Tag: Doreen Valiente

Lemon Magic

Lemon Magic

Author: Janice Van Cleve

Lemon magic is a form of alchemy that has been practiced around the world in many different cultures for over 2500 years and it is still very alive and effective today. The word “alchemy” itself comes from the Arabic al-kimia, which is translated as the art of transformation. The fundamental ideas of alchemy are supposed to have begun in the ancient Persian Empire sometime before 500 BCE. In the Middle Ages its more popularized pursuits were alleged to be the transformation of lead into gold, the creation of the elixir of life, and the search for something called the philosopher’s stone. It was not until the Seventeenth Century that alchemy was itself transformed into modern chemistry.

Today in America, lemon magic is usually thought of as “turning lemons into lemonade.” There are various modern applications of this magic worked by different methods for different ends. One of the most common is “spin”. Spin is the reinterpretation of one set of words or events from a negative connotation to a connotation that is positive or at least neutral. It sometimes manifests itself as damage control. The alchemists who practice this art are called spin-doctors and they are found mainly in the arenas of government and politics, but they also proliferate as corporate lawyers and lobbyists.

Another application of lemon magic is in the business world. There it is found in mergers and acquisitions. The objective here is to identify struggling companies whose stock price is less than the value of their assets. When a target is found, corporate lawyers swoop in and devour the victim, absorbing it into their own company. Thus a liability for one set of investors is transformed into an asset for another set. A by-product of this process is usually downsizing and more people out of work.

These examples and many more demonstrate tangents of lemon magic where the effect is upon things and people outside of the magic worker. The magic worker remains unchanged in the process. However, the ancient art of alchemy went much deeper than this. It envisioned transformation of the alchemist herself with the ultimate goal of perfecting the state of humanity. Certain schools have argued that the transmutation of lead into gold is really an allegory for transmuting the imperfect human body into a perfect immortal body.

This, of course, ran counter to the concept held by official church doctrine that all human beings were corrupt, stained by sin, and condemned to hellfire unless they put their faith in the authority of the church and bought their indulgences. So alchemists dissembled the true intent of their work with cryptic symbology and vague rhetoric to avoid the tortures of the Inquisition.

Today we have no need to hide our alchemy, but often we don’t realize that we are using it. Turning lemons into lemonade by willfully changing our attitudes or perceptions toward the lemons is truly a transformation of magical proportions.

Starhawk – a well-known ecofeminist, author, activist, and priestess – defines magic as the art of changing consciousness at will. Aleister Crowley – poet, prophet, and magician – defined magic in much the same way. He called it the science and art of causing change to occur in conformity with will. These folks and others who have written about magic are not talking about parlor games like levitating tables and making coins disappear. They are talking about understanding ourselves and the world around us so well that by our wills we can make of our situation what we want it to be.

Doreen Valiente, who with Gerald Gardner was chiefly responsible for bringing Wicca and Witchcraft into the 20th Century, sums it up best: “By developing their powers, the magician or witch develop himself or herself. They aid their own evolution, their growth as a human being; and in so far as they truly do this, they aid the evolution of the human race.”

So changing lemons into lemonade is truly a magical act. By seeing and acting upon the positive opportunities that lemons present to us, we not only improve our journey through the world, but we make it a more pleasant place for everyone else. This is not about “looking on the bright side” like some Pollyanna. This is about acknowledging the whole package – bright and dark – and by will and energy making it useful.

For example, a friend recently called me about 7:00 pm. It was already dark and I was settling in for the evening. She said that her car had been towed. Did she sob about her misfortune? Did she anguish about the $200 it would cost to get it out of impound? Did she even ask me for a ride home?

No. She asked me out for a drink!

She happened to be in my neighborhood and we had not seen each other for a while. We enjoyed a lovely conversation, a couple of nice drinks, and I drove her to the impound place for her to retrieve her car. It still cost her $200 and a complete alteration of her plans and mine for the evening, but she transformed that lemon into a delightful reunion and evaporated the stress it could have generated. That’s lemon magic!

The same thing happened to me just the evening before. I was at the house of some dear friends on the other side of Puget Sound. That means I had to take a ferry to get back home. The ferry website said there would be a boat leaving at 9:45 pm but in reality the next boat was not until 11:40. By the time I got back to Seattle, it was nearly one o’clock in the morning and there were no busses. So I had to march two miles uphill through the center of town in the middle of the night to get home.

Did I get angry with the webmaster or the ferry system? Not at all.

It was an opportunity for additional exercise and to work off calories. It was a beautiful night and a chance to experience my city in its quiet stillness. Best of all, it underscored my health and stamina and confirmed that I could still depend on my old body to function. It even prepared me for two glorious hikes in the mountains later that week. Lemonade!

Some folks go to the gym to work out when Life hands them a lemon. They not only dispel the negativity via vigorous exercise, but also shed some pounds in the process. Others learn from their lemons and pass on their lessons in the form of teaching or they modify their own behaviors to avoid those lemons in the future. By all these methods, and others besides, people can transform their mis-fortunes into positive fortunes.

Now if we could only learn to transform our lemons into a deep rich Burgundy, we’d really have something!

How Do You Draw Your Pentagram?

How Do You Draw Your Pentagram?

Author: Brunhilde

If you’d like to initiate a lively discussion among Wiccans, just ask us how we draw our pentagram and why we draw it that way. Our answers and explanations will fly fast and furious. First of all, what is our orientation of the star—one point up or two? For Wiccans the single point up orientation is the standard position. There is a short time when we feature the pentagram in its two points upward orientation; when an initiate into a coven enters their Second Degree of training. But for most purposes, the orientation of our pentagram displays one point up. But beyond that general preference, how do we draw it? And why do we draw it that way?

Different Strokes for Different Folks

An investigation of past practices by different authors reveals a wide variety of drawing choices and explanations. Most agree that the five points of the star can represent Spirit, earth, air, fire and water, with the top point designating Spirit. However, they differ on their placement of the four elements. They also differ in the manner of drawing the pentagram. While many begin the pattern by starting at the top (Spirit) , some do not.

Wherever you position each element around your pentagram will influence your drawing of it, especially if you are aligning your star to invoke a particular element for magickal work. Vivianne Crowley, author of Wicca (2000) , outlines a ceremony for consecrating ritual objects. She starts at the top (Spirit) , with her first stroke moving down and to the right—the point she designates for fire. She is drawing the “invoking pentagram” of the element fire. Her second stroke is drawn diagonally up and across to the upper left for air, then horizontally across to the upper right for water, then diagonally down to the lower left for earth, then back up to the top. She finishes by drawing an additional “sealing stroke, ” from the top down to the lower right point again.

Raven Grimassi (b. 1951) , author of Italian Witchcraft: The Old Religion of Southern Europe (2005) , outlines a rite of dedication for those pagans who wish to become practitioners of Stregheria, the Italian word for the religion of witches. As part of their initiation ritual, Grimassi instructs the seekers to anoint themselves in the manner of the pentagram. His sequence is the same as Crowley’s: forehead—right breast—left shoulder—right shoulder—left breast—forehead.

Raymond Buckland (b. 1934) , author of Buckland’s Complete Book of Witchcraft (2004) , details a different manner of drawing the pentagram. Instead of drawing the first stroke down to the lower right, he moves down to the lower left, then diagonally across to the upper right, straight across to the left, down to the lower right, and back up to the top.

In his book Witchcraft From the Inside (1995) he features the classical pentagram image taken from old books of magick, with the figure of a man standing with arms raised sideways and legs spread apart, with a five-pointed star superimposed on top of the figure. The various points of the pentagram display the astrological symbols for Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, not directions or elements. He states that this pentagram is a symbol of the life force, a very positive symbol.

Janet Farrar (b. 1950) and Stewart Farrar (1916-2000) , authors of A Witches’ Bible: A Complete Witches’ Handbook (1996) describe their version of diagramming the pentagram for use in sabbats. Their sequence of strokes is the same as Buckland’s. In their discussion of an opening ritual, they describe two methods of drawing the pentagram. The first method comes at the beginning of the ceremony. It is called the “Invoking Pentagram of Earth.”

The element of earth is placed at the lower left point of the star. It is delineated by the Priestess as she (1) starts at the top and (2) draws a diagonal line down to her lower left to earth, (3) then up and across to her right, (4) then horizontally to her left, (5) then diagonally down to her lower right, and (6) up again to the top. She finishes by adding a final sealing stroke; drawing down again from the top center to her lower left point.

Their second method of drawing of the pentagram occurs towards the end of the ceremony, when the Priestess draws the “Banishing Pentagram of Earth.” It is a reversal of the invoking pentagram. She begins (1) at the bottom left of the star, (2) then draws the line up to the top center, (3) then diagonally down to her lower right, (4) then across to her upper left and (5) horizontally across to her upper right, (6) then diagonally down to her left, where she started. Again, she finishes the act by retracing the line from the lower left to the top center, the sealing stroke. The Farrars state in a footnote to their text that they are basing their pentagram strokes on the practice followed by the members of the Golden Dawn.

Doreen Valiente (1922-1999) , author of Witchcraft for Tomorrow (1993) , uses the same method as that described by the Farrars and Buckland. She provides additional information by detailing the reasons behind the sequence of her strokes. Valiente states that the topmost point of the pentagram is regarded as representing Deity, the divine Source of life.

The first stroke starts from the top and proceeds down to the lower left, representing life descending from its divine source into the lowest and simplest forms of living matter. The second stroke ascends up and across to the right, representing the ascent of life from primitive forms, by the process of evolution. The third stroke moves across to the upper left, representing man’s earthly progress, his accomplishments on the physical plane. The fourth stroke moves diagonally down to the right point, signifying the fall of man, as his focus and his pride in his material achievements leads him into danger. The final stroke rises back up to the topmost point, indicating that because mankind descends from a divine source, he will always strive upwards to reunite with that source.

Starhawk (b. 1951) author of The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess (1979) also teaches an invoking and a banishing pentagram design. Her sequence of strokes is akin to that of Buckland, the Farrars, and Valiente. Further, she advocates using the pentagram in a variety of ways as an aid to visualization and meditation exercises. Depending on the exercise, each one of the five points of the star can be assigned to different ideas. For example, in an exercise she calls the “Pentagram of the Pearl” she designates the top point of the star as the concept of Love, the upper right point becomes Wisdom, the lower right point is Knowledge, the lower left point is Law and the upper left point is Power.

The seeker is told to meditate on these concepts, as they move clockwise around the pentagram, to think of the meaning of each word and how it interacts with the words adjacent to it. She also encourages the seeker to lie down in the pentagram position, with their head as the upper single point, to feel the points as part of their being. She states that during meditation in this fashion, one may also become aware of imbalances in their personal well-being, in relation to these concepts.

Silver Ravenwolf (b. 1956) , author of Solitary Witch: The Ultimate Book of Shadows for the New Generation (2003) discusses the various historical origins of the pentagram. She states, “If you draw the design from the top down, you are saying that Spirit comes down to matter, and if you draw from the bottom to the top, you are symbolizing matter in its highest form. The horizontal line across represents our development of intellect and the connection of force and form.”

She designates the element of air at the upper left, water at upper right, earth at lower left and fire at lower right. She also details several methods of drawing the pentagram to invoke/banish different elements.

The Case for Consistency

Many Wiccans trace the design of their pentagram in the same manner every time they draw it. What might change would be the orientation of their top point (Spirit) towards a specific direction—north, south, east or west—if they wish to invoke the spirits of a particular element during their ritual. This attention to a particular element can sometimes be found in lunar ceremonies, esbats. The zodiac sign occupied by the moon on the night of the ritual influences Esbats. And each of the twelve zodiac signs corresponds to one of the four elements, earth, air, fire and water.

For example, if their ritual is celebrated during a Full Moon in the sign of Scorpio, they may focus on the element of water. The goal of the esbat could be to ritually charge water for use in future ceremonies. The Priestess could cast the circle, and then stand in the quarter of the circle that is assigned to water—west. She might face west and draw a pentagram by orienting the top point of the star towards the west, paying homage to the moon in Scorpio and the energies of water.

Also, pentagrams created to invoke and then banish specific elements don’t have to begin at the top point. For example, if you are employing an invoking pentagram of air, you might begin at the point across from air on your star and make your first stroke travel towards the point of air. At the end of the ritual, you will banish that same pentagram by beginning at the point designated by air and make your first stroke move away from there.

Reflector on the Roof

For me, like many Wiccans, the pentagram is a symbol of the feminine divine and a sigil for the planet Venus. Since grade school, my hobby has been astronomy. As a child, I spent many nights on the roof of my home, with my little 3-inch reflector telescope, mesmerized by my view of the heavens. (My mom would make my dad put me on the roof because she was afraid some wild animal would bite me.) Venus quickly became one of my favorite subjects for observation. Sometimes she was close and large. Other times she was far away and faint. I could discern all of that, even with the limited capabilities of my little telescope. Sometimes she rose in the morning just before the sun. Other times she appeared at dusk just as the sun had set. She even changed shape, exhibiting phases like the moon. I was hooked!

Asymmetrical Pentagram

Although my pentagram traces the path of the planet Venus, I do not use the shape we can see her outline from standing on our planet. That view is rather distorted. It does not have the shape of a symmetrical five-pointed star, because we are viewing it from within the same orbital plane as Venus; we are moving parallel to her motion. An analogy would be to imagine that we were standing on the ice of a skating rink with stadium seating. We are watching a skater move around the rink.

From our perspective standing on the surface of the ice in the same flat plane as the skater, they would only seem to be moving towards us or moving away from us. However, if we are seated high up in the arena, we can look down on the skater and see that they are tracing a pattern on the ice.

In similar fashion, I draw my pentagram from the viewpoint of hovering high above our solar system. That way, my pentagram has the more classic symmetrical shape.

Points in Space

Try to imagine yourself hanging suspended a few millions miles above the north pole of the sun, floating effortlessly in space. From your perspective, you can see the counter-clockwise spin of the sun. You also see the counterclockwise orbital motions of most of the planets and their moons, sweeping around in a celestial ballet. Now focus in on Venus and Earth. Watch their pas de deux.

It takes the Earth about 365 days to swing completely around the sun. Venus, being closer to the sun, manages the same feat in a shorter amount of time. And periodically, Venus is positioned precisely between the Sun and Earth. This alignment is called an “inferior conjunction.” Whenever she lines up on the other side of the sun, with the sun positioned precisely between us, she is creating a “superior conjunction.”

Because Venus and Earth take different times to complete one orbit around the Sun, 8 years must pass before the two planets are finally lined up back at the same point. In those 8 years Venus has completed 10 orbits around the sun as compared to 8 Earth orbits. And within her 10 orbits, Venus has achieved 5 inferior conjunctions and 5 superior conjunctions.

Connecting the Dots

I use the same sequence as Crowley and Grimassi, but my reasons relate to astronomy and conjunctions. My five pentagram points can use either the five inferior or the five superior conjunctions of Venus, in a row. Pick at random one of the two systems and start there. On paper, make a dot and label it the sun. Draw a large circle around the sun to represent the orbit of Venus. Put a point anywhere on that circle. That point will be your first conjunction spot and become the top point of your pentagram. Label it No. 1.

Next, put four more dots on the circle, so that all five dots (conjunction points) are equally distant from each other. Now you will draw your sequence of pentagram strokes. In doing so, you will mimic the orbit of Venus.

In order to draw the lines to your dots in the sequence that the conjunctions actually occur you must move from your first dot at the top down to the lower right point (2) , then up and across to the upper left point (3) , then straight across to the upper right (4) , then down and across to the lower left point (5) , then back up to the starting point at the top, where Venus returns to her original position in her orbit after 8 years. That sequence of strokes is my pattern; how I draw my pentagram.

So, why do I bother to trace my pentagram in keeping with the orbital motion of the planet? Because it resonates with me. It reflects my personal experience of life. It reminds me of why I took the Pagan path, because of Paganism’s devotion to the sky and the natural world. It recalls my early fascination with the heavens, a fascination that steered me ultimately to Wicca. Every time I draw my pentagram I can recall my youthful excitement under the starry skies and I feel the embrace of the heavens. At that moment my pentagram becomes more than a star; it becomes an energized, charged sigil.

Where, O Where Do the Elements Go?

Where do I assign my four elements: earth, air, fire and water? That decision is also a personal preference. I was born in the sign of Taurus, an earth sign. I like to connect my first line from Spirit down to my personal element, earth. Since the first actual Venus conjunction spot is down to the lower right, I designated that point to be earth for me. I also like to trace my strokes in the sequence of the chant: earth, air, fire, water. I wanted to be able to trace out the conjunctions and say the chant as I make my strokes.

So, air is placed at my third conjunction point on the upper left, fire is placed at my fourth conjunction point in the upper right, and water is placed at my fifth conjunction point in the lower left. Then I make one last stroke from water back up to Spirit at the top, which completes the sequence for Venus conjunctions and brings her back to where she started in space and in my pentagram.

Venus Makes Her Point

When is the next conjunction for lovely Venus? An inferior conjunction, when Venus is placed directly between us and the sun, occurred in March of 2009. The next two conjunction events will occur in 2010. The first one will be a superior conjunction, when Venus is lined up on the far side of the sun from us, in January. Then the next event, an inferior conjunction, will occur around the end of October, just is time for Samhain—a Wiccan sabbat and the beginning of the new year in the old Celtic religions—very auspicious!

Let Your Path Be Your Guide

If you have been initiated into an established circle, then you will draw it the way you were instructed. It is part of the tradition of your Wiccan community. But all those teeming multitudes of solitaries out there, like me, what do we do? Well you can purchase books from reputable authors. I have mentioned several in this article. You can certainly browse the Internet. There are several sites devoted to the pentagram.

But before you follow someone else’s example, think about what the symbol means to you. What do you want it to represent? How does the symbol resonate with you? Which of the four elements do you wish to assign to which points and why? Do you want it to focus on the element of your birth sign? How has your life experience influenced your ideas about the pentagram? What thoughts do you ponder as you move through your sequence of strokes?

Ultimately, it doesn’t matter HOW you draw it as long as your method incorporates meaning. Formulate your own approach to the pentagram, so that every time you draw it you are creating a symbol of power, blessing and protection. It will become for you a useful tool in your journey to achieving altered states of awareness. If your sequence resonates with you, then it is the correct way for you to draw it.

Blessed Be.


Footnotes:
SOURCES FOR FURTHER READING:

Buckland, RaymondBuckland’s Complete Book of Witchcraft. Llewellyn Publications, 2004.

Crowley, VivianneWicca. Thorsons First Directions, 2000.

Farrar, Janet and StewartA Witches’ Bible: The Complete Witches’ Handbook. Phoenix Publishing, Inc., 1996.

Grimassi, RavenItalian Witchcraft: The Old Religion of Southern Europe. Llewellyn Publications, 2005.

Ravenwolf, SilverSolitary Witch: The Ultimate Book of Shadows for the New Generation. Llewellyn Publications, 2004.

StarhawkThe Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess. HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. 1979.

Valiente, DoreenWitchcraft for Tomorrow. Robert Hale, Ltd., 1993.

http://www.mikecrowson.co.uk/pentagram.html

http://paganinstitute.org/PI/ElementalPentagrams.html

Samhain God – The Horned God

The Horned God is one of the two primary deities found in pagan religions. He is often given various names and epithets, and represents the male part of the religion’s duotheistic theological system, the other part being the female Triple Goddess. In common Wiccan belief, he is associated with nature, wilderness, sexuality, hunting and the life cycle. Whilst depictions of the deity vary, he is always shown with either horns or antlers upon his head, often depicted as being theriocephalic, in this way emphasizing “the union of the divine and the animal”, the latter of which includes humanity.

The term Horned God itself predates Wicca, and is an early 20th century syncretic term for a horned or antlered anthropomorphic god with pseudohistorical origins who, according to Margaret Murray’s 1921 The Witch-Cult in Western Europe, was the deity worshipped by a pan-European witchcraft-based cult, and was demonized into the form of the Devil by the Mediaeval Church.

The Horned God has been explored within several psychological theories, and it has also become a recurrent theme in fantasy literature since the 20th Century

In traditional and mainstream Wicca, the Horned God is viewed as the masculine side of divinity, being both equal and opposite to the Goddess. The Wiccan god himself can be represented in many forms, including as the Sun God, the Sacrificed God and the Vegetation God, although the Horned God is the most popular representation, having been worshipped by early Wiccan groups such as the New Forest coven during the 1930s. The pioneers of the various different Wiccan or Witchcraft traditions, such as Gerald Gardner, Doreen Valiente and Robert Cochrane, all claimed that their religion was a continuation of the pagan religion of the Witch-Cult following historians who had purported the Witch-Cult’s existence, such as Jules Michelet and Margaret Murray.

For Wiccans, the Horned God is “the personification of the life force energy in animals and the wild” and is associated with the wilderness, virility and the hunt. Doreen Valiente writes that the Horned God also carries the souls of the dead to the underworld.

Wiccans generally, as well as some other neopagans, tend to conceive of the universe as polarized into gender opposites of male and female energies. In traditional Wicca, the Horned God and the Goddess are seen as equal and opposite in gender polarity. However, in some of the newer traditions of Wicca, and especially those influenced by feminist ideology, there is more emphasis on the Goddess, and consequently the symbolism of the Horned God is less developed than that of the Goddess. In Wicca the cycle of the seasons is celebrated during eight sabbats called The Wheel of the Year. The seasonal cycle is imagined to follow the relationship between the Horned God and the Goddess. The Horned God is born in winter, impregnates the Goddess and then dies during the autumn and winter months and is then reborn by the Goddess at Yule. The different relationships throughout the year are sometimes distinguished by splitting the god into aspects, the Oak King and the Holly King. The relationships between the Goddess and the Horned God are mirrored by Wiccans in seasonal rituals. There is some variation between Wiccan groups as to which sabbat corresponds to which part of the cycle. Some Wiccans regard the Horned God as dying at Lammas, August 1; also known as Lughnasadh, which is the first harvest sabbat. Others may see him dying at Mabon, the autumn equinox, or the second harvest festival. Still other Wiccans conceive of the Horned God dying on October 31, which Wiccans call Samhain, the ritual of which is focused on death. He is then reborn on Winter Solstice, December 21.

Other important dates for the Horned God include Imbolc when, according to Valiente, he leads a wild hunt. In Gardnerian Wicca, the Dryghten prayer is recited at the end of every ritual meeting contains the lines referring to the Horned God:

“ In the name of the Lady of the Moon, and the Horned Lord of Death and Resurrection ”

According to Sabina Magliocco, Gerald Gardner says (in 1959’s The Meaning of Witchcraft) that The Horned God is an Under-god, a mediator between an unknowable supreme deity and the people. (In Wiccan liturgy in the Book of Shadows, this conception of an unknowable supreme deity is referred to as “Dryghtyn.” It is not a personal god, but rather an impersonal divinity similar to the Tao of Taoism.)

Whilst the Horned God is the most common depiction of masculine divinity in Wicca, he is not the only representation. Other examples include the Green Man and the Sun God. In traditional Wicca, however, these other representations of the Wiccan god are subsumed or amalgamated into the Horned God, as aspects or expressions of him. Sometimes this is shown by adding horns or antlers to the iconography. The Green Man, for example, may be shown with branches resembling antlers; and the Sun God may be depicted with a crown or halo of solar rays, that may resemble horns. These other conceptions of the Wiccan god should not be regarded as displacing the Horned God, but rather as elaborating on various facets of his nature. Doreen Valiente has called the Horned God “the eldest of gods” in both The Witches Creed and also in her Invocation To The Horned God.

Wiccans believe that The Horned God, as Lord of Death, is their “comforter and consoler” after death and before reincarnation; and that he rules the Underworld or Summerland where the souls of the dead reside as they await rebirth. Some, such as Joanne Pearson, believes that this is based on the Mesopotamian myth of Innana’s decent into hell, though this has not been confirmed.

Lady A’s Spell of the Day for Oct. 4th – Clear The Air

Clear The Air Ritual

An argument or upsetting experience has left bad vibes in your living space. To rid your home of disruptive energy, perform this cleansing ritual.

What you will need:

  • A broom
  • A bowl
  • Water
  • Sea salt
  • Sage (bundled, loose or incense)
  • A fireproof holder that you can carry easily
  • Matches

Best time to perform this ritual: Any time

If possible, open the windows and doors. Start sweeping your home with a broom – not just the floor, but the air as well. Wave the broom through the entire area, side to side, up and down, until you feel you’ve whisked away the emotional dirt. Sprinkle a little in each corner of your home, then flick some water in the center of each room.

Finally, put the sage into the holder and light it. Blow out the flames and let it smoke. Carry the burning sage from room to room, allowing its cleansing smoke to clear the air and restore peace to your home.

The Broom Closet

The Broom Closet
By Ezevia Rose

My friends have brooms
I have one too
They sweep with theirs
I do too

My friends have knives
I have one too
They use it to cut
I do too

My friends have goblets
I have one too
They drink their wine
I do too

My friends have tables
I have one too
They gather round
As I do too

Now they wonder what makes me different?
If they only knew!

My broom’s a besom
My knife an athame
My goblet a chalice
My table an altar

I use them for ritual
I use them each day
I pray to Goddess
Every day

Now you know I am a Witch
They do not
Can they accept it?
Sometimes I fear not

I wish they would
Let me sweep my own way
And say prayers the Matriarch way
The Earth could be happy
And we could be too
This Samhain Night
I pray for them too

By Ezevia Rose

About the Author: Ezevia Rose, 51 is a wife of 28 years, mother of a son 24 and daughter 26 and a grandmother of a 7 1/2 year old, who she says is the spark of her life as are her children. She is also a teacher of young children and owns her own school,(23 years in business and growing) which, she says is not only her livelihood but her life. She is also a singer and an artist, with a B.A. degree in Elem. Ed and Art Ed., she loves animals, reading and gardening, and says musical instruments and books are her vices.

The Way We Were vs The Way We Are

The Way We Were vs The Way We Are

Author: Ryan Hatcher

 

If we are to look back to the inception of modern paganism and the people who were the force behind it and were to observe how they practiced, worshipped and worked magic and compared it to how we practice, worship and work magic in modern times, while there is guaranteed to be a great deal of difference, the basic, core values should have remained the same.

I was in Norwich yesterday, a city with a strong pagan undercurrent of its own, for a brief look around the shops to pass some time while my partner enjoyed a 2-hour birthday massage, because of which my wallet had experienced a mass weight loss. So window-shopping it was. On my journey around the city I ventured into a Waterstones bookshop to have a look at their MBS section and had a skim through some of the material. Now, 90% of these books were paganism 101, which is fair enough for a standard mainstream bookshop, but reading through some of these 101 books — some of them recently published — it got me to reflecting: what is taught and considered western paganism now is much different than what it would have been considered to be 60-70 years ago.

What do I mean by this? Well, much of my personal pagan practice is inspired by these ‘old school’ methods with a touch of the modern for flavor (I’m talking about Doreen Valiente and Kevin Cochrane for the older styles, particularly Valiente; the Farrars (Stewart and Janet) represent an in-between period. Kate West and Christopher Penczack add the modern flare.) as I feel their values and ideas resonate with me. Now, keeping Valiente and Cochrane’s ideals in mind (again, more Valiente than Cochrane) , compare them to a lot of Penczack’s work and the work of similar contemporary styles and you’ll see what I’m trying to get at.

The styles and traditions of Valiente and Cochrane (hereon called the ‘older styles’) focus more on the earth-based worship side of paganism: seeing their Gods as personified manifestations of the forces of Life, Love, Death and Rebirth as well as the forces of nature in all it’s guises (be this as the four elements or simply as the grass in your lawn) . I also feel that animism in a subtler form was still there, if only felt and respected rather than overtly expressed.

The crafting of magic seems to have been simpler, as was the training (which doesn’t mean it was by any means easier than today; I’m inclined to say it was harder) . Metaphysical ideas such as energy centres, auras and layers of existence appear to have been acknowledged but were not the priority. The same for ‘the mysteries’ of the craft such as hypnosis, astral projection/trance journeying and psychism in all its forms. The works of the older styles show that they were an important part of their practice along with magic, but they were not the primary focus. I feel they were considered tools and techniques that developed along with the witch as he or she progressed down the spiritual path and was able to understand themselves and their developing abilities better and learn to control, focus and use them.

In contrast, the works of Penczack and his contemporaries (hereon called the ‘newer styles’) seem to focus more on the metaphysical ideas of paganism (energy centres, auras and layers of existence) , ‘the mysteries’ of the craft and magic as being of primary importance and therefore many chapters are devoted to these concepts. Now, I’m not saying this is strictly a bad thing; it may well suit many a new student to paganism, but when it comes to the core values about the spiritual and worship side of paganism, we start to enter the world of ‘love, light and blessed be’.

The realm of the FB, and those big furry ears seem to be cropping up more frequently in pagan literature. The spirituality of the newer styles appears to see the Old Gods as playmates: happy, fun, smiley and They do anything their precious ‘hidden children’ ask for. And unfortunately kids, you just have to look at the global history of paganism and myths of the world to now that is definitely not true. The honouring of nature and the earth extends as far as litter picking and recycling, which are very, very good ideas, and more is being suggested such as planting new trees, getting involved with wildlife protection trusts etc. Unfortunately, I feel many of the witches of the older styles, though some did get involved in these things, chose not to, possibly considering ritual devotion to be sufficient.

Ritual then is the moot point of both the old and new styles. As we are all aware, spiritual practice is a subjective thing, especially when it comes to ritual. Both new and old styles of witchcraft and paganism have placed varying levels of focus on ritual, and all have varying styles and methods in ritual that meets with their needs and the ideals of their respective traditions. However (there had to be a however) , and this goes for both old and new styles of paganism, whatever happened to just going out there and communing with nature face-to-face? No pomp and ceremony, no matter how elaborate or simple, just getting out there and being in the presence of the forces that we as pagans honour and worship.

I say, if you’re in a situation where celebrating a sabbat or an esbat with formal ritual isn’t an option, but you are within distance of a beautiful woodland, then screw it! Go for a walk in the woodland, sit under a tree and meditate! Commune with the spirits of the natural world around you and feel the power of the Old Gods, the powers of life, love, death and rebirth and pour your heart out in gratitude for all you have and for all that it means to be alive.

Wrapping it up: to me, the older styles and the newer styles and those of the styles in-between all have their good points and their bad points. The older styles are more grounded, simple and earthly. The newer styles are more flighty, ‘new-age’, hippy-esque and spiritual (in the modern concept of the word) . I’m sure you can see we have a Yin-Yang situation. And like the Yin and Yang, symbols of the older and newer styles do have parts of the other within them, but what we need to achieve is a balance between the two.

Paganism is a living and growing spiritual path and naturally changes with time, but it shouldn’t lose its heart. If we can bring together old and new, Yin and Yang, then we might be able to evolve paganism further, making it stronger, more refined and give us a definitive direction for us to aim for.

I hope that this essay will encourage pagans, both old hands and new, to review their beliefs, practices and crafts… to look back at the old, and freely explore the new and therein decide what is the best way forward in their spiritual path.


Footnotes:
Witchcraft for Tomorrow – Doreen Valiente

Witchcraft a Tradition Renewed – Evan John Jones with Doreen Valiente

The Witches’ Bible – Janet and Stuart Farrar

The Real Witches’ Handbook – Kate West

Gay Witchcraft – Christopher Penczack

Instant Magick – Christopher Penczack

Daily Devotional Practises

Daily Devotional Practises

Author: Mr Araújo
For as long as I have been chatting online with other Pagans, I have been told stories of how life was somewhat sad without the presence of a religion with which a person can identify itself. I believe that this must be the case of nearly everybody here at The Witches’ Voice and it happens to be my case, of course. This is going to be an essay that explains my point of view on my own practices and how they came to be.

When one first decides to take the first step and enter the Craft, it is hard to avoid the temptation of jumping headfirst to the Initiation Ceremony. Although I have not discussed this with anyone else, I imagine that it might be quite true. After I decided that Wicca was a good Path for me, I immediately began searching online for its history and I was shocked – nearly all of the “founders” and their “heirs” belonged to covens and from what I could tell, their knowledge seemed so vast.

“How will I ever be as good as them?” I thought, worried that Gerald Gardner’s, Doreen Valiente’s, Raymond Buckland’s, Dayonis’ (amongst many others) legacy would be doomed in my hands. Whatever could I do not to venture off, far away from Wicca? And, most importantly, from the God and the Goddess?

First of all, I did a small Dedication ceremony – which was my very first ritual, in fact. I then began to focus very hard on my study of the Craft and I chose my sources very carefully. After I had read some of writings of the Founding Fathers and Mothers of Wicca, I decided to study earlier Pagan rituals.

Eventually my studies, beliefs and emotions led me to instituting my own set of devotional practices that filled in the blank left by the joy of the previous Sabbath and the yearning for the next one (I have never had the chance of safely celebrating an Esbat) . And so I began to wonder, yet again, if others did the same. But since I didn’t know of any other Pagan, let alone a Wiccan, I kept going. Today I know quite a few Pagans and most like to frequently keep in touch with the Gods, one way or another.

Yet, there are those – I have never met them, but I have been told that they are out there – who only celebrate the Sabbaths and Esbats and probably exclude any other contact with the divine. Forgive me for sounding too full of myself, but I don’t know how they do it. Perhaps it’s because they celebrate 20 or 21 rituals per year and that satisfies them – whilst I only have an average of 6 or 7, since I’ve never managed to celebrate Yule and I sometimes can’t celebrate Ostara or Mabon.

Personally, I feel a need, a thirst and a hunger to be in almost constant contact with the Gods! I’m not a religious fanatic, but ever since I discovered Wicca, I can’t have enough of the joy that is Their presence wherever I am.

So what are my daily rituals? To me, they aren’t very orthodox, since I am quite fond of my European background and heritage, but my research led me to the Ancient Egyptian practices. In case you’re familiar with them, yes, you’re right – I’ve adapted some of their rituals to my little “tradition”. Basically, I try to recognize the God and the Goddess in Their different aspects as the day goes by, and so I’ve adapted and made up small rituals for each aspect – devoid of almost all previous Egyptian symbolism.

When I wake up, I thank the Goddess for having protected me during my slumber. When I’m done with my morning routine, I go outside and greet the Sun Child and ask for His energy throughout the morning. If I happen to pass by my town’s river, I greet the Maiden; if I don’t, I do it in the bathroom (yes, that’s right) .

Once it’s time for lunch, I pray to the Sun Father for his strength, outside. If I have a patch of earth close to where I am, I drop by and give thanks to the Earth Mother for the meal I will enjoy in a few moments from then.

Finally, at dusk, I say my goodbye to the Elder God and give thanks for His gifts. At night, I greet the Goddess in whichever aspect She has taken, according to the Moon’s phase, of course – this can be considered a mini-Esbat, in fact. When I have the time, I actually gift the God and Goddess with offerings and I might use a Sacred Circle.

I know there are still other aspects of the Gods, but I doubt I could ever make up a ritual for each and every one of them and insert them into my daily routine. I also take some time to take care of my plants and to go to one of my town’s parks, where I enjoy the silent company of the trees.

I’ve never encountered anyone else who has such a need for daily devotions, or any website that details how they can be performed. That might be because they’re personal and intimate things that you simply don’t do if you’re not into them. Perhaps they can only be found after some research and introspection, but I bet most can find a personal little niche – be it praying, making offerings, meditating…

However I consider this to be an interesting subject, since Wicca has been evolving for many decades and its current diversity is overwhelming, even if we don’t take the unknown Traditions that have sprouted all over the world into consideration. Wicca began with just four Sabbaths and the Esbats; then, another four Sabbaths were added. Wiccaning, funeral, marriage and divorce rites followed.

Are daily devotions the next addition? Only time, the Wiccans, and the Gods will tell.

Merry meet and merry part, until we happily meet again!

Blessed be!

Wandering Through Faerie Land: Metaphor and the Semantic Landscape

Wandering Through Faerie Land: Metaphor and the Semantic Landscape

Author: Rhys Chisnall
On Midsummer’s Day, the corn stood half grown and green, knee high in Suffolk fields. The bumblebee buzzed as it flew from flower to flower and overhead high above the corn the skylark sang. The midsummer’s sun beat down from high in the clear blue sky as I walked along besides the footpath than ran between the field and the hedgerow. I hadn’t drunk enough water so as I walked I noticed the sleight effects of dehydration. I continued onwards, creeping thorns grasping at my boots, while the stinging nettles failed to penetrate my jeans. The heat of midday, the smell of the corn, the summer flowers, the humming bee, the singing skylark all swirled in my awareness. And then it seemed to me that time stopped; it stood still.

I was in eternity, in faerie land, out of time. The experience and the realisation of timelessness was both beautiful and horrible. Beautiful as there is no ageing and no sting of death. But it was also horrible for nothing reaches its potential in faerie land. The corn never ripens and babies are never born; trapped in between time beautiful and horrible, both and neither.

Then the air moved again and a breeze stirred the corn which began to ripple and sway. I heard the buzzing of the bee again and the skylark continued to sings up high. I was back in time, back in the field. Did I ever really leave it? Had I really been in faerie land? Is it really a real place?

For some people it is, they believe that fairyland is an actual literal place. They may have had experiences similar to mine or more likely have read about it in books on popular Wicca or even in books on mythology. Many of the ‘Celtic’ myths feature stories of fairies, the Sidhe or the Tuatha de Danaan (what fairies are is another story) . How are we to view such things as intelligent people who are interested in a view of the world, which is life-enhancing but still congruent with what we know about reality? There just seems to be no way that faerie land can be a literal place. Remembering as Doreen Valiente reminds us in her book An ABC of Witchcraft that faerie comes from the Old French meaning enchantment, perhaps it could still be saved as a metaphor.

Metaphors are essential to how we use language; linguists tell us that we could not have complex language without them. Simply put they are when we describe something (called the target by linguists) by analogy (the source) . So, for example, we might say that my child is a fairy. The child is the target and the fairy is the source. This does not mean that we believe that our child is literally a fairy rather we are suggesting that she has some fae like qualities. Interestingly we somehow know which fairy qualities to apply to the child, so unless we are on the autistic spectrum we would not think that the child is an immortal with wings or likes to steal babies and put changelings in their place (remember no babies are born in faerie land) . Rather we would assume that the metaphor meant that she was small and cute looking or perhaps cute and full of mischief. So the description of my experience is a metaphor, an analogy. But what is it a metaphor for?

This metaphor is how I would try to communicate what my experience is like and what it means to me. Quite simply, we use metaphors to hint at things we can’t describe directly or in any other way. To understand this we need to look at three types of metaphor although there are in reality many more. The three we are interested in are conceptual metaphors, paralogical (or absolute) metaphors and extended metaphors. My experience falls under the heading of paralogical and extended metaphors but let’s first discuss conceptual metaphors.

Conceptual metaphors are used to illustrate one concept with reference to another. It sounds complicated but you may be surprised to learn that you use conceptual metaphors all the time. Consider for example when we say, “it was the high point of my life”. This is a classic example of a conceptual metaphor. If you think about it unless you were parachuting or bungee jumping you were not literally high up. It is a metaphor that we use to describe how we feel about a particular time in our lives. Another example is “I turned the music down”, after all music noise does not literally have a direction. What is especially interesting about conceptual metaphors is that they are indicative of our subjective view of reality. They illustrate some of the filters through which we perceive the world.

Consider for a moment what we mean by high point. It rests on an assumption that high is something that is good and desirable, while conversely low, as in “it was a low point in my life” we see as bad and something that we intuitively see as undesirable. The American magician and Linguist Patrick Dunn in his book, ‘Magic, Power, Language, Symbol’ (a book well worth reading) suggests that metaphors in general are so ingrained in our though patterns and assumptions that they often fall under the radar to all but linguists. Yet language and thought are fundamental to how we subjectively experience the world.

The underlying metaphors which make up beliefs are so important and taken so literally that Professor Joseph Campbell has lamented, “People are dying for metaphors all over the place”. Conceptual metaphors are worth a great deal of consideration and I recommend keeping your ears open for them and meditating on how they underpin your assumptions of reality. This is a very worthwhile and illuminating exercise.

Without paralogical metaphors the Craft, the occult or religion in general could not operate. Paralogical metaphors are utterances where there is no obvious link between the source and the target. So when we say, “the weather is pants”, you have to be in on the metaphor to understand what is being said. There is no way to infer the link between weather and pants if you were not already in on the expression and understood what it means. It also makes some underlying assumptions on pants suggesting that they are not very nice things. I wonder what assumptions people who use the term, “the dog’s bollocks”, make.

Paralogical metaphors can be seen as being symbols and the study of symbols is called semiotics. The discipline of semiotics includes not just written things like pentagrams and ankhs as symbols, nor even just spoken language, but body language, haircuts and the deliberate arrangement of trees; in fact anything that carries information. Some postmodernists such as the magician Patrick Dunn argue that as everything we perceive and experience is represented by information (via symbols to consciousness) in the brain, so our whole subjective experience is a symbolic representation. There may be an objective world out there, in fact there probably is, but we can never know it directly. We only know it indirectly through our senses that provide us with symbolic a representation filtered through an attention bottleneck based on biology, biases and the symbolic information of our beliefs formed by experiences. We live in our own little reality bubbles, in our own stories and narratives created from our symbolic representations. This is an idea that is finding considerable favour with many modern occultists, mostly because it seems to be backed up from the finding of perceptual, cognitive and discursive psychology.

The most obvious examples of paralogical metaphors in the Craft are tools, symbols, the elements, and the gods. Let us take tools to illustrate what I mean. In the Craft, as in ceremonial magic, there are several symbolic tools, which represent certain things. These are paralogical metaphors because these symbols are not obvious and difficult to infer the target (the concept/experience we are trying to understand) from the source (the tool and metaphorical expression) . There are several tools and symbols used in the Craft. As the Craft is organised into small autonomous covens which tools are used depends upon the Craft tradition and the coven.

In the coven in which I am a member the tools used are the besom, the athame (sword) , the dish, the chalice, and the censer. We also use other symbols such as the stang, the cords, the skull, the hare and others. Like all good symbols these parabolic metaphors have a loose associations, allowing room for individual investment of meaning. Roughly speaking the stang is a metaphor for the Dark Lord (who is himself a metaphor) , raised during the winter months between Halloween and Beltaine, the besom is the union of male and female, the cords for masculinity or femininity depending on the colour and the skull for death. The elemental tools are the athame for will and phallus (a metaphor for masculinity) , the dish for the body, the censer for thought and the cup for both emotions and the mystery of femininity, life and the Lady (again more metaphors for metaphors) . The tools themselves are not important, it is what they are metaphors for, in other words what they represent which is.

This is all very well but you would be justified in asking why bother with this talk of metaphors? The answer is that these metaphors have a semantic content in the mind of the practitioner. In linguistics, semantics means meaning. So in other words the tools and symbols of the Craft hold meaning for the practitioner. These symbols activate the meanings in the mind of the Witch when they are used. For example, if the Witch uses the athame to cast the circle (another paralogical metaphor) then its meaning infers and invokes the will of the Witch. These metaphors are like keys that flip the mind into the state that the metaphor represents, provided they have been invested with their semantic content.

As such the Witch can deliberately buy into and build up these semantic connections. As paralogical metaphors are not obvious, so then associations need to be built and assumptions about reality implicit in the metaphors need to be examined. The witch builds up a semantic landscape, a landscape of meaning and metaphor. It is in this semantic landscape, itself a metaphor, in which the Craft operates. The world of faerie, the world of enchantment.

Occultists, philosophers and scientists have a long history of using metaphorical places in order to better understand difficult concepts and meanings. For example in the Western Mystery Traditions we have the astral and inner planes. The problem with using metaphor, especially in the Occult, is they are often taken as literal, in other words some people believe that the astral and inner planes are real places. Rather they are analogous to the ideas of ‘prime space’ in mathematics, ‘design space’ in evolutionary biology and ‘possible worlds’ in philosophy, though used to understand different concepts.

Prime space is a metaphorical space which helps mathematicians understand how reality would be effected if the mathematical language of the universe was different in some way. It is a useful tool because by understanding what would happen under different conditions it helps mathematicians to get to grips with why the math of the universe behaves the way it does. Likewise with design space, in enables the evolutionary biologist to understand why organisms are the way they are by exploring the way they could be but are not. The ‘possible worlds’ in philosophy allows philosophers to conduct thought experiments, which highlight our intuitions about concepts, and the way the world is. These are metaphors, conceptual tools and so are astral and inner planes. In a sense like myth, they are extended metaphors. They go beyond just one symbol, into many symbols that are analogous to states of mind, complex concepts and help us to understand complex information.

The astral plane is a metaphor for the emotional mind while the inner planes are a metaphor for the deeper levels of the psyche. They describe states of mind where the characters of deities, elementals and other spirits (more metaphors and memeplexes) can communicate with the occultist, or where the unconscious mind can come through, communicating according to Freud and Jung through the language of symbols. Likewise the semantic landscape is not a real place, but rather entering into a state of mind where one is aware of the symbols as metaphors and what they represent. The more one connects with and builds up these metaphors, the richer ones semantic landscape. For example, if you learn the folklore, the medicinal and magical properties of local plants, a walk in the countryside becomes richer in the sense that you will also be taking a walk through a semantic landscape full of meaning and association. Each plant will be a metaphor for various states of minds, various experiences, various connections, enriching your life and being put at your disposal.

You may be tempted to ask the question so what? And that would be a good question to ask. Why bother building up our semantic landscape and considering what assumptions our metaphors make about reality? The answer is as mentioned before, we are as Stewart and Cohen suggests ‘the storytelling ape’. We perceive and communicate our reality as a narrative. This is why Jung’s ideas about archetypes are so powerful even though we know they are not literally embedded in our brains (if you cut open a brain you won’t find a single archetype anywhere) . Rather they are embedded in how we tell stories, including the stories of ourselves. Stories are metaphors, they are full of meaning, which operates on many different levels, but they are not directly the way the world is. If they were then we would have discovered evolution, germ theory, the heliocentric solar system much, much sooner than we did.

By building up our semantic landscape, by taking control of our stories of reality, we can then change them if we wish. And if we are really good at it, and understand other people’s stories, we can change those as well. By understanding that our experience of the world (and entities) is a collection of narratives we can also avoid the obsession and eventual mental breakdown that has afflicted some literally minded dabblers in the occult. When we build up our semantic landscape, when we weave meaning and metaphor it gives us some power over the narrative, though the narrative will always have some control over us.

My experience of wandering through faerie land is a metaphor for an experience. It is a metaphor for the state of mind where I experienced the wonder and horror of eternity. Faerie land is not a real place, there are no literal fairies out there, but the experience nonetheless like many other experiences that many others and I have had was real and very useful. The experience of faerie is the state of mind that we enter into when we cast the magic circle. Putting aside the results of operant conditioning of casting the circle in that after a period of time and experience it automatically puts us into a certain state of mind, the circle becomes the semantic landscape. It is the world of metaphor, representing not only the totality universe but also the state of mind that is out of time and all of time.

The circle represents the whole of time, a metaphor for all the year, the whole of our lives and so, like faerie land, it is a mind state in eternity. We are metaphorically between the world of the physical and the semantic landscape of our narrative minds, wandering through the story, wandering through fairyland. And it is from here, in those states of mind that we can experience and change the stories and encounter the characters of our narratives including our self. It is when we are wandering through faerie land that we meet that grand narrative which we call the Divine.

Daily Devotional Practises

Daily Devotional Practises

Author: Mr Araújo
For as long as I have been chatting online with other Pagans, I have been told stories of how life was somewhat sad without the presence of a religion with which a person can identify itself. I believe that this must be the case of nearly everybody here at The Witches’ Voice and it happens to be my case, of course. This is going to be an essay that explains my point of view on my own practices and how they came to be.

When one first decides to take the first step and enter the Craft, it is hard to avoid the temptation of jumping headfirst to the Initiation Ceremony. Although I have not discussed this with anyone else, I imagine that it might be quite true. After I decided that Wicca was a good Path for me, I immediately began searching online for its history and I was shocked – nearly all of the “founders” and their “heirs” belonged to covens and from what I could tell, their knowledge seemed so vast.

“How will I ever be as good as them?” I thought, worried that Gerald Gardner’s, Doreen Valiente’s, Raymond Buckland’s, Dayonis’ (amongst many others) legacy would be doomed in my hands. Whatever could I do not to venture off, far away from Wicca? And, most importantly, from the God and the Goddess?

First of all, I did a small Dedication ceremony – which was my very first ritual, in fact. I then began to focus very hard on my study of the Craft and I chose my sources very carefully. After I had read some of writings of the Founding Fathers and Mothers of Wicca, I decided to study earlier Pagan rituals.

Eventually my studies, beliefs and emotions led me to instituting my own set of devotional practices that filled in the blank left by the joy of the previous Sabbath and the yearning for the next one (I have never had the chance of safely celebrating an Esbat) . And so I began to wonder, yet again, if others did the same. But since I didn’t know of any other Pagan, let alone a Wiccan, I kept going. Today I know quite a few Pagans and most like to frequently keep in touch with the Gods, one way or another.

Yet, there are those – I have never met them, but I have been told that they are out there – who only celebrate the Sabbaths and Esbats and probably exclude any other contact with the divine. Forgive me for sounding too full of myself, but I don’t know how they do it. Perhaps it’s because they celebrate 20 or 21 rituals per year and that satisfies them – whilst I only have an average of 6 or 7, since I’ve never managed to celebrate Yule and I sometimes can’t celebrate Ostara or Mabon.

Personally, I feel a need, a thirst and a hunger to be in almost constant contact with the Gods! I’m not a religious fanatic, but ever since I discovered Wicca, I can’t have enough of the joy that is Their presence wherever I am.

So what are my daily rituals? To me, they aren’t very orthodox, since I am quite fond of my European background and heritage, but my research led me to the Ancient Egyptian practices. In case you’re familiar with them, yes, you’re right – I’ve adapted some of their rituals to my little “tradition”. Basically, I try to recognize the God and the Goddess in Their different aspects as the day goes by, and so I’ve adapted and made up small rituals for each aspect – devoid of almost all previous Egyptian symbolism.

When I wake up, I thank the Goddess for having protected me during my slumber. When I’m done with my morning routine, I go outside and greet the Sun Child and ask for His energy throughout the morning. If I happen to pass by my town’s river, I greet the Maiden; if I don’t, I do it in the bathroom (yes, that’s right) .

Once it’s time for lunch, I pray to the Sun Father for his strength, outside. If I have a patch of earth close to where I am, I drop by and give thanks to the Earth Mother for the meal I will enjoy in a few moments from then.

Finally, at dusk, I say my goodbye to the Elder God and give thanks for His gifts. At night, I greet the Goddess in whichever aspect She has taken, according to the Moon’s phase, of course – this can be considered a mini-Esbat, in fact. When I have the time, I actually gift the God and Goddess with offerings and I might use a Sacred Circle.

I know there are still other aspects of the Gods, but I doubt I could ever make up a ritual for each and every one of them and insert them into my daily routine. I also take some time to take care of my plants and to go to one of my town’s parks, where I enjoy the silent company of the trees.

I’ve never encountered anyone else who has such a need for daily devotions, or any website that details how they can be performed. That might be because they’re personal and intimate things that you simply don’t do if you’re not into them. Perhaps they can only be found after some research and introspection, but I bet most can find a personal little niche – be it praying, making offerings, meditating…

However I consider this to be an interesting subject, since Wicca has been evolving for many decades and its current diversity is overwhelming, even if we don’t take the unknown Traditions that have sprouted all over the world into consideration. Wicca began with just four Sabbaths and the Esbats; then, another four Sabbaths were added. Wiccaning, funeral, marriage and divorce rites followed.

Are daily devotions the next addition? Only time, the Wiccans, and the Gods will tell.

Merry meet and merry part, until we happily meet again!

Blessed be!

Brooms or Besoms

Brooms or Besoms

A broom is used by many Witches to cleanse an area of baneful* energies
before a rite. They can represent the air or fire element, depending on
each practitioner’s tradition. The staff or handle is considered masculine,
while the brush or broom part is considered feminine. This uniting and
balancing of polarities makes the besom a natural choice for Handfasting
rites. Brooms also represent purification, protection, fertility and
prosperity.

The classic images of Witches riding broomsticks may have originated from
ancient fertility rites. People would jump high in the air on brooms to
‘show’ the crops how high to grow. This is a form of sympathetic magick.

There are many other myths and associations of Witches with brooms. In
Ireland, the besom was sometimes called a “Faery’s Horse”. In medieval
times, the besom was equated with marriages outside of the church. So much
so, that it was recorded that weddings ‘by the broom’ were to be considered
illegitimate.

The broom eventually became a symbol of antiestablishmentarianism and and
sensuality. This led at one time to the word ‘besom’ becoming a slang term
for an easy woman. These associations may have been promoted by the church
to discourage marriages outside of the church.

Chapter 13 of “The Magical Household” by Scott Cunningham and “An ABC of
Witchcraft” by Doreen Valiente have additional information and lore about
besoms.

*Baneful in this instance is defined as energies that are not conducive to
the working at hand, are harmful, or are considered negative.

Old WOTC

Brooms or Besoms

Brooms or Besoms

A broom is used by many Witches to cleanse an area of baneful* energies
before a rite. They can represent the air or fire element, depending on
each practitioner’s tradition. The staff or handle is considered masculine,
while the brush or broom part is considered feminine. This uniting and
balancing of polarities makes the besom a natural choice for Handfasting
rites. Brooms also represent purification, protection, fertility and
prosperity.

The classic images of Witches riding broomsticks may have originated from
ancient fertility rites. People would jump high in the air on brooms to
‘show’ the crops how high to grow. This is a form of sympathetic magick.

There are many other myths and associations of Witches with brooms. In
Ireland, the besom was sometimes called a “Faery’s Horse”. In medieval
times, the besom was equated with marriages outside of the church. So much
so, that it was recorded that weddings ‘by the broom’ were to be considered
illegitimate.

The broom eventually became a symbol of antiestablishmentarianism and and
sensuality. This led at one time to the word ‘besom’ becoming a slang term
for an easy woman. These associations may have been promoted by the church
to discourage marriages outside of the church.

Chapter 13 of “The Magical Household” by Scott Cunningham and “An ABC of
Witchcraft” by Doreen Valiente have additional information and lore about
besoms.

*Baneful in this instance is defined as energies that are not conducive to
the working at hand, are harmful, or are considered negative.

The Changing Role of Men in Wicca

The Changing Role of Men in Wicca

Author: Morgan Ravenwood
It is unfortunate but too often true that male Wiccans find themselves relegated to a passive, almost non-existent role in Wicca and many other Pagan traditions, thereby depriving their female counterparts of some potentially useful interaction, observations and teachings.

While many Wiccan women would defend this stance by pointing out that the Abrahamic faiths are male-centered and that they came to Paganism to avoid being forced to submit to male authority, they fail to realize that any faith that places emphasis on one gender over another is simply out of balance and deprives its members of both spiritual satisfaction and education.

We Wiccans must remember that it was a man, Gerald Gardiner, who originally gave birth and identity to the faith we practice today. However, he didn’t do so all by himself—he a lot of help and encouragement from women such as Doreen Valiente. Perhaps that is why the Gardnerian tradition has always promoted gender equality. Since then there have been some notable male Pagans such as Stuart Farrar, Oberon Zell, Isaac Bonewits, and more recently, Kerr Cuhulain and Christopher Penczak (who has written a great deal about gay Wiccans, whose numbers continue to grow) whose knowledge and experience have benefited us all.

A quick overview of some of the major Wiccan traditions certainly doesn’t inspire a man to want to join most of them unless he is willing to play a subordinate—and submissive- –role. While ones such as the various Druid groups and the Alexandrian and Gardnerian traditions seem to be more welcoming to the male practitioner, others such as the Dianic and Avalonian traditions are strictly matrifocal with no male participation at all. There are endless lists of Wiccan female-only groups on the web as opposed to barely a handful for men. All of this amounts to the same kind of sexism practiced by the mainstream religions, and is just as counter-productive.

We are all familiar with the concept of the Triple Goddess, which is of course worshiped by male and female Wiccans alike. While most female Wiccans relate the phases of the Goddess to our own lives, how do we apply this to the God, and in so doing, contemplate how this concept can be applied to men?

In my long years of study and correspondence with other practitioners, I have learned quite a bit from some very wise male Pagans. I recently asked some of them their opinions on this, and actually got some pretty similar answers, though one male friend said, “I hadn’t really ever thought about it!”

I can’t help but feeling that that is a very great shame indeed.

Equal gender identification really isn’t that difficult when you think about it. When we see the young Goddess as the Maiden, we could see her male counterpart as the Youth/Warrior/Student. As She reaches Her Mother stage, Her consort matures into the Father/Warrior/Hunter.

Opinions vary on when a woman has aged sufficiently to regard herself (and be regarded by others) as a “Crone, ” but on the other side of the coin, we again have her consort becoming an Elder/Sage/Grandfather. Though male Wiccans revere and venerate the Goddess in these various incarnations, might they not feel a little more comfortable if the God was given equal consideration?

Those female Wiccans who may belong to covens who worship the Goddess to the exclusion of the God might feel a little more in balance also.

When we look at the history of Paganism we find a large number of male deities such as Cernunnos, Dagda, Lugh, Cuchulainn, Pan, Osiris, Zeus, Apollo, and so many more. In ritual, particularly when petitioning for a special purpose, it is wise to aim such petitions towards a deity who may have certain characteristics particular to the object of the petition.

Male Wiccans especially may have certain issues that they feel more comfortable sharing with a male deity as opposed to a female one. That doesn’t mean, however, that they would (or should) eliminate worship of the Goddess in Her many forms—on the contrary, the male Wiccans of my acquaintance are very devoted to Her.

As in everything, balance and moderation are the keys.

We need look no further than our own Wheel of the Year to understand how important the God is to our religion. From Yule, when we celebrate the birth of the God, to Samhain, when He dies and prepares to be born yet again at Yule, our Sabbats are ironically centered on the God, with the Goddess both assisting and participating in a supporting (but no less important) role.

Consequently, it seems illogical and counter-productive to relegate the God along with male practitioners to a minor role in other Wiccan rites. While I am certainly not advocating the dissolution of all female-only covens, I DO encourage them to give some serious consideration to allowing serious male practitioners to participate in their rites. This would present many opportunities for fellowship and the sharing of knowledge, which would surely outweigh any perceived disadvantages.

The Religioustolerance.org website contains Edain McCoy’s description of the worship of Wiccan deities thusly: “We worship a deity that is both male and female, a mother Goddess and father God, who together created all that is, was, or will be. We respect life, cherish the free will of sentient beings, and accept the sacredness of all creation.” And yet, the same article also says, “Wiccans celebrate the sexual polarity of nature.

For example, the fertilizing rain is one manifestation of the male principle; the nurturing earth symbolizes the female. Females are respected as equal (and sometimes at a slightly higher rank) to males. A priestess is often the most senior person among covens — a local group of Wiccans. They aim for a female-male balance in most of their covens (local groups), although men are typically in the minority.”

The last sentence really reinforces the imbalance that exists in Wiccan practice and brings up a salient point: perhaps if more men chose to become involved in Wicca, it would drive up the numbers of Wiccan adherents and consequently make us more of a force to be reckoned with. The days of “broom closet” Wicca are coming to a close and we are already seeing the benefits such as the V.A. approval of the pentacle on the headstones of Wiccan veterans.

However, we must keep in mind that in order for more men to become interested in Wicca, they must be allowed equal consideration and status.

It’s a concept whose time has come.