an old enemy, was removed from office after Grainne met with Queen Elizabeth I. That must have been a sight to see those two queens meet. They died within a few months of each other in the same year.

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We will coach you using strong ethics. Tegwedd has a couplet she will teach you which you can add to your spell that will ensure that it is ethical. Abbott’s Inn International School of Magick is over 40 years old, having been founded in 1970 in Berkeley, CA. It went cybernetic almost 9 years ago. Lizet has been helping us put the school on a more commercial footing, and with her inspiration, Tegwedd has started packaging the classes into manageable packets. Ms. Freeman did a 3rd website for us almost a month ago at http://abbottsinn.wordpress.com. From there, by clicking on two of the graphics, you can go to either of the other two sites: http://abbottsinninternational.com/ and http://abbottsinn.com/ . You can also get to our network http://abbottsinn.ning.com/ . With her help, we also salvaged some things from his old website, including the mission statement: The Abbott’s Inn International School of Magick aims to provide a gentle nurturing environment that promotes education in both the atmosphere and the specific tools of magick. Our research arm is called the Magickal Research Institute or MRI, not to be confused with the medical MRI, or Magnetic Resonance Image, which Tegwedd had on her right ankle about 9 months ago. Stephen and Lizet came up with the name almost 9 years ago. The three of us have become a very effective working team.