Month: January 2012

Becoming a High Priest/ess

Becoming a High Priest/ess

Author: Valerie Voigt

Beginnings: I practiced for a while as a solitary for some years before beginning training with a family tradition Witch in 1978. She saw to my initiation in 1981 (as an eclectic, albeit with traditional background: this because I was not marrying into her family) . She told me to found a Coven, which I did, with her to guide me. After she crossed over to the Summerland, I later studied the Feri tradition, and was initiated by Victor and Cora Anderson in the mid ’80’s. Feri as I learned it is a non-degree Tradition, though some teachers use a quasi-degree system to give their students training benchmarks. I was initiated into a Gardnerian Coven in the late 80’s, and was raised to 3rd degree in 2008. I’ve been running Covens and/or training circles and/or open circles almost all the time since 1981. I continue to study. I lead the Gardnerian Coven Blackbirds.

In my Covens, we’ve always made a distinction between the High Priest/ess of the Coven itself (that’s an ongoing role with responsibilities to the group, and to the daughter Covens, and to the larger Pagan community) and the High Priest/ess of any particular ritual (that role is temporary and includes responsibility only for running that ritual) . Most of the time, the High Priest/ess of the Coven also High Priest/esses the rituals too; but we do require everyone, as part of their training, to design and perform both private group rituals and semi-public community Sabbat rituals.

One reason for a lot of the confusion over terminology is that the terms “priest/ess” and “high priest/ess” are used in multiple ways even within the older Traditions. To wit:

In most of the British Traditions (which I will, for the purposes of the present discussion, define as the Gardnerian Tradition and those Traditions with a clear genetic relationship to it, e.g., Alexandrian, Mohsian, Silver Crescent, etc.) every First Degree initiate is ritually announced to be a “Witch and Priest/ess.” Why, and what does this mean, exactly?

The “why” is twofold.

Firstly, it makes it harder for someone to infiltrate a Coven for the Inquisition and then turn around, turn the Coven in, and get away without any suspicion from the Inquisitors (after all, if any other spies have happened to see the initiation, it will be harder for someone to talk their way out of an accusation if the spies say, “I saw this person ordained as clergy in this religion!”) . Granted, by the founding of the Gardnerian tradition as we have it now, the Inquisition was no longer the threat it had formerly been (it does still exist–it’s now called the Office for the Defense of the Faith, and the current Pope used to head it–but it is much reduced in power and fame, and has softened its methods) . The British Witchcraft Act, however, had still not been repealed–and the legal implications and practical dangers of being publicly discovered as a Witch were very real, and not funny.

Secondly, and more importantly these days, as a Priest/ess you are directly responsible for continuing to pursue your own spiritual development, for listening to the Gods (not just praying to them or asking for Their help) , and for taking control of your own life and accepting and dealing with whatever responsibilities the Gods send.

It is in this latter sense that the widespread idea that “Every Witch (or even every Pagan) is a priest/ess” is true. In a way, “priest/ess” is a courtesy title, given to remind the newly initiated Witch of their responsibility–it does not qualify one to lead a group. It does, however, give notice of the responsibility to fulfill whatever obligations may arise (for example, in time of need, the person might have to step up to higher responsibilities in full knowledge of their own weaknesses) . In such cases, when the person shoulders such responsibility honestly and without pretension, the Gods always provide Their help.

As to what it means:

A First Degree initiate should, at least nowadays, be competent to perform their own rituals, on their own behalf–an activity that requires the basic priestly knowledge of how ritual works, including whatever details are required within their Tradition.

Likewise, in some of these same British Traditions, every Second Degree initiate is ritually announced to be a “Witch and High Priest/ess.” Again–why, and what does this mean, exactly?

There is some “courtesy” aspect to the title, as a Second Degree is not expected, routinely, to lead a Coven. Nonetheless, a Second Degree is expected to be able to lead rituals for the Coven. That is, s/he is able to competently fulfill the ritual role (if not necessarily the administrative, counseling, etc. etc. roles) of a Coven leader. If the regular High Clergy of the Coven must be absent for any reason, it falls to the ranking Coveners (who are typically Second Degree) to carry out the ritual duties. In some cases, a Second Degree will actually lead a Coven (normally under the guidance of the High Priest/ess of the parent Coven) –in this case, “High Priest/ess” is no longer a courtesy title!

Even in these British Traditions, however, the word “High Priest/ess, ” used in normal conversation, refers to a permanent Coven leader, who is always Third Degree.

Because, traditionally, Wiccan clergy are unpaid, most of us have full-time jobs that are not connected with religion–we are secretaries, engineers, factory workers, or whatever. Therefore, in most cases we have not had professional clergy training aside from what our own Elders, with the same limitations, were able to teach us. So, typically only the independently wealthy among us have the leisure to pursue a full-time ministry, or the professional training that allows them to do most aspects of the job well. How many independently wealthy Pagans do you know? I thought so.

As a result, our High Clergy usually have to specialize in only one or two of the jobs clergy are expected to do: administration, ritual, counseling, theurgy, thaumaturgy, teaching, herbology, divination, interfaith work, writing, public speaking, outreach, theology, social work–there’s probably a lot more. We simply do not have the time and resources to be good at more than a small subset of these tasks. Few Craft clergy are good at most of these–and almost all those with deep expertise in many of them have very gray hair, because they have had to learn by long years of experience. It’s not that our own teachers were lacking: but often their own talents were different from ours, so most of us have had to supplement our in-Coven training with outside studies. Sometimes we have the good fortune to learn from several different Craft teachers (I have been incredibly lucky in this regard) . Usually we have to supplement our training in other ways, such as by attending sessions at conferences such as PantheaCon, or taking evening classes in a specialty such as counseling.

The point I’m making here is that even talented, very well-trained Traditional High Priest/esses aren’t usually good at all of the tasks we associate with the job.

In less traditional Covens (including most of the eclectic ones I have known) , the title “High Priest/ess” is still usually given to a Coven leader. In those Covens that adhere to a strictly non-hierarchical approach, the term may not be used at all, or sometimes the term will be used only in its ritual sense–that is, ritual responsibilities are rotated amongst all the Coven members, and whoever is in charge of a particular ritual is “High Priest/ess” for the duration of that ritual only.

(This last use of the term “High Priest/ess” is startling to most Traditionalists, who, as Mike Nichols puts it, “would no more rotate the position of High Priestess in their Coven than they would rotate the position of mother in their family.”)

Like many others here, I have run into my share of kids who have read one book, have adopted a Craft name such as “Merlin” or “Ain Soph” (yes, really!) , and are running around calling themselves High Priest/ess. I usually manage to keep a straight face.

Unless there is good reason, I don’t confront them about it–and if I must confront them, I usually do so indirectly. For example, if I am at a gathering and some clearly unqualified self-appointed “High Priest/ess” is gathering a group of naive prospective students around his/herself–prospective students whom, according to my understanding of my Oaths, I must protect insofar as I can–I join the conversation and ask some question. For example, “How do you feel that elemental correspondences are affected by local geography?” or “How do you approach invocatory Work in your Tradition?” I continue the conversation until the pretender has clearly revealed him/herself. I never say, “You don’t have a clue!” because I don’t have to: they show it. And I don’t scold–there’s no need to humiliate anyone. They just need to be given pause to consider the need to learn more.

Most of the time, though, the Gods seem to take care of it. How? Well, if the person is just clueless and seeking ego-strokes, They usually provide the person with some embarrassing experience (such as freezing up in a group ritual, having to consult their one book, and discovering that the answer they need is not in the book) . On the other hand, if underneath the ego-indulgence the person really has the potential, sometimes the Gods simply dump a lot of responsibilities on the person and force them to handle the situation! I myself have seen this happen. In such cases, I encourage more experienced Coven leaders to give careful and discreet help to the chagrined-but-suddenly-serious person who is trying to be responsible. Why? Because there are far too many more Pagan seekers trying to find teachers than there are qualified teachers to teach them–and if the Gods show me someone who is truly and honestly trying to step up to the plate, it is my duty to help if I can.

I normally do not encourage teens to jump into the Craft, because serious pursuit of Craft studies requires so much time and energy: youngsters should be out having fun, discovering their identities, and exploring a lot of different things. So I tell them they should read widely, be careful, and check back as adults if they are still interested. But teenagers are not automatically unqualified to study, or even to lead a Coven: one Craft Elder for whom I have always had great respect first learned the Craft as a teen in the 1940’s, in an all-teen Coven led by a teenaged brother-sister pair. When the teenaged coveners had questions, the High Priest and High Priestess sometimes didn’t know the answers and had to go ask their parents–who were High Priest and High Priestess of a traditional Coven.

Likewise, I suspect that my own two daughters, who both grew up in the Craft, could readily run Covens: one is now 25, and the other is 19. But both, having seen for themselves how much work is involved, have so far declined.

I never sought to be a High Priestess–I had expected to simply be a quiet Pagan who did supportive behind-the-scenes work. And if I had known how much work (both in the sense of magical/spiritual Work and elbow-grease-type work) was involved, I probably would have run screaming–at least until the Gods dragged me back. Because if They want you, you don’t, in the end, have much choice about it!

To have the title of High Priest/ess, all you have to do is call yourself one. To actually be a High Priest/ess, you have to do the work. The title, by itself, isn’t a goal; at best, it’s really just a side effect.

Blessed Be!

Coven Life: The Tie That Binds

Coven Life: The Tie That Binds

Author: Aconite Caotix

I’m sure that many people wonder what it is like to be in a coven. To some, it is their goal to find that special group of people that you can share your magickal journey with and have that bond of love and trust that only seems to be in such a tight knit group of people. This essay is to serve as a warning to those that feel that they NEED to be in a coven, grove, or circle to further themselves spiritually. Yes, there are many lessons to learn in such a group, but they might not all be ones that you want to learn the way they are taught to you.

When I first came to Wicca, I was what you might call a “lost soul”. I was seeing a counselor for depression, and one of the things that we came up with that was leading to my depression was a lack of belonging to any spiritual group. I was your typical “seeker”, and ripe for anyone to pick. So I met a very charismatic gentleman at a Pagan Meetup, and he said that he was starting a coven. My eyes lit up when he said the word. It was the very reason I was there! But you know the saying, “Be careful what you wish for…”

Things were great the first few years. I was getting the teaching that I had always wanted, and even though there was a lot of work on my part involved, I believed that it was all worth the effort, and that I was serving the gods. I’m not going to go into my whole history with the coven, but I will get right to the point of this essay and that is that the leaders of the coven were not all that they originally seemed to be. What seemed to be a nice, nurturing, couple turned out to be people that were selfish, dishonest, and willing to do whatever they had to and use whoever they had to in order to get what they wanted or feel that they deserved out of life.

For the whole ten years of my time with them, I was a servant. Sure, they called me their friend, and even went so far as to call me family, but I was to them whatever they needed me to be for their own purposes at the time. When the High Priest was lonely for company, I was his best friend. When they needed money, I was family. When they needed someone to move furniture, I was the subordinate doing their part to help their elders. They even coerced me into getting a cell phone JUST so they could get a hold of me whenever they needed to.

Now some of you might be reading this and think, “Hold on! You weren’t in a coven, you were in a cult!” Well, you would be wrong, but not completely. If you have read Bonewitz’s or other lists on what to look out for in a group that could classify it as a cult, you could find elements of a cult-like group in the coven I was in, but I don’t think I was ever strictly in a cult. But I would like to strongly suggest that if you don’t get anything else out of this essay, that you take away a caution when building the kind of bond a coven fosters with ANYONE.

Yes, it is a very romantic notion to be that close with a group of people, and to have that support network in your life, but if you are not careful, you can get into a situation where the support only really flows one way, and it is REALLY hard to see that is happening when you are right in the middle of it, filled with notions of “family”, “perfect love and perfect trust”, and “hierarchical tradition”. You can easily be duped into thinking that all the things that are being demanded of you are legitimate, no matter how outrageous they may seem to someone on the outside.

The coven setting can create the perfect storm for egos to be fed, “us vs. them” alliances to be formed, and where “tradition” can easily trump common sense. You feel that you owe your allegiance to those that have worked so hard to put the group together. And it is usually an allegiance that is required unconditionally. They SAY that you are there of your own free will, but how free is your will when you are doing things for people because you feel you have to? Because you feel bound by some mystical sense of accountability to the leader of the group. It is this kind of command that turns coven members into minions.

When three separate groups of parents of members of our group thought that the leaders were controlling and egotistical after meeting them for just a short time, then you think that would have opened my eyes to the fact that something was unhealthy in the relationship. But the bond they created was so strong that I did not see it right away. It was only after 10 years of doing practically nothing but my job and my coven life that I realized I had gotten in “too deep”.

There were other factors to my leaving as well. The most damaging one was that my wife and I actually LIVED with the coven leaders for about a year. (I know you are thinking that “c” word again.) Luckily for me, though, it was during this time that we got to see their true colors, and the lengths they were willing to go to secure their own comfort and well being, anyone else’s be damned. They would claim to others that we were “helping each other out”, when it was really them that needed OUR financial assistance. They took advantage of our good natures and drained us for every penny they could, but still thought we owed them more when we finally managed to get out of there and get our own place. We even almost bought a house with them! I thank the gods every day that we did not, because it would have been doubly hard to leave then, but at the time we were fully committed to them. They, however, were only committed to themselves.

So please take this caution to heart. You may think that a coven is the only way to get the spiritual experience and teaching that you feel you need in your life, as did my wife, many others, and I. And there are some lessons that you will probably only learn is such a setting. However, joining a coven is a possible trap. While it may not exactly fit the description of a cult to a tee, there are elements of such groups built into the structure of most covens. Someone who has been intimately involved in such a group for ten years has warned you. And while I don’t completely regret it, there is a lot to life that I missed out on during that time because of my allegiance to the group and its leaders.

There are other ways to get spiritual teachings and camaraderie. Public gatherings are great ways to meet others of like mind and spirit without the trappings of “belonging” to anyone. A lot of local new age stores have some kind of classes going on regularly. But another note of caution here: some of these classes are taught by leaders such as the ones I had, and they can use these classes as a way to recruit people into their group. And if you do find yourself in that first interview with the leaders of a coven, try your best to find out what kind of people you are talking to. Ask to see their bylaws. If they give the leaders “supreme authority” and equate them with the gods themselves, then enter at YOUR OWN RISK! Because you could find yourself tied to them in a way you never thought you would be to anyone for any reason.

And it is a tough bind to break.

Today We Honor Nemausus

Nemausus

 

Deus Nemausus is often said to have been the Celtic patron god of Nemausus (Nîmes). The god does not seem to have been worshipped outside of this locality. The city certainly derives its name from Nemausus, which was perhaps the sacred wood in which the Celtic tribe of the Volcae Arecomici (who of their own accord surrendered to the Romans in 121 BC) held their assemblies (according to Encyclopædia Britannica 1911), or was perhaps the local Celtic spirit guardian of the spring that originally provided all water for the settlement, as many modern sources suggest. Or perhaps Stephanus of Byzantium was correct in stating in his geographical dictionary that Nemausos, the city of Gaul, took its name from the Heracleid (or son of Heracles) Nemausios.

An important healing-spring sanctuary existed in the town; it was established in some form at least as early as the early Iron Age but was expanded after the Romans colonised the region in the late 2nd century BC, when there was active Roman encouragement of the cult. Another set of local spirits worshiped at Nemausus (Nîmes) were the Nemausicae or Matres Nemausicae, who were fertility and healing goddesses belonging to the spring sanctuary.

Does Your Pet Know When You’re Sick?

Does Your Pet Know When You’re Sick?

  • Melissa Breyer

An acquaintance of mine recently posted a picture on Facebook of his son, suffering from strep throat, and Happy the cat curled luxuriously around the boy’s neck. I could practically feel the warmth, weight, and goodness of Happy’s body as we joked about the Happy cat cure.

It was an exceedingly cute picture, for sure, but it got me thinking about my old kitty, Serena, and what seemed an infallible instinct for illness or general blues. The minute anyone plopped on the bed with pain or malaise, Serena would be there, hop upon the chest, and assume ‘the position’…a long straight-out stretch punctuated with her legs and paws wrapped around said sufferer’s neck. I’m not sure if she ever cured my strep throat, but she certainly melted away sorrow like there was no tomorrow. I really can’t say for certain whether or not she had some instinctual sense, or if this was a usual cuddling configuration that I only noticed when I was not 100 percent.

I have heard of dogs being able to detect cancer, but what do you think? Are our pets so in tune with us that they can tell when we are not well? And if so, do they act on it? I think there’s something to it. Share your thoughts in the comments.

Can Dogs Get Colds?

Can Dogs Get Colds?

  • Nicolas, selected from petMD

Winter isn’t the only time of year we have to worry about “catching” a cold, but it is the primary time for it. We’re spending more time in closed quarters, with windows and doors shut tight and no way to escape the germs. It is only a matter of time before someone in the house becomes sick. It could be you, but did you know that it could also be your dog that comes down with this common respiratory infection?

While there are differences in the types of viruses that infect humans versus dogs, the symptoms are basically the same: sneezing, coughing, runny or stuffy nose, watery eyes. What can you do to protect your dog from catching cold, or if your dog does come down with a case of the cold, what can you do to treat it?

Different Germs, Different Viruses

As mentioned above, the type of cold a dog suffers from is different from the type a human suffers from. The illness is not communicable between species — at least, one has not yet been discovered — so there is no need to worry about catching your dog’s cold, or vice versa.

You will need to differentiate a common cold from a more serious health issue. For example, a common cause of dry cough is a condition known as “kennel cough.” This contagious type of cough, as its name suggests, is typically contracted through a kennel or boarding facility. This cough is most easily recognized by its characteristic honking sound. If your dog has recently been boarded or has had contact with a dog that has been boarded recently, this will need to be considered, and will need to be treated by a veterinarian.

There are other highly contagious, cold-like illnesses to be familiar with, as well. The influenza virus, parainfluenza virus, adenovirus, and tuberculosis are all illnesses that can be transmitted by infected dogs.

Another potentially life-endangering viral illness is canine distemper. A dog exhibiting symptoms of distemper will usually have coughing, vomiting, high fever, and a thick discharge from the eyes and nose.

 

When a Cold is Not a Germ or a Virus

There are several types of parasites that can get into the lungs, heart and trachea, and which can also cause symptoms that mimic a cold infection. Coughing and other breathing problems are the main symptoms. Fungal infections are also commonly found in dogs, and can sometimes lead to life threatening conditions, when the fungal parasite sets up house in the lungs, causing ongoing, repetitive coughing, scarring of the lung tissue, and eventually, in some cases, pneumonia.

More difficult to distinguish in many instances, but just as common in animals as in humans, are allergies to environmental triggers and/or food products. An undiagnosed asthma or allergies that trigger respiratory symptoms can also bring on coughing and sneezing fits in dogs.

How to Care for a Pet with a Cold

If your dog is coughing or sneezing, but is in otherwise good health, you may be able to treat the condition as you would a simple human cold — with lots of liquids, healthy foods (Chicken soup, even? But of course! Just make sure to leave out the bones.), warmth, and maybe even some time in a warm and humid room. This can be done by placing a humidifier near his rest area or by filling the bathtub with steaming water and letting the dog hang out in the bathroom for a bit (not in the water), just to let the steam loosen up his sinuses and lungs.

It is important to note that while most respiratory conditions will begin to improve within several days from the time of onset, some dogs’ immune systems are not as prepared for an infection and may need a course of antibiotics or other medications in order to fully recover.

If your dog is either very young or very old, it is best to have her looked over by your veterinarian, since dogs at either end of the age scale tend to have less capable immune systems and can suffer more as a result.

You can help to prevent a cold by keeping her indoors during cold, wet weather, with just brief trips outside for relief. It isn’t the cold temperature that creates the illness, of course, but over exposure to unfriendly temperatures or environments can create a physical situation that makes it easier for a bacterial or viral germ to latch on and take hold in the body. And making sure the physical body is at its healthiest is the main preventative for a host of diseases, not just the cold. Provide your dog with plenty of fresh water — even if there is water still in the bowl, make sure to change it out at least once a day, ideally with a clean bowl every day — and healthy foods so that your dog’s immune system can keep up with whatever germs come his way, and so that he has the strength to exercise at a level that is normal for his age and breed. If your dog is of a breed that typically has respiratory challenges, your veterinarian may suggest keeping a humidifier in your dog’s rest area as a matter of course.

Finally, it can be challenging enough to have one pet who is as “sick as a dog,” you certainly don’t want a house-full of them. While your dog is ill, make sure she is separated from the other dogs in the house so that the infection is not passed along, and if symptoms don’t improve or appear to worsen, consult with your veterinarian.

Cosmic Calendar for Jan. 21st

turday, January 21, 2012

 

Are worries and nervous tension giving you a psychic headache that won’t seem to dissipate? You may be tuning into Monday’s upcoming Mars turnaround – where the red planet shifts from moving forward in Virgo to doing backflips for approximately 80 days. Helping you cope with the increasing martial energy-field are a Moon-Venus supportive, 60-degree tie (6:01AM PST) and a similar hook-up between the Sun and Uranus (5:22PM PST). However, these two favorable sky patterns are separated by nearly half the day and they may not be able to neutralize discordant vibes coming from the monthly Moon-Pluto union in Capricorn (4:33AM PST), Pallas making an abrasive, 45-degree tie to Pluto (7:32PM PST), an off-kilter, 150-degree link from Mars to Pallas (8:29PM PST), the Moon parallel to Pluto (10:04PM PST) and a feisty, unsettling Sun-Jupiter square from Aquarius to Taurus (10:36PM PST). The cosmos is clearly ruffling many of its feathers, and the shadowy, dark-of-the-moon monthly cycle is also gaining power as the next New Moon happens late tomorrow night. Do your best to make some breakthroughs in higher consciousness and tap into Uranian-endowed flashes of genius along the way. The Moon in Capricorn continues to stimulate your overall urge to reach loftier career milestones.

Calendar of the Moon for Jan. 21st

Calendar of the Moon
21 Beth/Poseideion

Day of the Leprous White Lady

Color: White
Element: Earth
Altar: Upon a white cloth lay a skull, three white candles, a pair of white gloves. and a bowl of milk laced with clear liquor.
Offerings: Tend one who is ill.
Daily Meal: Dairy-based.

Invocation to the Leprous White Lady

(To be spoken Call And Response. The Call is spoken and the Response is whispered.)
White as the skin of a pale corpse,
White as the snow that freezes the world,
White as the owl that swoops down on its prey,
White as the maggot devouring dead flesh,
White as the belly of the worm,
White as the frosted eyes of the blind man,
White as the teeth of the predator,
White as the hame of the forgotten ghost,
White as the hair of the sacred hag,
White as the scent of soured milk,
White as the bones scattered on the earth,
White as the ashes scattered in the wind,
White as the moon that brings madness to the brain,
You walk across the twisted land
And bring illness to all that cross your path.
We accept, White Lady, that this is part of life;
That each devouring dragon in the blood
Is as dear to you are any of us.
You are the one who keeps our numbers
From carelessly overrunning the Earth.
You are cruel, yet we honor your necessity,
And ask only that you pass us by for yet one more year.
Turn your face from us, White Lady,
And do not come to our beds
Until you come partnered with a swifter death.
White as the bones scattered on the earth,
White as the ashes scattered in the wind,
White as the Leprous White Lady who walks alone.

(All blow out the candles and leave in silence.)

Calendar of the Sun for Jan. 21st

Calendar of the Sun

Carista – Day of Peace in the Family

Color: Lavender
Element: Water
Altar: Upon a lavender cloth set a tray of cakes shaped like clasping hands, and many cups full of hot tea.
Offerings: Promise to attempt to be more considerate of those you live with.
Daily Meal: Any food, but it must be served from one great plate for every table, and it should not be in separate portions.

Carista Invocation

May there be Peace in this house.
(Response: “May there be peace in this house!”)
Peace can be a hard mistress.
The daily round of the ordinary,
The simple turn of day and night and day
The presence of the same souls
Can come to be like a shadow on the sun,
And yet Peace still demands
That we find a way to move past
That ordinariness
And all the thousand thorns and briars
And bring Peace into the house.
(Response: “May there be peace in this house!”)
Take the hand of your sister, your brother,
The one who shares your roof, your table,
The ground you walk on,
Whose feet know the boards as well as your own,
And swear to find a way
To bring peace into the space between you.
(Response: “May there be peace in this house!”)

Chant:
My brother, my heart, my sister, my soul;
My family, my life, come in from the cold;
My sister, my heart, my brother, my soul;
My family, my life, that makes this life whole.

(Instead of a ritual, this period of time should be used to mediate and address problems between members of the community, with emphasis on peacemaking and compromise and useful solutions. At the end of the meeting, all share cakes and tea.)

Lunar Almanac for Saturday, January 21

Days Of The Week Comments
Lunabar Moon Almanack for Saturday, January 21, 2012

Waning, Balsamic Moon Age: 27 ¼ days.

Ascending Node is at 11° Sagittarius.

Moon in 3rd degree of the Sign Capricorn, the Goat;

also in 7th deg. of the Constellation Sagittarius, the Archer.

Moonrise: 5:45 morn. Midheaven: 10:47 morn. Moonset: 3:54 eve.

  
Magickal Graphics

Wishing You A Very Blissful and Relaxing Weekend!

Days of the Week Comments= Hello, dear friends! I hope you are having a great weekend. I have got my days and nights screwed up. I stayed up almost all of last night and the night before. Around 4:00 p.m., I take a 2 hour nap and that’s it. I am so sleepy I can’t see straight. So if you see, “zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz,” across the screen, you know what is going on, lol!  

 

Have a great weekend and get plenty of rest!  

 

Now On With The Magick……  

 

Correspondences for Satuday 

Magickal Intentions: Spirit Communications, Meditation, Psychic Attack or Defense, Locating Lost Things and Missing Persons, Building, Life, Doctrine, Protection, Knowledge, Authority, Limitations, Boundries, Time and Death

Incense: Black Poppy Seed and Myrrh

Planet: Saturn

Sign: Capricorn and Aquarius

Angel: Cassiel

Colors: Black, Grey and Indig

Herbs/Plants: Myrrh, Moss, Hemlock, Wolfsbane, Coltsfoot, Nightshade and Fir

Stones: Jet, Smokey Quartz, Amethyst, Black Onyx, Snowflake Obsidian, Lava, Pumice

Oil: (Saturn) Cypress, Mimosa, Myrrh, Patchouli

Saturn lends its energies to the last day of the week. Because Saturn is the planet of karma, this day is an excellent time for spellwork involving reincarnation, karmic lessons, the Mysteries, wisdom, and long-term projects. It is also a good time to being efforts that deal with the elderly, death, or the eradication of pests and disease.  

 

Spellcrafting for Saturday  

SPELL TO BANISH POVERTY

The moon should be dark or waning. You should perform this on a Saturday.
Take 7 sheets of toilet paper and write: “I banish poverty” On each sheet.
Flush them all down the toilet saying:
I banish poverty.
With each one. Do this every day from the full moon to the dark moon.

 
~Magickal Graphics~

Have a Super-Fantastic Weekend, Sweeties! Oh, one more thing….

Days of the Week Comments= It just hit me that you might be wondering why the site has the “Stop Censorship” Ribbon on it. It is part of yesterday, when I blacked out the blog. I told you why I had done it and then gave you a link to an article about what the blackout on the internet had accomplished. But like I said at the end, we just won a battle, not the war. The bill still has to do through the Senate and get rejected there before we can celebrate. The Senate is suppose to vote on the bill sometime between now and January 27th. So all the blogs that took part in the blackout, now have the ribbons on them. Maybe we will get lucky and the Senators will surf the net and see how many people are against them meddling in our business and kill the bill too. We can only hope. 

 

But I thought I would tell you real quick, why the ribbon was there. I didn’t want you to think they were trying to censor us, lol! 

Have a great weekend, dearies! 

Lady A 


~Magickal Graphics~

Does Spirit Go with Body? A Look at Reincarnation

Does Spirit Go with Body? A Look at Reincarnation

by Janice Van Cleve

Reincarnation is a subject that keeps coming back (ouch). Seriously, the topic of reincarnation keeps showing up in magazines and books cloaked in mystery or psychobabble. Among New Age and neo-pagan believers, there is often talk of “past lives,” working out karmic justice over a series of lives and transmigration of souls. Hindus hold that we reincarnate many times until we achieve enlightenment or perfection and thus are able to escape the wheel of life, death and rebirth. Rabbi Shagra Simmons says that Jews sometimes get three shots at terrestrial life. Tibetan monks search for babies born at the moment of their lama’s death in the belief that his soul migrated into the newborn. Resurrection of the body is such a strong tenet of Catholic orthodoxy that the Vatican for centuries preached against cremation, supposedly because ashes are harder to resurrect than rotten remains in a coffin.

Not everyone believes in reincarnation. Many people believe that death is the end, finis, kaput. They do not believe in any afterlife or return to life in any form. Others believe that the body may die but some kind of spiritual essence or “soul” lives on and goes someplace, like heaven or hell. Plato was a great proponent of the theory of “essences” that exist beyond or outside of the physical body. Christians and Muslims believe in a paradise where the souls go and don’t come back. Ancient Sumerians thought spirits descended into a pit where they ate dirt, and the Greeks held that souls crossed the River Styx to linger in a dim underworld. The idea of spirits dwelling in a Great Beyond is advantageous if you want call on them in prayers or séances. If, on the other hand, souls do come back in new bodies, who will be left on the invitation list to your next Dumb Supper?

Modern technology and psychology have pushed the envelope in our understanding of death and rebirth. For example, Elizabeth Kubler-Ross has documented some amazing cases of apparent conscious existence outside of the body and/or after the body’s clinical death. Cryogenics labs are experimenting with freezing bodies to resuscitate them later. Cloning is a bit different in that a new body is generated, but the jury is still out on whether any conscious memory is transferred along with the genetic material. While these are interesting avenues of research that may someday prove or disprove some mechanical aspect of reincarnation, they are generally understood to be outside the discussion of reincarnation per se.

So what’s inside the discussion? One way to look at reincarnation is to examine its parts. The “carn” refers to a body and the “re” is a something that returns into a body. That got me to wondering: which body? Is it only humans who reincarnate? Do dogs reincarnate into new dogs, or trees into new trees? What about cross-species reincarnation? Can a fern reincarnate into a frog or a cow into a liverwort? There are some dire warnings in the literature about “coming back as a toad,” but for the most part we see the focus on humans returning as new humans. (Certainly most cat lovers will agree that cats believe that they don’t participate in reincarnation because no other living being could aspire to their level.)

People as far back as the Stone Age have understood that the body decays after death. They may have held many theories about where the soft tissue went, but they could see that soon all they had left was bones. Eventually, as in the case of the dinosaurs, even the bones break down and are replaced by minerals leaching through the soil. Occasionally nature has delayed decay, as in the prehistoric bodies found in an glacier in the Italian Alps or in a bog in Denmark. Children sacrificed by the Incas on Andean peaks still have hair and skin preserved by the cold, while Egyptians first learned mummification from bodies buried and desiccated in the hot Saharan desert. Yet even the most carefully preserved remains of a Pharaoh in Cairo or a Lenin in Moscow would be reduced to molecules if exposed to the normal processes of decay.

Scientists exploring biology, chemistry, genetics, forensics and the like have shown that as things decay after death, they break down into simpler and simpler components, eventually reducing into basic compounds or molecules that can be used by other living organisms. Gardeners practice this principle by composting. Dead plants and other organic materials are stacked in bins where, over time, they reduce to rich soil and are plowed back into the garden to provide nutrients for new plants. So a dead tulip may break down in the compost bin and its molecules eventually become incorporated into a turnip. Not all of its molecules may end up in the turnip, however. Some of them may wind up in the carrots, and others may become potatoes. Certainly a large number of the former tulip molecules will stay as dirt and may even become incorporated into stone, if said gardener happens to have a volcano in her pea patch!

So at least some of the material that was the physical body of the tulip may find itself after death reincorporated into other physical bodies, and therefore the tulip continues to participate in the phenomenon called life. In a way, I suppose that can be called reincarnation — at least of body material. Perhaps when we refer to a dead relative “pushing up daisies,” we’re closer to the mark than we think.

But if the remains of living things decompose and are scattered to be used by many other living things, or not used at all, is the identity of the original plant or animal or human forever lost? When do tulip molecules cease to be tulip and become turnip? And what about the turnip? If it got some material from a tulip and other material from a spider, where does its unique identity as a turnip come from? This is where the “soul” or “essence” comes into the reincarnation picture.

There have been times even in the historical past when the birth rate of new babies worldwide did not match the death rate. So according to the theory of reincarnation, did some souls get put on hold for awhile in a spiritual wait zone until there were enough babies to go around? Or did they hang out in the turnips? Conversely, our current population explosion clearly demonstrates way more births than deaths. So does that mean that some babies are born with half-souls or no souls? There can’t be that many souls waiting in turnips to fill the current demands!

Buddhists may help us out here. Buddhists seek to skip the Hindu wheel of birth, death and reincarnation altogether through discipline and meditation. They believe that they can reach a point at which independent identity is no longer relevant. The “soul” loses itself by merging with a universal mass of spiritual energy called Nirvana, something analogous to the universal mass of living energy that scientists call biomass. For the sake of discussion, let’s call this “spiritmass.”

That solves the mathematical problem, because math in the spirit world may not add up the same as it does here in the mundane world. If there is spiritmass, then some babies could inherit old souls directly and some may get new ones from the reservoir of spiritmass. Whatever the case, nature and nurture inevitably work to individualize the baby’s identity, just like they individualize his or her body into a unique new person. Old souls are either absorbed into spiritmass or changed in their new incarnation and new souls are sprung from spiritmass. In either case, the old identity is lost. Tulip becomes turnip, and essence of Uncle Frank becomes Little Carol.

Which brings us back to the two parts of reincarnation. If the body and the spirit both disintegrate and become reabsorbed into biomass and spiritmass respectively, then one could say they were reincarnated. However, such a reabsorbtion automatically means that the unique personal identity of the dead being ceases to exist. Reincarnation therefore implies that individual identity is temporary.

Humans don’t like that. Humans would like to believe that their identities will live forever. Since the body could not be counted on, humans proposed underworlds and paradises to maintain some manner of unique identity after death. Not content with just a spiritual existence, some humans attempt to preserve their existence in the physical world with statues and monuments, trust funds, artistic creations or by making a name for themselves in history books. Ultimately, however, we do not live forever in body or spirit or stone. We do know that we live beyond our death — at least for a little while — in the hearts of those who loved us, and probably in the memories of those who hated us.

So I can buy reincarnation if the most that is meant by it is recycling the body and the spirit. I’m certainly not going to lose any sleep over what kind of identity, if any, I will have after I die. I just hope that if reincarnation does pass identity along that John Ashcroft comes back as a gay, homeless black woman.

Make Beeswax Votives to Manifest Your Desires

Make Beeswax Votives to Manifest Your Desires

by Sylvana

When I first began in the Craft, you couldn’t just go down to Larry’s Market or Fred Meyer’s and buy spell candles, as you can now. Neither could you find witchy stores like Edge of the Circle, Travelers or Odyssey Books. In those days, we made our own spell candles, oils, incenses and tools, or we had things handed down to us and given to us as gifts by our high priest and priestess or coven mates. We also sometimes converted everyday items to our magickal purpose, like the silver dinner bell I still use in ritual today and my antique trivets that serve as wards for our covenstead.

Sometimes, I am glad to have the luxury of purchasing ready-made seven-day candles, like the green “Money Drawing” or “Protection” or the blue and white “Harmonious Home.” But I fondly remember the days when all of us witches made our own candles. This time of year is traditional for the making and blessing of candles, and my coven still gets together at Imbolc for celebration, feasting and to make and bless candles for our coven and personal use. Making them yourself imbues them with your own energy and purpose, as well as making them a more powerful tool for your magick — besides, it’s fun!

If you’d like to create your very own spell candles and don’t have a coven or group to make candles with, this article will tell you how, with a little effort, you can construct and bless your very own magickal spell candles. The instructions following discuss making short spell votives, but you can easily adapt the approach for bigger candles.

You will need:

* A sharp knife or craft knife

* A metal-edged ruler or straight edge

* Small pieces of paper in various colors

* Pens, colored pencils or crayons

* Beeswax sheets in various colors

* Wicking

* Herbs and flowers

* Oils

* Small tokens, coins or stones

* Wax paper

* Cutting board

* Scissors

You can purchase the beeswax in craft stores or candle supply shops; it generally comes in 6-x-9-inch sheets. Look for colors that correspond to your magickal purpose:

* Red: Lust, passion, health, animal vitality, courage, strength

* Pink: Love, affection, friendship, kindness

* Orange: Sexual energy, earth energy, adaptability, stimulation

* Brown: Earth energy, animals

* Yellow: Intellect, mental energy, concentration

* Green: Finances, money, prosperity, fertility, growth

* Blue: Calm, healing, patience, peace, clairvoyance

* Purple: Spirituality, the fey, meditation, divination

* Black: Waning moon, release, banishing, absorbing and destroying negativity, healing

* White: Waxing or full moon, protection, purification, peace, awareness; good for most workings

One sheet of each color wax that you want to use should be enough to begin with, as it will make about four votive-size candles. Fresh beeswax should have a distinctive scent and be soft and pliable, not brittle. Fairly thick cotton (not lead) wick is preferable as beeswax burns fairly fast. Ask the store for recommendations if you’re unsure what exactly to get.

Assemble all of your ingredients and tools, with plenty of room to work. Choose a sheet of beeswax and some herbs or flowers and maybe an oil that are all in accordance with your purpose. To learn more about the associations for herbs, flowers and oils, check tables of correspondence such as are found in many basic books on the Craft. You’ll need only tiny amounts of the herbs and flowers, because if you add too much, your candle will turn into a torch! Also, if you like select an appropriate token or write the candle’s purpose on a tiny piece of paper to add to the candle.

To create a candle, lay a sheet of beeswax onto a sheet of slightly larger wax paper on top of your cutting board. Measure in 2-inch increments down from the top of the beeswax sheet along the edge of the long side, and make a mark on both sides of the wax (see Figure 1). Lay the straight edge along both marks, and cut so that you have about four wax pieces, each about 2 by 6 inches. This will be enough to create at least four votives per sheet of wax, depending on how large the sheet is and how small you cut the pieces. Next, cut a piece of wick about 2&fraq12; inches long, and lay it onto the beeswax along the edge of one side (see figure 2) so that the wick is flush with what will be the bottom of the candle and is protruding from the top by a bit.

Begin rolling the candle by folding the very edge of the wax over the wick and pressing down gently to stick the wax in place (see figure 3)

Then begin to roll the wax firmly around the wick so that it creates a tight roll; once you have one layer of wax around the wick, stop. Sprinkle a tiny amount of herbs or flowers evenly down the length of wax next to the wick roll (figure 4). Place your paper or token inside the candle, near the bottom. Then roll some more, sprinkle some more, brush a tiny bit of oil on at about the middle of the roll and continue until the candle is completely rolled and is about the size of a regular votive candle (figure 5). Seal the wax edge by pressing it down firmly against the candle, while not smashing the candle.

Once you have finished all of your spell candles, do a ritual and raise energy to bless and consecrate them to your purpose. I like the simple blessing following.

A Candle Blessing

Set up an altar with your usual tools, where you can easily move around it. Place your candles on the altar, along with a small amount of wine or juice and a few cookies or pieces of bread. Cast your circle in your customary way. Call whatever elements, gods, quarters and so on that you normally call. When you are ready, raise your athamé or wand to the eastern sky, draw it down in an arc to point toward your pile of candles and say the following:

“Element of air, imbue these candles with magick! Let them carry my intention on the winds and back to me. Infuse them with inspiration and the strength of my will. Thank you for your presence! So mote it be!”

Draw the athamé to the southern sky and down toward the candles, saying:

“Element of fire, energize these candles to my purpose! Bring your warmth and light to me. Let your heat turn reality to my will. Thank you for your presence! So mote it be!”

Turn now to the western sky, and draw the athamé down toward your candles, saying:

“Element of sacred waters, heal my magick. Make my purpose clean, and let my magick flow free. Cleanse all for the best; heal all I touch. Let your healing power flow. Thank you for your presence! So mote it be!”

Turn finally to the northern sky, and draw the athamé toward your candles, saying:

“Element of earth, bring my magick into being. Bless these candles, and let them burn true. Bring grounding and practicality to me. With your deep power please imbue them. Thank you for your presence! So mote it be!”

Ask the god and goddess of your choice (and any other beings that you work with) for their blessings.

Then chant the following, slowly and softly at first, then picking up energy as you go:

“Candles burn oh so bright, bring my desires every night and day. Candles light my magick spell, now draw success my way.”

When the energy has reached its peak, direct it into the candles. Ground out any excess energy. Have cakes and wine, and offer a libation to the elements and gods for their participation. Then close your circle.

Now your magickal spell votives are ready for you to use for your spells or whenever you need them. Have fun, and may all of your magick be wondrous!

Caution: When burning candles, make sure to always place them on something nonflammable and do not ever leave one of these candles burning alone, even for a second, as they sometimes flare up or fall over and can easily ignite anything in range. Be careful also of wearing flammable clothing around these candles!

Shine a Light into the Darkness

Shine a Light into the Darkness

by Freya Ray

What does it mean, to shine a light into the darkness? If we’re going to talk about candle magick, what more powerful candle is there than the human spirit? In the face of a wide array of conflicting information, it seems worthy to explore the idea of how best to make a difference in the world.

What conflicting information? As you’re reading this paper, you identify as some form of witchy pagan, or are at least curious about such. That’s great, but it does not automatically liberate you from the Judeo-Christian heritage of our culture. That heritage says that to be a good person, to do good for others, you suffer. You give up yourself to take care of those in need. On the other hand, there is a streak of self-indulgent hedonism running through much of today’s Wiccan culture. “Do what you will and harm none.” What’s the harm in doing this little love or money spell, to create what I want in my life? A third opinion about how to be in relationship with the world that affects many of us is the metaphysical hive mind. That cosmic-consciousness PC-police brain hums out, “It’s all good. Everything is happening exactly as it’s supposed to. We have all chosen our own destiny, and can all choose perfect abundance and love if we just, well, choose it.”

Before you get all up in arms about my brattily simplistic summaries, I’m just making a point here. Which is: Most of us feel an instinctive urge to give back, to make a difference, and it can be hard to figure out how best to do that. Following are my musings on the question, “How can I up the wattage on this little light of mine, and shine it where it can do the most good?”

Rest Your Spirit

It’s hard to do anyone any good when you’re run down, crabby or emotionally overwhelmed. Somehow, some way, find the time to restore yourself when you need to. I could run through all the cliché remedies: Take a nap, soak in the bath, be in nature and so on, but you already know how best to take care of yourself. This is your monthly scheduled reminder from the universe to actually do it.

Have Cosmic Sex

Talk about upping your wattage! Great, chakra-blowing, mind-altering sex is better than any drug for opening you up to the beauty of others, increasing the generosity of your spirit and making you more patient with everything. Not only does it benefit your partner (we hope), but the energy of divinely inspired sexual congress overflows to benefit everyone. If you have a partner, seek to actively bring God/Spirit/Goddess/whatever into your lovemaking. Call circle before you begin. Focus every scrap of your attention on the energy between you and your partner, on elevating what you’re doing to the level of art. Take hours and hours. If you’re alone, do all of those same things. Be aware of your energy, of every subtle nuance of your reactions. Get a book on Tantra (The Art of Sexual Ecstasy by Margo Anand is a good one), and practice elevating your energy as you pleasure yourself. Some of the best sex I ever had was just me, my hands and my breathing.

Have you ever considered sending a shot out as you come? As you reach orgasm, take that juicy energy and send it to AIDS orphans in Africa, or the women of Afghanistan, or your ex-boyfriend, or whatever. It can’t hurt, right?

Make Yourself Available

It’s all fine and good to talk about reciprocity and balance in our relationships, but the truth is that sometimes I give a friend apples and get back kiwis. Common metaphysical lore holds that everyone in our life is a teacher for us in some way. But some of my friends just teach me about my ability to be there for someone learning stuff I already know. These “unequal” relationships are not only okay, they’re necessary. I know I never would have made it through the last 10 years without my older (or just wiser) friends who knew the things I was learning. They freely taught, gave advice or just let me cry on them. I do the same thing for a few people younger or less experienced than I.

I believe it’s good to have a list of people who are allowed to make outrageous demands on you from time to time. For some reason, a particular friend’s emotional crisis touches you, and you give them permission to call at any hour, and you’ll be a friendly ear. Conversation after conversation ends up being mostly about them, and their struggles, and you don’t mind or feel “owed.” When energy work, ritual or a Tarot reading happens, it’s for them, not you. Call them projects, call them puppies, call them friends having a hard time. Just have some people you personally care for.

Be a Relentless,
Irrepressible Optimist

Think of it as a meditation, as a spiritual practice: Find the upside in everything that happens in your life. I can talk for five minutes about the good things I learned from being in an abusive relationship. Talk about impulse control! I’m not condoning all the ugliness of life, and certainly I’m not saying we should perpetuate it to help others learn hard lessons, but I do believe that any situation can be interpreted any number of ways. I feel more empowered if, instead of going to the “poor me” place, I answer these questions: What am I learning here, and how is it benefiting me?

For example, I recently fell completely, utterly in love with someone who I am not currently able to talk with. My friends who have heard every blow-by-blow think he’s a jerk and offer all kinds of sympathy. But I know what I’m learning from the situation. I finally found that place in myself that was unwilling to give up on someone, just because of something they said. I found the place in me that can be mad as hell and not walk away. I’m learning some measure of patience. I have a mantra, “Nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah, you can’t make me stop loving you.” It’s my process, I own it, I refuse to feel victimized by life.

If you’re at all prone to martyr or victim thinking, I can’t begin to tell you how much psychic energy will be liberated by running your thoughts along more positive lines. Giving away your power is a huge drain on the psyche, on your ability to feel positive about your own life and on your ability to have anything to offer to others. Try keeping your own power instead. You’ll like it!

Follow Your Impulses

Between the opposites lies the path. Sometimes we need to be selfish, sometimes we need to be selfless. The best way to navigate life between the poles is to listen to Spirit, to the voice of your own intuition, in every moment. If you’re in doubt about how to proceed, sit still (or nap) until clarity comes. Trust yourself.

Find the Connections

Alienation and separation do not help us help each other. The false sense that we are all alone, that we are different from others, leads to thoughts like, “Why would I want to help those ones. They’re nothing to me.” Seek to find the connections. Do some past-life work, so you can remember for yourself how a life could lead one to be dirty and poor. Meditate, finding the dark impulses inside yourself, so you don’t feel yourself better than the one who succumbed. There is no separation. What is done to the least of us, is done to us, we do. It’s all one.

We don’t all have to be bodhisattvas in order to care. Some glimmer of the kinship between all of us will open up remarkable compassionate vistas.

Reach Out

Ask yourself, “How does service best manifest in my life?” As a professional psychic, shaman and healer, I find most years that much of my time serving others is done in that way. I have a collection of friends I give my professional services to, without expectation of return. From time to time, I offer my services free to a stranger. For a while, I tithed. Sometimes I do shamanic work for strangers in my dreams. Sometimes I pray or do ritual for a person or family or part of the world in crisis. Sometimes I drive my mother to the dentist.

Not everyone is cut out to volunteer at the hospice. But everyone is capable of some kind of service. Your professional expertise might lend itself to occasional gifts of time and knowledge. Your body might like to express itself in some good physical barn-raisin’ activity from time to time. You might be a fundamentally lazy person, who can still feel like a good contributing citizen by gifting 10 percent of your income every month to someone deserving. Give it some thought, and find your own way.

Everyone needs to know that their flame helped light the way for someone.

When Darkness Falls: Cooking and Heating in Winter as Our Forebears Did

When Darkness Falls: Cooking and Heating in Winter as Our Forebears Did

by Catherine Harper

As I write this, we are in the midst of the false spring that is so often January’s mercurial gift to the Pacific Northwest coast. Around the borders of the garden daffodil bulbs are sending up small green teeth. The days are sunny and mild, and my over-wintering broccoli has started to form heads. Is it just coincidence that just as the season tries to so mislead us the seed catalogs begin to arrive? The sunset through the trees beyond my study window has painted the sky the color of salmon, and it is not yet wholly dark, though it would have been at this time only a few weeks before. It’s an easy time to think of Imbolc ahead.

Imbolc is a celebration of first stirrings, new beginnings, gradual lengthening of days and return of the light. In this green country by the sea, where winter’s sleep is never much more than a nap, it might almost be redundant, the transition from grey, rain and green to more of the same with swelling buds. We prune the apple orchards and light a candle (the more faithfully because Imbolc is also my brother’s birthday). It is a restless season, a gradually accelerating rising toward the lighter portion of the year, and as such it can be a difficult time for reflection. And yet reflection sometimes finds us, though we did not look for it.

Recently, our house was without power for several days, and many of our plans were put on hold for that stretch. I was given ample opportunity to think of the passing of the darkest time — even as winter is still with us — and time to think of the small ways in which the light returns to us. Now, we are well set up for such occurrences, and it is not uncommon for us to heat the house and cook our dinner with the wood-burning brick oven. Similarly, we often eat by candlelight. But to fire the oven every day, banking the coals each night and then stirring them to light the fire the next morning, is something else, as it is to read and work out and clean the garage only by the light of candles and oil lamps or the short hours of daylight. What has been at most ritual, and at least conceit, becomes both drudgery and discipline.

By the third day, the eyestrain from the dimmer light even of many candles was feeling ingrained. I had learned to take a hot water bottle to bed with me every night because, while the oven could heat most of the house, the master bedroom is too far, and the bed itself bitterly cold when I first entered it. We swept and washed dishes as much as possible while we still had daylight to see our work by, and brought in wood before going to bed so that it would be there to start the morning fire. Beyond the work itself, which wasn’t excessive, the routine was exhausting — some combination of the cold and the dark and the tedium of normally simple tasks leaving me stumbling with fatigue each night. And yet, in its way, it was deeply satisfying.

In my magical work in and beyond the kitchen, much of what I do is creating a web of connections. I buy the food that is in season to make another link between myself and the turning of the year. I buy from local farmers to strengthen my connection to the land, and from people I know to strengthen my connection with the community. But we all live in and amongst many such webs, if not all of them so deliberately chosen. The pieces of our world — every aspect of our lives — is vastly interdependent, and the electrical networks are one such tangible example of the ways in which we are connected.

If there is something to be learned from building and choosing to put our energy into certain connections and so reinforce them, so is there something very basic and primal about stepping aside from some of the default connections in our lives. The break from my routine, the rhythm of tending the house and heating and lighting it by our own labors, became an opportunity to step back and consider the interconnections of our lives and the routines we had taken for granted. And, of course, a chance to consider a little the lives we might be living had we been given fewer technological blessings. I think for those who are plunged into darkness less frequently by the vagaries of the weather and the electric companies, spending the occasional stretch of time without power, perhaps the length of a meal, can still be a useful exercise.

It is generally assumed that those who are in the magickal community are well equipped with candles, but our uses of them do not necessarily emphasize the efficiency of lighting, so here are a few suggestions:

Most people know that a candle backed by a mirror or other reflector will shed more light. A candle near a white wall will also reflect its light better than one near a dark surface.

Candles much more than two inches in diameter will tend to use up the wax at the center of the candle without melting the wax on the outside, so gradually the wick and flame will drop down below the level of the outer rim of wax. This is pretty and atmospheric, but does not provide especially efficient light. On the other hand, candles of much less than one inch in diameter will burn down quite quickly, which can be useful in spell work, but is annoying for lighting purposes.

Most grocery stores carry large boxes (usually of 72 candles) of Shabbos candles in their Kosher food section. These are plain white four-inch candles that are usually quite cheap, and they are less likely to be sold out during power outages.

I have often seen candle jars used in outdoor rituals, but seldom seen them used indoors in the manner in which we employ them. These are versatile lanterns that can be comfortably carried or set down, provide light in all directions and are fairly kid and cat safe because they can be tipped over without ill effect. To make one, wash and remove the label from a large spaghetti sauce jar or other large glass jar. (Hot water will soften the glue that holds on the label.) Find two candles that are not taller than the jar. Light one candle, pour a few drops of its hot wax into the jar and then quickly stick the bottom of the other candle to the jar bottom with the hot wax. The jar, being glass, allows light to shine all around, and is far enough from the flame that it doesn’t get hot enough to burn your hands when carried.

Oil lamps are a convenient light source, but only the lamps with properly ventilated chimneys are able to provide especially bright light. In my experience the lamps burn best when the wick is at least occasionally trimmed, and the end of the wick is roughened or frayed a bit by rubbing a knife-edge across it. Oil lamps also provide much better light when their reservoirs are full than when they are near empty.

Cooking

I should have known when we bought a house already equipped with a fireplace, woodstove and the built-in barbeque that was later converted into my brick oven that we lived in an area where power supply could be a bit uncertain. Instead, to my surprise, six weeks later we were treated to three days in the dark with a woodstove I hadn’t entirely made friends with and a foot of icy slush on the roads. But the corollary to our frequent outages is that we are well set up to deal with them, with wood stove and brick ovens, lamps, sconces and chandeliers. Most houses, and apartments even more so, are not so well prepared.

Now, I assume people who already have woodstoves, brick ovens, grills, barbeques, masonry cookers and other such relatively expensive fixtures are already fairly well acquainted with their use, but a few tips anyway: If you haven’t cooked over your woodstove, it’s good to keep in mind that most of them that are not built specifically for cooking will provide only the equivalent of low heat from a standard burner unless you fire them very hot. You’ll have better luck simmering a stew than frying an egg on them, and you might want to put a pot of water on top right off so you don’t have to wait later on for it to warm. Barbeques and grills can be used year round in our mild climate, but they should be used outside if you are fond of breathing. (Though one can often use a hibachi or other small grill in one’s fireplace, assuming that the fireplace is large enough to accommodate it and that the draw is strong enough.)

Luckily, the lack of such amenities doesn’t put you out of the running. If you would like to cook over flame, don’t have wood-burning appliances and don’t want to invest in expensive equipment, there are a number of low-cost options. The simplest is the tried-and-true can of Sterno or similar canned heat product. These are readily available at grocery stores and fairly safe for indoor use, unlike most camping stoves, which need a lot of ventilation and should only be used outside. For a few bucks more you can buy a collapsible Sterno “stove” from your local army surplus or camping supplies store, which will shelter the flame and support a cooking pot.

The collapsible Sterno “stoves” or other similar trivets can also be used above tea lights (which are good for warming tinned soup, if less good for more serious cooking, though you can do a bit when you use more than one at a time), alcohol burners or other simple flames. We have been using our fondue burner, which is essentially a small adjustable alcohol burner with a heavy iron trivet, as a general-purpose stove, and it boils water quite readily. Fondue burners can be found at culinary stores, and other types of alcohol burners can be purchased through chemistry supply companies.

Most of these improvised burners will not give you as evenly distributed heat as will most stoves, so you must either use them with thick-bottomed pots that distribute heat well on their own or make soups, sauces and other largely liquid things that will not mind the uneven heat so much. Another good standby is couscous. You can add one part couscous to two parts boiling water and then cover it and let it cook away from the flame entirely (this also makes for fairly fuel-efficient food, which is why couscous is a backpacking favorite).

If you are fortunate enough to have a fireplace, more options are available to you (though if you have attempted to cook over a fireplace without appropriate equipment you already know that other than hotdogs and marshmallows, your options can be rather limited). An open fire is romantic, but to cook over it effectively requires some preparation. First of all, for most things it is much more effective to cook over hot coals than open flame. So you’re often best off building a fairly large, hot fire and letting it burn down before you attempt to cook over it. (For a similar effect you can use charcoal briquettes in your fireplace or add them to your wood fire.)

Next, of course, you need some way of supporting your food over the fire. A spit can be improvised, but is often fairly difficult to manage, especially in modern fireplaces. For the least expensive route, one can rely on the camper’s favorite of wrapping food in tinfoil and setting it among the coals and ashes (not directly in the hottest part of the fire) to cook. “Hobo stew” is a combination of meat and vegetables cooked by this method, a bit of a chancy proposition, but fun, simple, and potentially tasty. Or, most camping supplies stores sell inexpensive lightweight collapsible grills that can fit in your fireplace. These can hold pots and pans as well as grill meat and vegetables.

Of course, if you want to get at all serious about cooking in your fireplace, you should at least look at what is often considered the most flexible of fireside cooking tools, the Dutch oven. It has been claimed, and to a great extent demonstrated, that pretty much any dish from the Western European tradition, and a great many others from elsewhere, can be made in a Dutch oven. The Dutch oven is a heavy cast iron pot with feet that will hold it above burning coals and a rimmed lid that will allow you to place additional coals on top of it. They come in a variety of sizes, and can be used to make anything from wedding cakes to stews to omlettes. Dutch oven cooking is a subject one could write a book about, and indeed many people have. A good place to start if you’re interested in exploring it further is http//www.idos.com, the home page of the international Dutch oven society. (For a more witchy-looking alternative, http://www.actionafrica.com/castironpots.html offers a large variety of cast iron cauldrons that can be used in a similar manner.)

In the end, there is the eating. Almost by definition it is a dinner by candlelight, but it need not be a formal one. We hand out one bowl, spoon, and fork apiece, because bowls are harder to spill food from and more amenable to being held in one’s lap while you sit in front of the fire or curl up with a blanket in the living room. Fewer dishes are a blessing when light and hot water are limited, too. Like the food we make camping, a meal cooked at home over fire is fully realized in its simplicity. Even tinned soup and crackers becomes delicious as our labors give us a more intimate connection to the food and its preparation. Fire, food and hunger are primal things.

About Imbolc

About Imbolc

a guide to the Sabbat’s symbolism

by Arwynn MacFeylynnd

Date: February 1 or 2.

Alternative names: Imbolg, Candlemas, Oimelc, Brighid’s Day, Lupercus, the Feast of Lights, Groundhog’s Day

Primary meanings: The name “Imbolc” derives from the word “oimelc,” meaning sheep’s milk. It is considered a time of purification, preparation and celebration for new life stirring, anticipating spring. The holiday is also known as Candlemas; the custom of blessing candles at this time signifies awakening of life and honors the Celtic goddess Brighid, to whom fire is sacred. This Sabbat also celebrates banishing winter.

Symbols: Candle wheels, grain dollies and Sun wheels, a besom (witch’s broom), a sprig of evergreen, a bowl of snow and small Goddess statues representing her in the maiden aspect.

Colors: White, yellow, pink, light blue, light green; also, red and brown.

Gemstones: Amethyst, aquamarine, turquoise, garnet and onyx.

Herbs: Angelica, basil, bay, benzoin, clover, dill, evergreens, heather, myrrh, rosemary, willows and all yellow flowers.

Gods and goddesses: Brighid, the Celtic goddess of healing, poetry and smithcraft; all virgin and maiden goddesses; all fire and flame gods, connected with the newborn Sun.

Customs and myths: In Irish legends of the Tuatha De Danaan, Brighid is the name of three daughters of Dagda who over time were combined into one goddess. She was venerated in Scotland, Wales, on the Isle of Man and in the Hebrides. When celebrating Candlemas or Imbolc, spellwork for fertility, inspiration and protection are appropriate, defining and focusing on spiritual and physical desires for the future. Imbolc is a good time to get your life in order — physically, mentally, spiritually and emotionally. Make plans, organize, clean out drawers and closets to bring in the new and clearing out the old. Make and bless candles; light one in each room in honor of the Sun’s rebirth. Carry out rites of self-purification. Burn mistletoe, holly and ivy decorations from Yule to signify the end of harsh weather and old ways.