Giving Thanks to Brighid – Meal Blessing

This is the season of Brighid,
She who protects our hearth and home.
We honor her and thank her, for keeping us warm as we eat this meal.
Great Lady, bless us and this food,

and protect us in your name.

Celebrating Spiritual 365 Days A Year – Feast of Hecate

Witchy Cat Graphics & Comments

Celebrating Spiritual 365 Days A Year – Feast of Hecate

Hecate is one of the oldest embodiments of the Triple Moon Goddess worshipped today. She holds power over the heavens, the earth and the underworld, where she is in control of birth, life and death. Hecate is the giver of visions, magick, and regeneration. Her chief symbol is the crossroads where all paths connect—the past where one has been, the present where one stands, and future where one is headed. In ancient Rome, statues of Hecate were place at the important crossroads. Those who frequently traveled would make offerings to the Goddess in return for her blessings.

Your Divine Light Shine Down Upon Us, Your Children

God and Goddess, hear our pleas

Shine your Divine Light and Love on us

Turn all of our burdens into air

Letting go of fear and care

Ground our bodies to the Earth

Give our Spirits joy and mirth

Wash away our tears in Water

With your love of son and daughter

Burn away the gloom with fire

And grant the lightness we all desire.

So Mote It Be.

View From My Side of the Broomstick

View From My Side of the Broomstick

Author: Keyokwee

I am always amazed and enlightened by the differing views that we all take away from our encounters with each other and Mother Nature herself. We can choose to look at ritual performed in the moonlight in the nude, as a powerful statement, a beautiful sign that there is nothing between yourself and Goddess, or simply cover up. But the choice is yours to do so and no less is thought of you if you choose not to do so.

Also since I am a Crone, I can truly savor a wicked sense of humor when it is delivered with justice! My husband, while pagan, does not go for the “foo-fer-all” of rituals instead preferring to sit on the sidelines and watch (usually mildly amused) . But he does understand and accepts me, as I am when I do my thing.

Now in the Crone aspect of life, I can truly respect Hecate. I am constantly amazed by what she can teach me, including and especially, in preparation for the unexpected in life. And since I’m mainly Irish, Hecate likes to throw a twist of the Murphy’s into my life, to keep me on my toes, and to gently remind me to cover my bases before throwing myself enthusiastically into my worship.

I’m reminded that I must approach Her with extreme caution and Wisdom because she will deliver a lesson that you’re sure never to forget. As Hecate is kind of like the Goddess of the Crones, she respects the fact that one is a Crone and allows some leeway for it. But in my case, She delights in delivering her lessons with a ruthless sense of humor. Case in point…

My husband and I live in a very rural part of Northern CA, and we like our privacy. It’s wonderful to have such freedom with no neighbors in sight. We have an above ground pool that is well used during the summer and we feel we can safely skinny-dip in the pool or pretty much walk au-natural around our house. (Polite people call before barging in!) And I feel quite comfortable in my own skin. So when my younger neighbor topped the hill after crossing the front pasture…I think that he pretty much got what he deserved!

It was a typical end to a very hot day. My husband I took advantage of the near darkness to dip into the delicious coolness of our pool and then climbed out to sit at our patio table. Each had our beverage of choice in hand. Mine was wine; his was beer. We were both caught up in the magic of the stars starting to twinkle overhead and the crickets and tree frogs were starting to turn up the volume on their nightly serenade.

There is something seductive about this time of the evening, especially when you are pagan. It’s one of the two times during the day that light meets dark and embraces. So we have come to expect that anything to happen.

I started humming and swaying and dancing around, caught up in the moment and had just raised my glass in a salute to the Goddess when the applications of Nature were driven home. The ensuing chain of events was a lesson to us all.

For it was at that time that our neighbor chose to walk over the top of the hill. But was that the end of it? Oh! Heck No!

Throw in the Murphy’s Law Applications: One Reubenesque Crone. Darkness falling. A salute to the Goddess with a glassful of wine. A gopher hole. And nine billion mosquitoes that all saw my 40 axe-handle butt shining with more lumens than a full moon reflected in an amusement park Hall of Mirrors!

You can see where this is going, can’t ya?

I was a mosquito posse’s dream come true served up on a smorgasbord! It was truly a sight to behold: A Gen-U-ine Kodak moment! I swear that I heard cackling a split second before everything converged at once. My neighbor got a free shot (Or so he thought) of a fat, drunk, naked middle aged lady who spilled her wine while flailing her arms around, waving at him!

I bet that was a little bit too much information! But on the flip side, I’m a crone and I can appreciate the warped sense of Her dark humor served up with a liberal dose of Justice and Common Sense!

The seductive song of a warm summer’s night was disturbed by the unexpected appearance of a fool! There’s a reason why I am a solitary. May your mind be seared by the shocking sight of a Crone moments before her just desserts are served in Spades! I’m no Barbie Doll, honey…this is the real stuff at 54-gravity served up on steroids!

Well that poor kid must have thought that his eyes and brain just sucked a big one on the un-sweetened Lemon of Truth because the ensuing retreat was felt on the local Richter scale.

And what desserts are those, ya almost forgot to ask?

Never think that you can get away with just a toast. Share or She’ll take it all! And if you toast Her, come with just a little wisdom and be prepared to use some common sense. Burn the incense of citronella or ‘Off ‘coils.

(Friends and neighbors, please call first. That’s the polite thing to do!)

And to the fool drinking the beer: Keep your mouth shut! Never again wince and look at your bottle and say, ”That’s going to leave a mark!” to the retreating form of your neighbor’s back.

In the blink of an eye that song of that summer night was drowned out and replaced by the high pitched whine of the incoming going to Glory! The mosquitoes were everywhere! I quickly started flailing about inside the midst of that cloud, stepped in the gopher hole in the process, and flung my last glass of wine out to the grass.

I left three-quarters of the cloud of mosquitoes there to deal with Mr. Naked Big-Mouth while I hastily retreated to spray myself with ‘Off’. The other quarter of them followed me into the house where they fed on his sorry carcass for the rest of the night because he refused to spray himself down!

So what marks is your sorry butt referring to now? The ones left in the mind of our neighbor, or the ones on your backside? Or on mine. Even my hills and valleys now have hills and valleys. (And have you folks ever sprayed yourself with Off after scratching yourself? There’s a real in-the-now reminder! Humph!)

I still swear I hear Her cackling and snapping Her fingers saying, “ YES! The Goddess is in the house!”

Peace and Blessings, Honey

Walking The Path As A Public Witch

Walking The Path As A Public Witch

Author: Medea

I am a ‘public Witch’. The phrase means different things to different people but generally it means I am one who has come ‘out of the broom closet’. That has come to mean different things to me as the years have gone by.

I never was really in the ‘broom closet’. From the time I was introduced to The Craft by way of The Tarot at age eighteen, I was very open about it. Sometimes the openness was just for ‘shock value’. Sometimes it was just to be ‘different’. More often than not my openness was just a part of my personality. Like a puppy, I gleefully and playfully was just ‘me’ all over the place.

Now, at the age of forty-seven (can I really be that old?) and High Priestess in my tradition, I am still open about it, yet in very different ways. I rarely go for ‘shock value’ anymore (there are, however, those occasions when I cannot seem to help myself) . I have been a professional Nurse for twenty plus years and have learned in some instances the less said, the better. This learned, of course, the hard way. In many, many areas of my life I am much more tolerant and not so quick to take offense. I cannot attribute this to age or wisdom, as in many ways I am very immature and like it that way. It is a by-product of the path in which I have chosen to walk. One of the many, many gifts I receive.

I no longer feel the need to flash a Pentacle ring or necklace every chance I get. Most jewelry associated with the Craft and my religion are worn in private or under my clothes, close to my heart, as they should be. Yet, if I choose to wear such things in public (or forget to take them off) I make no effort to hide them, give no explanations, and make no apologies. My car is no longer adorned with bumper stickers proclaiming me ‘Witch’ or ‘Happy Heathen’. I didn’t take them off, but simply quit feeling the need to replace them each time I had to replace a vehicle. Yet I would not refrain from putting one on my bumper if it caught my fancy.

These days when I find it necessary or appropriate to speak of the Divine in general company I am as apt to say ‘God’ as ‘Goddess’ or ‘The Gods’. I have seen that getting caught up in nomenclature or schematics lessons somehow the sacredness of what one speaks of. If I am asked what Church I go to (a common question here in the South) I tell them. I don’t use flowery or holier- than -thou phrases such as ‘Nature is my Church’.

I say I am Pagan, if need be I say I am ‘Witch’, but more than that, I say I am a person of faith. And in some eyes I see the flash of recognition and in others I see distrust and incomprehension. These things no longer bother me. I am not meant to crusade. Neither am I, or my life, meant to be perfect. I can lapse in my old ways from time to time without being ‘lost’. I can make mistakes.

These days my Pentacle hangs on the lamppost in my yard. It hangs there for protection of my home and property as well as a nod to The Craft. It matters not who sees it and who does not. My home is Pagan and I call it a Temple House. It is where our rituals are mostly held. Where our classes are held. Where I sit and work on my computer on things that are important to the Temple. It is filled with altars which range from very simple to elaborate. Like all things, they change as they should, and I understand one does not need the trappings of religion to walk one’s faith. The house is lived in. It is welcoming to The Gods and Spirits I call, to my blood family and my Temple family and to visitors who come and go. It is meant to be welcoming to visitors of all faith and I believe for the most part it is. It is a work in progress, like the Temple itself. Like all things which grow and change. Like me.

I returned to the place I was born and raised after a twenty-year hiatus. It is a rural area in the Wilds of Tennessee, deep in the Bible Belt. It is a wonderful and beautiful place and the people are wonderful and beautiful too. Yet suspicions and prejudices linger along side traditions that smack of the Old Religion. I am known as a Witch and there is no mistake I am ‘the Real Thing’. At first I was humored, seen as a local girl who went ‘Out West’ and got some very strange ideas. There is often surprise when it is learned I was first introduced to the Craft in good ol’ Nashville, Tennessee. But here in the Wilds, Nashville, too, is a long way and there are many strange ideas to be found there. Maybe not as strange as ‘Out West’, but still strange.

When the realization came that this is not a passing fad for me, and that not only did I practice what I believed but ‘preached’ what I practiced the attitudes began to change. Family members and childhood friends, some I loved dearly and had missed for a long time, began to avoid me. Their attempts to ‘save my soul’ fell on deaf ears, and I took offense to being prayed for in Churches that I would ‘find my way and be saved’. They could not convert me, could not understand when I asked ‘saved from what?’ or said ‘I’m already saved’. And so I became a lost cause and to some a threat. There is no brand of persecution as scorching as that of those we know and love. My invitations to my home were unanswered by some. It became clear there were homes in which I was no longer welcome.

The Goddess does not demand sacrifice though at times it may seem so. I eventually came to understand that in order to have the things I found important in my life there were some things that by nature had to go. There is always grief, but as all things it passes and is, if not understood, accepted.

There were those who came and went. And there are those who stayed. Rituals of one became rituals of two and then three and then as many as fifteen at any given time. Others want card readings or advice or a little magick to ‘help out a situation’. Sometimes they are open about it and do not care who knows or what is thought of their association with me. Sometimes they come on the sly. I have learned to recognize those who come for a reason, such as the Goddess may have, and those who want what I can give and firmly believe me to be going to a Christian hell. There are those who do not care what becomes of me, but care about what it is I can do. Sometimes I still grow angry, usually out of hurt from the fall of one who I may have at some point respected. Mostly I do what I feel to be right and it has become very easy.

Inevitably the question will come from somewhere: ‘How did you get into that?’ that, of course, being Paganism or Witchcraft and sometimes thinly veiled ‘in league with The Devil’. I no longer feel the need to explain how Christianity never ‘felt right’ for me, implying of course I was somehow superior to that particular belief. These days I usually shrug and say ‘Like anyone of faith, I was called to it.’ This leaves little to argue about.

In my tradition today we celebrate Lenaia at the time of Imbolc, yet like so many things, the lines are blurred and the messages are the same. This Imbolc season I find myself taking stock and reflecting on many things about my life and the Path I walk. They, this life and this path, have somewhere along the line become one and the same. Perhaps it is the knowledge of having achieved this very thing, without setting out to do so or even hoping that I could, which is causing me to reflect. Perhaps it is my age, and the realization that, though I am not so old, I have most certainly lived longer in this life than I am going to live. It could be the weathering of so many changes over the last several years, some devastating enough to make me question my faith. Having come to terms with myself I have accepted many things I thought I could not. I can do this; accept these things, because at some point I began to trust that my Gods know what they are doing.

In January of 2001, I performed a solitary ritual outside in the yard at the old house my brother and I shared, divorced siblings clinging together in the changes of life. This was many years after I had picked up my first Tarot deck and felt the power of Otherworlds and the promise of mysteries revealed in them. It was cold and the Full Winter Moon rose high in a dark and starless sky. The moon was the color of ecru and its light brightened and dimmed with my incantation and my song. I had felt and witnessed the Power of the presence of the Divine before. I had seen first hand the workings of magick. Yet this was different. It was as if I were tapped on the shoulder. I had the feeling that Someone had finally gotten my attention. She had been waiting patiently for me to notice She wanted my attention. The voice I heard on the Wind, though the night was Windless, was real even though I could not make out the words. It was as if there was one voice, no, a thousand voices, and though the words were unintelligible I knew they said ‘Follow Me’.

I did not call the God and Goddess by name then, a last holdout of my Pentecost upbringing. They were to me The Lord and Lady. Yet I knew there were names, many names, and I would come to know Them. Although I became a Priestess of Hekate, it was Diana, the Huntress Mother, who called to me that night. I now know Her feel and Her smell and I recognize Her voice. When I hear Her name mentioned I see in my mind’s eye the silver disk floating in the Winter Sky. I often thank Her for calling me.

It wasn’t long after that I held my first private Imbolc ritual, as I have ever since, as I will continue to do. The day was sunny, bright, and cold. The kind of day that often depressed me. With stick incense in hand (patchouli because that is all I had) and the instructions from Scott Cunningham’s ‘Wicca’ in my head I picked my way through the thickets behind our rental house. I found a clearing and sat down, my nose running and the frozen ground pressing against my too thin pants for the weather. I meditated in silence, one thing I was only beginning to get good at. I sat there a long while, sometimes registering the sound of small animals in the thickets. Somehow understanding the sounds of the animals were gifts. I then told the Gods the things I have told them many times since:

I am Your daughter and Your lover. I give myself to You in this life and in any others to come. Set my feet upon the path You wish for me. Teach me the things I need to know. Give me the strength to learn them. I honor You and I love You. So Mote it be.

I meant those words the day I said them. And many times after, even as I wondered how hard this life has to get. I mean them now. The Gods listened and they knew I meant them and they have granted me the very things I asked for.

I love this life. It is at times messy and ugly, often chaotic, and on occasion extremely painful. It is equally interesting, comforting, and fun. And so there is balance. And so I am very, very blessed.

I love being Pagan. It is a wonderful thing to know what one’s path is and to be allowed to walk it. The Buddhist say ‘do the dishes for the sake of doing the dishes’. The clean dishes are only a result of doing the dishes correctly and wholeheartedly. Clean dishes are not the goal, doing the task well is the goal, everything else is, well, gravy. They say the same about the journey we call life. The journey is the point, the destination only the result of taking the journey well and wholeheartedly. Take the journey for the sake of taking the journey, walk the path for the sake of walking the path. Every now and then cast your eyes to the top of the mountain for a moment, but only a moment, focus on your goal, reassess your progress, make the proper adjustments, and get back to the task at hand.

In giving true love for the sake of giving true love, I have been given the truest of love. In giving friendship for the sake of giving friendship, I have received friendship. In being faithful for the sake of being faithful, I am given faithfulness. In giving mercy and kindness and justice for the sake of giving mercy and kindness and justice, I have received mercy and kindness and justice far beyond that I ever expected. In teaching the things I know for the sake of teaching the things I know I have been taught. And such fine teachers I have.

I walk the Pagan Path and the Path of the Priestess (and yes, Witch) for many reasons but mainly because it is my journey, what is put before me to do. It is an awesome task, an honor, and a door to many fleeting moments of happiness, which add up to a joyful life when all is said and done. Sometimes this path of mine is walked on nothing but faith because all else seems to elude me. Yet that which eludes me becomes mine if it is meant to be, and though I question and rail against the way, I am committed.

Along the way I catch the most peaceful sunrises, beautiful sunsets, healing breezes, and mighty storms. I am taught humility; I am reprimanded, led gently back when astray, and kicked hard when I need it. I am loved unconditionally and I know this without a doubt. I neither fear Death nor look for it, waiting for the rewards that I think might be my due. My rewards are many, and they are now. I may at times dread the act of dying and wonder if I will be granted a merciful death or if suffering at the end of this life is part of my lesson and task. Yet I trust that I will have what is needed for me and what is in the end the best. And I will not make that journey alone.

Those who have gone before will welcome me. The Gods will guide me and the Lady Hekate will walk with me as She always has. Cunningham pointed out that there is a difference in believing in something and knowing something. Many of the things I thought I believed I have come to know. To know a thing to be true is to accept it without having to understand it. There are many things I do understand and many things I will someday understand. But knowing, that is something that is not given lightly. It cannot be earned or bought; it can only come from walking the journey and walking it with an open heart and a willing soul.

I am one of many who aid this Phoenix we call Paganism to rise. My voice is among the silent ones who roar their presence into this world in this time. Our books and our Temples were burned and like so many things, though the way could have been easier, it had to be. Our Temples stand in our hearts and in our souls, in our country homes, and our suburban yards, in our small apartments in sprawling cities. This wonderful thing we call the Internet weaves us together across many, many miles. We have new books with words from Powerful hearts. We have remnants from the past which survive and which are important yet unimportant and therefore kept in perspective. We have the new and the old in which to learn and to build from. Balance. As it should be.

I am parched with thirst, and perishing,
But drink of me, the ever-flowing spring on the right (where) there is a fair cypress.
Who are you? Where are you from?
I am a child of Earth and starry Heaven, but my race is of Heaven (alone)
— Orphic Lamella from Thessaly

C A N D L E M A S: The Light Returns

C A N D L E M A S: The Light Returns
=====================================
by Mike Nichols

It seems quite impossible that the holiday of Candlemas should be considered
the beginning of Spring. Here in the Heartland, February 2nd may see a blanket
of snow mantling the Mother. Or, if the snows have gone, you may be sure the
days are filled with drizzle, slush, and steel-grey skies — the dreariest
weather of the year. In short, the perfect time for a Pagan Festival of Lights.
And as for Spring, although this may seem a tenuous beginning, all the little
buds, flowers and leaves will have arrived on schedule before Spring runs its
course to Beltane.

‘Candlemas’ is the Christianized name for the holiday, of course. The older
Pagan names were Imbolc and Oimelc. ‘Imbolc’ means, literally, ‘in the belly’
(of the Mother). For in the womb of Mother Earth, hidden from our mundane sight but sensed by a keener vision, there are stirrings. The seed that was planted in her womb at the solstice is quickening and the new year grows. ‘Oimelc’ means ‘milk of ewes’, for it is also lambing season.

The holiday is also called ‘Brigit’s Day’, in honor of the great Irish
Goddess Brigit. At her shrine, the ancient Irish capitol of Kildare, a group of
19 priestesses (no men allowed) kept a perpetual flame burning in her honor.
She was considered a goddess of fire, patroness of smithcraft, poetry and
healing (especially the healing touch of midwifery). This tripartite symbolism
was occasionally expressed by saying that Brigit had two sisters, also named
Brigit. (Incidentally, another form of the name Brigit is Bride, and it is
thus She bestows her special patronage on any woman about to be married or
handfasted, the woman being called ‘bride’ in her honor.)

The Roman Catholic Church could not very easily call the Great Goddess of
Ireland a demon, so they canonized her instead. Henceforth, she would be ‘Saint’
Brigit, patron SAINT of smithcraft, poetry, and healing. They ‘explained’ this
by telling the Irish peasants that Brigit was ‘really’ an early Christian
missionary sent to the Emerald Isle, and that the miracles she performed there
‘misled’ the common people into believing that she was a goddess. For some
reason, the Irish swallowed this. (There is no limit to what the Irish
imagination can convince itself of. For example, they also came to believe that
Brigit was the ‘foster-mother’ of Jesus, giving no thought to the implausibility
of Jesus having spent his boyhood in Ireland!)

Brigit’s holiday was chiefly marked by the kindling of sacred fires, since
she symbolized the fire of birth and healing, the fire of the forge, and the
fire of poetic inspiration. Bonfires were lighted on the beacon tors, and
chandlers celebrated their special holiday. The Roman Church was quick to
confiscate this symbolism as well, using ‘Candlemas’ as the day to bless all the
church candles that would be used for the coming liturgical year. (Catholics
will be reminded that the following day, St. Blaise’s Day, is remembered for
using the newly-blessed candles to bless the throats of parishioners, keeping
them from colds, flu, sore throats, etc.)

The Catholic Church, never one to refrain from piling holiday upon holiday,
also called it the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary. (It is
surprising how many of the old Pagan holidays were converted to Maryan Feasts.) The symbol of the Purification may seem a little obscure to modern readers, but it has to do with the old custom of ‘churching women’. It was believed that women were impure for six weeks after giving birth. And since Mary gave birth at the winter solstice, she wouldn’t be purified until February 2nd. In Pagan symbolism, this might be re-translated as when the Great Mother once again becomes the Young Maiden Goddess.

Today, this holiday is chiefly connected to weather lore. Even our American
folk-calendar keeps the tradition of ‘Groundhog’s Day’, a day to predict the
coming weather, telling us that if the Groundhog sees his shadow, there will be
‘six more weeks’ of bad weather (i.e., until the next old holiday, Lady Day).
This custom is ancient. An old British rhyme tells us that ‘If Candlemas Day be
bright and clear, there’ll be two winters in the year.’ Actually, all of the
cross-quarter days can be used as ‘inverse’ weather predictors, whereas the
quarter-days are used as ‘direct’ weather predictors.

Like the other High Holidays or Great Sabbats of the Witches’ year,
Candlemas is sometimes celebrated on it’s alternate date, astrologically
determined by the sun’s reaching 15-degrees Aquarius, or Candlemas Old Style (in 1988, February 3rd, at 9:03 am CST). Another holiday that gets mixed up in this is Valentine’s Day. Ozark folklorist Vance Randolf makes this quite clear by
noting that the old-timers used to celebrate Groundhog’s Day on February 14th.
This same displacement is evident in Eastern Orthodox Christianity as well.
Their habit of celebrating the birth of Jesus on January 6th, with a similar
post-dated shift in the six-week period that follows it, puts the Feast of the
Purification of Mary on February 14th. It is amazing to think that the same
confusion and lateral displacement of one of the old folk holidays can be seen
from the Russian steppes to the Ozark hills, but such seems to be the case!

Incidentally, there is speculation among linguistic scholars that the vary
name of ‘Valentine’ has Pagan origins. It seems that it was customary for
French peasants of the Middle Ages to pronounce a ‘g’ as a ‘v’. Consequently,
the original term may have been the French ‘galantine’, which yields the English
word ‘gallant’. The word originally refers to a dashing young man known for his
‘affaires d’amour’, a true galaunt. The usual associations of V(G)alantine’s
Day make much more sense in this light than their vague connection to a
legendary ‘St. Valentine’ can produce. Indeed, the Church has always found it
rather difficult to explain this nebulous saint’s connection to the secular
pleasures of flirtation and courtly love.

For modern Witches, Candlemas O.S. may then be seen as the Pagan version of Valentine’s Day, with a de-emphasis of ‘hearts and flowers’ and an appropriate
re-emphasis of Pagan carnal frivolity. This also re-aligns the holiday with the
ancient Roman Lupercalia, a fertility festival held at this time, in which the
priests of Pan ran through the streets of Rome whacking young women with
goatskin thongs to make them fertile. The women seemed to enjoy the attention
and often stripped in order to afford better targets.

One of the nicest folk-customs still practiced in many countries, and
especially by Witches in the British Isles and parts of the U.S., is to place a
lighted candle in each and every window of the house, beginning at sundown on
Candlemas Eve (February 1st), allowing them to continue burning until sunrise.
Make sure that such candles are well seated against tipping and guarded from
nearby curtains, etc. What a cheery sight it is on this cold, bleak and dreary
night to see house after house with candle-lit windows! And, of course, if you
are your Coven’s chandler, or if you just happen to like making candles,
Candlemas Day is THE day for doing it. Some Covens hold candle-making parties and try to make and bless all the candles they’ll be using for the whole year on this day.

Other customs of the holiday include weaving ‘Brigit’s crosses’ from straw
or wheat to hang around the house for protection, performing rites of spiritual
cleansing and purification, making ‘Brigit’s beds’ to ensure fertility of mind
and spirit (and body, if desired), and making Crowns of Light (i.e. of candles)
for the High Priestess to wear for the Candlemas Circle, similar to those worn
on St. Lucy’s Day in Scandinavian countries. All in all, this Pagan Festival of
Lights, sacred to the young Maiden Goddess, is one of the most beautiful and
poetic of the year.

WOTC Extra – A Simple Herbal List

I’ve compiled a short list of some very beneficial herbs to keep in your Witches’ Cupboard if you have one, or if you want to start one.

I’ve also listed “The Witches’ 3 X 3” – a list of nine healing herbs, indicated by an (***) sign.

CAMPHOR

Pain reliever, heals skin – lips, nose, burns. Sacred to the Godess, used in full moon rituals as an offering to the Goddess, purification, promotes celibacy, heightens physical energy.

CATNIP***

treats colds, reduces fever, aids indigestion, curbs flatulence. Strengthens the psychic bond between humans and animals; for courage, true love, lasting happiness.

CAYENNE***

Very important first aid herb. Does not burn the skin or inner tissues, but feels hot. Helps coagulate blood, internally and externally. Can be sprinkled directly onto a bleeding cut. Good for heart disease.

CHAMOMILE***

Soothing to the body & mind, sedative before bed as a tea, mind pain reliever as a compress/ For good luck or changing your luck, prevents lightning strikes to your house or person, prosperity, meditation aid.

CLOVE

Eases toothache pain, calms stomach pain, relieves gas. Banishes hostility or negative energy, increases personal gain, clears a cloudy mind, increases friendship or love.

COLTSFOOT***

Pain relief, allergy & cough suppressant. Used in spells for wealth, prosperity & love.

COMFREY***

Very nutritious. Sooths the stomach, heals sprains, strains, fractures, sores, arthritis. Used in protection spells and safety when travelling.

DIAMIANA

Aphrodisiac, improves digestion, relieves cough. Use in sex magick spells, for clairvoyance, divination.

DEVIL’S SHOESTRING

Protection, luck, for a raise or new job; invisibility.

FENNELL

Aids digestion, can be chewed or brewed to tea for weight loss, gas relief, halitosis. Imparts strength & sexual virility. Prevents curses.

GALANGAL ROOT

Cleanses system internaly. Take at the onset of colds or flu. Doubles money in gambling, use to win in court. Sex magick, hex breaking, aids psychic powers.

GARLIC***

Good for hair, skin, digestion, lungs, blood health. Lowers cholesterol & blood pressure. Good for ear infections. Heals colds, flu. Tincture by steeping in olive oil. Use for magickal healing, protection, exorcism.

GINGER***

Relaxing stimulant! Use after large meals to settle stomach, induces perspiration while sweating out a fever, aids the liver. Powerful aphrodisiac when sprinkled in steeping raspberry leaf tea.

GINSING

Rejuvenates & promotes longevity. Andi-depressant. Use with St. John’s Wort. Equalizes blood pressure & digestion. For use in love spells, beauty & healing spells.

HEAL ALL

All purpose healing. Gargle with cold brew for a sore throat, use as a poultice for cuts, abrasions, minor contusions. Use in spells for success in gambling.

HIBISCUS

Ant

i-spasmodic. Remedy for itchy-skin or mild hives. Apply fresh brew or tonic to skin. Sweetens breath. Attracts love. Use for dream work or divination.

HIGH JOHN THE CONQUEROR

To conquer any situation. To win at gambling, in court. For good luck, money, love, health, protection. To find lost items.

JASMINE

Calmes nervous tic, use as a poultice for snakebite. Attracts money & love. For use in divination, charging crystals, moon magick.

KAVA KAVA

Powerful when used as an aphrodisiac. Potion to induce visions, use in astral travel work, for protection in travelling.

LAVENDER

ALL PURPOSE. Stomach problems, nausea & vomiting (used as a tonic) healing, inner peace, peace of mind, anti-stress, finding love, money, protection, attracting good spirits & faeries, purification, peaceful sleep, headache relief, menstrual cramp relief (when inhaled).

LOBELIA***

~~POISONOUS – USE EXTREME CAUTION~~ FOR USE IN SMALL DOSES ONLY!

Anti-spasmodic, anti-convulsive for epileptic seizures or temper tantrums. Calms pain in small doses, muscle spasms, tension headaches, menstrual cramps. Helps to end addictions & sooth withdrawls symptons.

MUGWORT

Appetite stimulant, digestive aid. Visions, dreams, clairvoyance, protection, strength in travelling. To consecrate divination tools, to add or boost power in tools of scrying.

PATCHOULI

Reverses spells, peacefully gets rid of trouble makers. Use in clairvoyance, divination, sex magick. Use to manifest & draw money.

PENNYROYAL

~~CAUTION – USE IN SMALL DOSES ONLY~~

Repels insects, calms skin itch or nervous itch. Treats & soothes nausea, treats colds & flu. Use in consecration rituals, exorcism.

PEPPERMINT

Soothes nausea & upset stomach, heartburn, colds, flu. Calming, good for motion sickness. Promotes peaceful sleep, visionary dreams. Boosts psychic abilities.

PLANTAIN***

Blood detoxifier for treatment of poison ivy, snakebite, bee stings, mosquito bites, etc. Apply juice of crushed leaves to bites & stings. Reapply often, drink brew of leaves made into tea, eat & chew on fresh leaves.

RASPBERRY LEAF

for kidney strength, infections. Diarreah, nausea, colds and flu. Calming to the nerves as a tonic. Promotes peaceful sleep. Use for visionary work, protection, love spells.

ROSEMARY

Nerve stimulant, digestive aid. Aids memory, soothes headache, eases depression when inhaled. Use for protection, exorcisms, purification, healing, stimulate lust. Powerful fumitory.

ROSE HIPS

Very nutritious, high in Vitamin C. Take for colds or flu, reduces fever. Mild laxative, good for acne. For spells concerning good luck, use to summon good spirits.

SAGE

Use as an antiperspirant, healing to wounds. Aids digestion, relieves muscle and joint pain. Gargle to heal sores of the mouth & gums. Healing to colds & flu, reduces fever, preservative. For use in spells for wisdom, healing, money, protection, longevity, powerful fumitory for ritual.

SANDALWOOD

Use a poultice for bruises & minor contusions, reduces fever. For use in clairvoyance & protection spells, purification, meditation. Burned in rituals, aids in magickal work, stimulates sexual urges, aids in healing spells.

SKULLCAP

Tranquilizer & anti-insomniatic. Sedative (mild to moderate) Eases nervous tension, drug & alcohol withdrawl symptoms, eases menstrual symdrome. Use for fidelity, commitment. Relieves anxiety. Promotes relaxation & peaceful feeling.

ST. JOHN’S WORT

Wound healing, immune system booster. Anti-insomniatic, headache relief, eases menstrual cramps. Powerful anti-depressant. Use for protection, exorcism, courage, divination rituals.

TONKA BEANS

~~CAUTION! USE EXTERNALLY!~~

For guud luck, draws money, attracts material desires. Wish magick.

VALERIAN

Calms nerves, sleep aid. Treats nervous conditions. Antispasmodic. Reduces blood pressure. Use in love magick, purification, divination, black magick.

VERVAIN

For minor pains and headache, tooth ache, arthritis, other inflammations. For restful sleep, calming nerves. For protection, purification, consecration, potions for love, creativity.

***************************************************************

Because so many herbs are potentially poisonous in various amounts, take extreme caution when dealing with a plant or herb you’re unsure of. Consult a physician, pharmacist or horticulturist before ingesting anything you are uncertain of!

May the Goddess Bless You With Warmth & Comfort on this Wednesday!

Blessed Be Comments

Faith is the Dark Moon

Unseen in the night

We know it is present

Yet long for the light.

Faith is the wind

That whispers around us.

We cannot touch it

And must take it on trust.

Faith is the soft voice

Of the Goddess of Old

Who warms us in the Winter

And wards off the cold.

Let my heart feel the warmth

Let my soul hear Her voice

Let me find faith in the darkness

And my spirit rejoice.

So Mote It Be.

Imbolc Ritual

IMBOLC (February 2)

A symbol of the season, such as a representation of a snow flake, a white
flower, or perhaps some snow in a crystal container can be placed on the altar.
An orange candle anointed with musk, cinnamon, frankincense or rosemary oil,
unlit, should also be there. Snow can be melted and used for the water during
the circle casting.

Arrange the altar, light the candles and censer, and cast the Circle of Stones.
Recite the Blessing Chant.
Invoke the Goddess and God.
Say such words as the following:
This is the time of the feast of torches,
when every lamp blazes and shines
to welcome the rebirth of the God.
I celebrate the Goddess,
I celebrate the God;
all Earth celebrates
Beneath its mantle of sleep.

Light the orange taper from the red candle on the altar (or at the Southern
point of the circle). Slowly walk the circle clockwise, bearing the candle
before you. Say these or similar words:

All the land is wrapped in winter.
The air is chilled and frost envelops the Earth.
But Lord of the Sun,
Horned One of animals and wild places,
unseen you have been reborn of the gracious Mother Goddess,
Lady of all fertility.
Hail Great God!
Hail and welcome!

Stop before the altar, holding aloft the candle. Gaze at its flame. Visualize
your life blossoming with creativity, with renewed energy and strength.

If you need to look into the future or past, now is an ideal time.
Works of magic, if necessary, may follow.
Celebrate the Simple Feast.
The circle is released.

Magick is…?

Magick is…?

Author: Darksky

Magick. We are all here to do magick. Call it what you will… spells, circle, ritual… it’s all magick. It’s all the same… high magic, low magic, candle, poppet, herb, and so on and so forth. Magick. In a nutshell: Magick is the ability to manipulate your surroundings within your environment, to manifest your desires, and protect yourself from outside unwanted energies. That is how I define magick.

So, if we are going to manipulate our surroundings and our environment, don’t we need to be in a position to do so? Meaning, don’t we have to have our spiritual house in order? Is the true magician able to manifest his or her environment even if their inner space is in turmoil? Does magick require us to first have ourselves in order before anointing a single candle or casting a circle?

Circle casting has a great deal of importance placed on preparation. Why is that? Is it about the tools, altar cloth, food, participants, the right moon phase, or even the right time of day and color? They are important factors to consider, but I feel they are adjuncts to the Magick itself, not the whole of the equation.

We chose to pursue a belief system that has no rules per say but yet has numerous procedural protocols. Protocols are merely guidelines. Isn’t it about energy and intentions? The preparation starts way before we check to see what phase we are in or if Mercury has gone retrograde. The prep actually starts with that initial spark of a thought to cast, conjure, and manifest.

I believe magick starts by challenging us to master ourselves. Being able to place our consciousness in another realm, another plane of existence is more than colors and oils. It’s magick; regardless of your practice — Gardenerian, Dianic, Wiccan, Luciferian, Thelemite, Asatru, to name a few — still at the core, it’s magick.

The practice of manipulating your environment has to start from the inside out. All of the belief systems have varied circle/ritual celebration, spells, and different types of celebration. The belief systems start basically the same… meditate, and find yourself so as to not have doubt in your abilities, understand the path and purpose you are on before pursuing the practice of magick and attaining higher states of consciousness.

Magick, in all its various forms, is all around us in everyday life. We are just moving so fast at times that we don’t realize or appreciate it. Some folks don’t even know they are doing magick in everyday life. Take for example church-going folk… they deposit a few dollars into the collection box, take a long match, then choose just the right candle, light it and then kneel and pray. They are empowering that light. They are transferring their intentions to the candle, be it for health, money, peace, or guidance. They are performing candle magick without knowing it.

Does magick have to be ceremonial, with a full circle cast? If magick is the manipulation of one’s environment to manifest one’s desires, is blowing out the candles on a birthday cake after making a wish, magick? What about a coin in a fountain, blowing on a dandelion, a shooting star?

I believe some will disagree, that to manipulate, to be able to manifest, starts within ourselves.
Magick seems to be at work whether we are conscious of it or not. Vibes, intentions, desires, emotions… they are sent out from us every day in staggering volume. How many thoughts would you say you have in a 24-hour period? These emotions, intentions, vibes, and desire flow from us, both positive and negative. We sometimes don’t realize how much magick we do.

“If you realized how powerful your thoughts are, you would never think a negative thought.’ –Peace Pilgrim

When we cast spells, perform ritual, and/or commune with our Gods and Goddess, we are emitting energy. We are sending out vibes, intentions, desires, and energy that is emotionally charged. Sending up smoke, burning oils and incense, offering food and drink… all charged with our energy, our essence. Think about it. We should not just go through the motions, to perform a circle/ritual/spell (or whatever your belief system may do) . It’s not to just be “performed”; it’s the essence of the practitioner that envisions, builds, executes and completes the act of circle/ritual/spell.

Magick requires a certain level of commitment. Magick is a living, breathing, consuming thing. Most all belief systems have some rules, mantras, or credo (for example, in the Wiccan tradition, the statement “in perfect love and perfect trust bide the Wiccan rede we must”) . How far does that go? What is that applicable to? Is it just for magick or everyday life? Do we light candles, cultivate herbs, dress our altars, cast our circle, have ritual and then turn that off? Is magick a ready-made thing? Just add water, break glass, needs no batteries? Or is magick and being a magician a lifestyle?

My wife and I took some classes a while back and they where very informative but we were taken a back at the teacher and with the other people in the class. It was not what we expected. It was a coven atmosphere, there was a HP and a HPs during class and ritual. Almost everything seemed to be in its proper place — a general feeling of respect, reverence — but the gossip and petty drama that ensued was confusing. Perfect love and perfect trust? Karmic pattern? Three-fold law? Is it all just words?

Magick, I think, needs to be a way of life. Not a controlling facet, but one that is integrated into everyday life, actions, words and deeds. Magick, I believe, is correctly executed when we mesh with the universe. Magic doesn’t have an on and off switch. Magick must flow uninterrupted, without obstacles placed in its way by us.

Witches are not a rare breed. We were here long ago and shall endure the ignorance of others and their belief systems and persevere, prosper, and pass on our traditions. Being accomplished at anything takes time, patience, commitment, and practice.

If you look at some of the most astute and learned people in any chosen field, notice a common thread: the path they walk, the call they answered, the vision they saw, is a lifestyle. It’s not a hobby; they are manipulating their own environment to manifest whatever it is they want. They perform magick.

Imbolc: Emerging Into Light

The Celtic festival of Imbolc celebrates the return of Spring from underground and the soul to renewed life.

BY: Mara Freeman

Once again, it is time to welcome in the early Spring and the festival of Bride, or Brigid, the Goddess who brings Light and Life to the land. The ancient Celts called it Imbolc, the time when the new lambs were born, the Earth is beginning to thaw, and new, impossibly fragile-looking green shoots start to emerge through the bare soil.

This miraculous emergence into light is one of the major themes of the holiday. An old Scottish rhyme tells us that this is the time when Bride emerges from the Earth, just as in the Greek myth, enacted at this time of year as part of the Eleusinian mysteries, the goddess Persephone came out of the underworld and Spring returned once more.

These myths are not only about the return of Spring to the land, but also the return of the Soul–traditionally depicted as feminine–from its dwelling in the obscurity of the subconscious mind. In the western world, we tend to get so caught up in material pursuits that the soul is forgotten most of the time – even though we never feel truly at home to ourselves without that connection. At the dawn of the modern age, a poet wrote that “affairs are now soul size.” His words are even more true today: with the escalating crises in the world from wars to global warming, now is the time to fully awaken into what each of us has been called to do during our time on Earth, to emerge into a life that catches fire from the soul-flame within each of us.
When humanity listens to the voice of the soul, rather than being seduced by the astral glamour of consumer-driven culture, then the Soul of the World, the Anima Mundi, will also emerge, like Bride or Persephone, from deep within the Earth where it has been hidden, and its long estrangement from the human race will be over. This is the true meaning behind the Quest for the Holy Grail, a symbol of the Divine Feminine that was withdrawn from the world when our insatiable desire for dominance turned it into the Wasteland. For the Grail to be found, for the Wasteland to be restored to the Courts of Joy, we must learn to become co-creators in partnership with all the Living Intelligences of our planet: human, animal, faery or Devic.
The Festival of Bride is also known as Candlemas, for it is marked by the lighting of candles to brighten the long February nights. This also gives us an opportunity to rekindle our own inner flame upon the shrine of the soul. So light your own candle this season, and as you do so, see this tiny flame as a spark of the One Light that shines through all the worlds. Then sense your own inner flame within your heart and know that you, too, are a spark of the Divine. Breathe in the peace of this knowledge, and listen to your soul telling you how to fully awaken into Light in the emerging year.

Source:

Beliefnet.com

WOTC Extra – Book of Shadows Blessing Ritual

Book of Shadows Blessing Ritual

Decorate your altar to Brigid with her cross or any other appropriate symbols because she is the Goddess of inspiration and poetry. She is also a warrior for the weak and Goddess of Mid-wifery. To me, she represents everything women embody – strength, nurturing, creativity. That is why she gives me power when I speak to her in my magickal workings and also why I chose her to call upon when blessing my BOS.

Perform this on a New Moon because this is the time for new beginnings. Light one white candle dressed in an appropriate oil with her name inscribed on it. Burn some incense as an offering. Then speak this prayer aloud while handwriting it in your Book of Shadows.

Great Goddess, Brigid
to you I send
a Witch’s words
from start to end.

I seek your help
so wisdom grows
and from my pen,
magick flows.

Please bless these pages
with your light
and keep this book safe
day and night.

Let the candle burn out on its own and save some left over wax. Take this wax and place it in something safe. Then secure it to your book’s blessing page for good luck. Brigid will inspire you with her magick every time you write in it.

Please note that this does not have to be done on Imbolc for the Gods are always with us. If done on Bride’s Day, however, your Book will be especially blessed.

Goddess Bless On This Fantastic Friday!

GOOD MORNING, WOTC! How ya’ doing this morning? We are fantastic. It is a balmy 12 degrees here. We have got the bikinis on, going to cut out early and do some sunbathing today! Just kidding by the way! But seriously we might as well I don’t believe it is going to warm up till September. I know a few days ago I promised not to gripe about the weather but…..I can’t find anything else to gripe about might as well, lol! Hmm, if I don’t have anything else to gripe about then life must be good. Hey that’s great!

Ok, I will stop the silliness and get down to business real quick. I hope you all realize by now, I actually hate talking about our financial situation & asking for donations. Because I really do, that is one reason we opened the store and started raffling off merchandise. At least that way I didn’t feel like a total bum. It is coming close to the end of this raffle, I figured it might be safe (I hope). We received a $700.00 electricity bill in the mail a few days ago. We don’t have the money to pay this at all. If you have been considering joining in on the raffle this month, we would definitely appreciate it. If not, we are going to be in crisis mode, again. You don’t have to give a lot every little bit is appreciated. Think it over because we could definitely use some help. We have never had an electricity bill like this and personally I don’t know what we are going to do. I know we have always survived with your help and most of all your love and we are deeply grateful to you.

I am going to run for now and get busy. I hope everyone has a super Friday and a great weekend. Stay in where it is warm and we will see you tomorrow.

Luv & Hugs,

Lady A

Esautism – The Ultimate Magick

E S A U T I S M

the

ULTIMATE MAGIC

We made a loooooooooong journey.
And on this journey we’ve found IT.
If coincidence would exist, it might have been the most extreme form
of it.
But as coincidence doesn’t exist……….
Who or what has guided us is still unknown; of course we do have our
thoughts on that, but we didn’t agree with each other. It might have
been Eris, but ………….. could it be too.

We don’t want to keep our new knowledge a secret, nor want we to
build a Temple around it. We are the TRANSMITTERS.
No need to ask for seminars, courses or other mind-prisoning techniques.
Be your own guru!

First we weren’t aware at all THAT we found IT, but after concretizing
verbally our discovery and combining our personal new knowledge,
we got a first suspicion about the extreme importancy of our discovery.
Because IT is important, VERY important indeed!

We’ve found the Ultimate Magick!

It is the Magick of the

ESAUTISM TRADITION.

A Follower of this Magickal Tradition is called an

ESOTAUR.

The name might point to the fact, that this Magick has its roots in times
before mankind existed on Earth. Therefore, the conclusion that this
is the oldest Magickal Tradition we know now is correct, because
we don’t know of any other pre-human Magickal Tradition.
According to this, the probability is very high, that if one
devotes and studies thoroughly ESAUTISM for an appropriate time, one
isn’t human anymore. You might also conclude that an Esotaur isn’t human.

The Esautism Path is a free Path for everyone.
That doesn’t mean, that everyone will become an Esotaur. The PATH is
very heavy and difficult. A strong will, great perseverence, a trained
mind in multiple disciplines and a limited life span is required.

Everyone has already made some experience with this kind of Magick,
of course without knowing it. In fact, every human has made acquaintance
with this Path, it was just not recognized as IT.

Because ESAUTISM doesn’t use spoken or written words, it is very difficult
to describe it, but we will make the great effort.

Trying to describe ESAUTISM, it might clear you up, if we call it a

FIVE-PILLAR-CRYPT.

The five Pillars are the Pillars of Potention and only those who have
mastered those Pillars and can use them simultaniously without mistakes,
can enter this Crypt without being smashed back into the boring dayly
human life.

The PILLARS.

The first pillar ist the Pillar of CREATIVE VISUALISATION.
Creative Visualisation is the Art of imaginating pure mentally those
pictures that are desired. You can create pictures from your earthly
reality, but that isn’t nessesary. That means, you don’t need the sensory
reality. You don’t need your eyes either.

The second Pillar is the Pillar of CREATIVE OLFACTORISATION.
Creative Olfactorisation is the Art of imaginating pure mentally wished
smells. That might be the smell of a pizza, a roommate or any sensory
smell from everyday life, but smells that don’t exist on earth are okay
too. You don’t need your sense of smell, you even don’t need your nose.

The third Pillar is the Pillar of CREATIVE AUDIOLISATION.
Creative Audiolisation is the Art of imaginating pure mentally any sound
that is wished. It might be the sound of a train, a screeming crowd or any
other sound you have heard before somewhere on earth. But sounds that
you’ve never heard, sounds that even don’t exist, will do fine too.
It might be clear now, that you do not need your ears.

The fourth Pillar is the Pillar of CREATIVE GUSTATATION.
Creative Gustatation is the Art of imaginating any flavour that is wanted. That may be simple tastes or flavours, but very exquisite ones will do too. Creating complete new flavours is as acceptable as trying existing ones. Any organ of taste isn’t required. In fact, having still any sense can be an obstacle on the Path.

The fifth and last Pillar is the Pillar of CREATIVE TACTILISATION.
Creative Tactilisation is the Art of imaginating the sensations that occur when someone touches something he or she wishes to touch. That can be a tree, a pudding or anything from the tactile reality or above or beyond that reality. This Pillar doesn’t need any tactile instrument, not even a singe feeling-point in your skin. You don’t need any skin.

This five Pillars are connected to eachother and are made a Whole by the MENTAL LANGUAGE. This mental language is combining the just described
mentalized senses into mental orders.

With help of the five Pillars and their Language you can get EVERYTHING you want to. A good ESOTAUR serves him/herself ALWAYS with success. If one has mastered this kind of Magick totally, he/she is completely independent of materialism; other people, animals, plants, stones, air, sun and moon are not needed anymore.
An ESOTAUR does not believe in any GOD or GODDESS except in him/herself,
because he/she IS GOD(DES).

You are allowed to copy, print and/or publish this NEWS under the condition that it is not changed and that it is credited. If you ever earn any money with this, you should know, that your material desire is keeping you off from the Path of the ESOTAUR!

I Left Wicca. I Came Back. So Can You.

I Left Wicca. I Came Back. So Can You.

Author: Bliss Diva

Incense wafts around me as I lift the dragon letter opener I’m using as an athame. The candlelight flickers around the room as I invoke the elements, call the Goddess and God, and settle into a comfortable spot in my circle for my pathworking. The wind howls outside, sending snow whipping onto my window, and I smile – I can feel the divinity and magic in the air around me. Everything is wild and mysterious and I feel so intimately connected to everything around me – I’ve never felt anything like this before. I feel so complete – and I’m only thirteen years old.

…fast forward a year and a half. I’m in a circle in the forest with three friends – the setting sun’s colors filter through the trees above us as we connect our hands. I’m the only ‘experienced’ one among us, so I let them know what to do. We begin to walk in a circle, chanting in unison: “Hecate, Hecate, Hearken well: lend your power to our spell; Hecate, Hecate, Hearken well: help us do our magick well.” Faster and faster we spun, our voices weaving into the branches above us. The world twirled, the air seemed to buzz, and suddenly, without any prompting at all, we stopped chanting and circling and threw our hands into the air – sending the energy into the universe above us, our wishes sent into the world. We stood there a moment, breathing deeply. Then, we collapsed giggling to the earth so we could ground. Everything was perfect. Everything was right. We made magick.

…speed up again. My Book of Shadows hasn’t been opened in several weeks. A thin layer of dust is on my altar. As I rush to put on my prom dress, I realize I forgot all about Imbolc, and Ostara, and the full moon the week before. I look guiltily at my altar, shrug, and walk out for a night of dancing with my friends – and hopefully, my crush.

..and again. I’m packing boxes. Pulling unused items from the corners of my room to either give away or put in storage. I find the stack of my old Book of Shadows on the bottom of my bookshelf. I sit on my carpet, and gaze at them in my hand. I feel a fleeting twinge in my heart, and then set the stack in a cardboard box, next to my other old journals. The box goes back into the closet, with the others. I turn to my travel backpack and begin to sort things to put in there. My hand, rustling through my jewelry box, touches my pentacle. I pick it up and watch it glint in the light. The writing around the edge reads, “I am the beauty of the green earth and the white moon among the stars.” I feel the twinge in my heart again, and decide to put it in among the few pieces of jewelry I was deciding to bring.

Just in case.

~*~

That was a year ago. Yes, I traveled. I met many people, and continue to do so. I delved deep into myself and discovered. And yet, I still felt a restlessness.

I was living in tropical paradise on the east coast of Australia – as I am now, for the next few weeks before I leave once more to travel. My life has been perfect – everything I dreamed it would be, ever since I was eight years old.

And yet. And yet.

I woke in the middle of the night, not understanding why I did not feel complete. Was it because I didn’t like the housekeeping job I was doing? No, that wasn’t it. Was it because I wasn’t writing as much on my blog as I would like to? No, that wasn’t it, either. Was it because I missed my family and friends? I missed them, but that wasn’t what was causing the restlessness, either.

I wrote to my darling soul sisters in the Goddess Circle over at leoniedawson.com. I told these beautiful hearts what was rustling deep in my soul, seeking their guidance and womanly advice. I got many replies, and many pieces of advice, and I pondered on it all.

And then, one night, I knew.

I found myself thinking of the spirituality I had spent my adolescence in. I’m now 19 years old – it has been six years since I first discovered Wicca. I remained in that path until I was about 16, after which, I chose not to identify as Wiccan. Why? What turned me away from that religion that made me feel so complete, so wonderful?

I felt shunned and misunderstood and judged by other Wiccans. Nothing I did was right – whatever I believed or practiced, I wasn’t doing it right, I wasn’t a real Wiccan, I was a fluff bunny, I need to do this this way and that that way, you’re harming the earth because you want to learn to drive, you’re harming this and that and this and that…on and on and on. No matter how serious I was, no matter how hard I tried to be intelligent and educated and learned in Wicca, I was judged for one small reason: I was a teenager. at 13, 14, 15, 16 years old, I was considered not smart enough, not mature enough. I was a teenager, thus I was just getting into it because I was “power-hungry” or wanted to be “cool” and I basically was, according to all the adult Wiccans I met, not “serious.”

I heard those things so often that I believed them. So I stopped indentifying as Wiccan. I stopped practicing what made me feel so alive. I continued to pray to the Goddess, and occasionally meditate, but that was the extent of my spiritual practice – even though I wanted desperately, deep within, to again do what made me feel so wonderful.

Eventually, that need got buried so deep I stopped consciously feeling it, even when I connected with some Pagans during my time in Western Australia.

But now.

The restlessness began growing as I began to blog more – as I began to get a grip on what life I truly wanted to make for myself; that is, a life in which my job is doing something I love, and making enough money from it to support my travelling. In my pursuit to create a quality blog with quality posts, I had to dig deep into myself and my Self, in order to write passionately and authentically.

And, in digging, I found a box I had forgotten, in the corner of the closet of my childhood room.

There is a lot of articles all over the internet, and on Witchvox, and on YouTube, and in books, that are all about “beginning Wicca” and “advanced Wicca” – but what about that in-between place, when all you have is doubt? What about that space in which you step off the path to explore new paths, and find yourself being called back, after all the doubt and fear and confusion and unknown and self-discovery, to your original road? What about that spot in the road that you walk on, far from the part you walked off of? Where are the books and articles for that spot?

Here’s one, among none – one for others who have struggled, walked away, and come back. Here’s one for those who already know the basics by heart, but aren’t quite knowledgeable enough anymore to go to the advanced Wicca.

You aren’t alone, darling.

This one’s for you.

Keep walking. Practice your magick. Do what your heart calls you to do.

I don’t practice the same Wicca I practiced at 13, or 14, or 15, or 16. The Wicca I practice now is gentler and more full of gigglesnorts and soaking my dancing toes in the sea.

You don’t have to practice the same way you did before. You’ve experienced other ways. You’ve seen. You’ve touched. You’ve loved, and hated, and cried, and giggled, and gotten your feet dirty on the dust of other roads.

Bring that wisdom to your new path. You are a bigger person now. You are a more beautiful person now.

The Goddess doesn’t mind if you no longer feel connected to elaborate rituals with lots of trinkets and candles and complicated words. She doesn’t mind if you aren’t vegetarian or an environmentalist. She doesn’t mind if you don’t agree with what other Wiccans say.

She doesn’t mind if the only spiritual thing you do is talk to Her while you walk to work in the morning.

I know She doesn’t mind that I mix up the Southern Hemisphere directions sometimes, and that I giggle when I fart during meditation. I know She doesn’t mind that I’m not into spells and big fancy altars anymore.

The time I had away from Wicca, walking on other paths – the time I had away from it, doubting, questioning, wondering – was exactly what I needed to get perspective on why I loved Wicca.
Wicca wasn’t a phase for me as a teenager. I wasn’t into it for the power, or because it was “cool.”

Wicca attracted me because it spoke to my core. I didn’t always translate it very well, because the jumbled emotions of adolescence got in the way, but what it all comes down to is that it resonated with a deep and wild knowing in my breast.

If you walked away from the path and then came back to it at a different point – there was reason for that. Wicca, in some way, spoke to your core as well – to the la loba sitting in your belly.

The wolf’s ears perked up, and a mischievous grin spread across her lips. Because she knew that you had found what you, your whole life, had been longing for.

Walk away. Come back. And walk away again.

Follow your wild knowing.

________________________________
Footnotes:
leoniedawson.com

Walking The Path As A Public Witch

Walking The Path As A Public Witch

Author: Medea

Good Monday Morning To All Our Brothers & Sisters of The Craft!

DID YOU MISS US?

I can’t hear you, lol!

Well, whether you missed us or not, we missed you! We love ya’! In case you are wondering, we did not have a flu relapse, we did not run out of broom fuel in Alaska nor did we hibernate for the rest of the Winter. Instead we took a little working vacation. That kills me, working vacation. How on Earth can it be a vacation if you are still doing work??? I don’t know I am still trying to figure that one out myself (when I do I will let you know). But seriously the WOTC must be getting publicized somewhere out there. Why, you might ask? Now are you ready for this because we are all still scratching our rumps over all of it……we have had two networks approach us about doing one reality show and the other a documentary. Then we have had several radio stations ask for interviews. I can see someone doing a reality show around here, HA! We are not a very exciting bunch of witches, in fact, rather boring. Well not boring, just private. I do my rituals and spell work with no one around except my familiars (that’s the way we all are unless it is a Sabbat). I am sure the viewers would love to see me sleeping in the floor or chasing the lynx off the porch. Yes, I have a new critter that has moved in with me. The lynx is not welcome because I already have the wildcat outside and one inside. I have a fight out on the porch every night. Now the documentary sounded pretty cool. I would get to sit in front of a fake background and discuss our earlier history. I think their main focus is going to be on the Burning Times. And as everyone knows that is one topic I am very passionate about (Oh, Brother)! It makes me angry to even thing about how our Ancestors were treated let alone talk about it. And talking about talking, the radio shows are fine. But does anyone know of a cheap voice coach, lol! I don’t want to sound to “hicky.” I have been told I have a very heavy southern accent. Perhaps if I leave ain’t and ya’ll out of the discussion I might make it through. But if and when all this happens, we will give you times and dates. We want the moral support, pleezzzeee!

Now on the world stage, I was listening this morning to the News and I heard something that was disturbing to me. I know you probably heard it also. It was a report about a group of terrorists that have threatened the Olympics. To me this is appalling and it’s sickening. I think we all need to keep all the athletes from the different countries in our thoughts and prayers. And ask the Goddess to watch over the Olympics and protect everyone there. Also pray the President Putin finds this terrorist organization for they can do any damage. To be truthful, I believe if he catches them, we won’t never know it and we won’t never hear from them again. As the Olympics draw nearer, keep the athletes, the visitors and everyone else in Russia save and sound.

Well, it is great to be back with you again. I did notice one thing, we leave we pick up a huge following. What’s up with that? We won’t bite I swear (well, we really don’t know about Mystie but she has been vaccinated so you should be safe, lol)! But anyway, you know me I could talk forever but let get back to it and get some work done. For everyone new to The WOTC, welcome, make yourself at home and enjoy! For everyone else, we are glad to see you and look forward to spending the day with ya’!

Have a very Blessed Monday,

Luv & Hugs,

Lady A & The WOTC Team

Let’s Talk Witch – Invocation, the Who, What, When and How?

Witchy Comments=

Let’s Talk Witch – Invocation, the Who, What, When and How?

How?

Invocation is not so hard. You don’t need to be a rocket scientists for that, You need just a sparkle of imagination and most of all, You need to relax, to feel Your internal peace and power. This is usually made with meditation or some other relaxation method. I made a unique way to get this peace. Make some sort of copy of Your happy emotions (love, peace, happiness, wisdom,…). Than use this like some sort of defense shield. Whenever You feel angry, just think of something or someone You loved with all Your heart and just let Yourself, that the love flood every piece of Your body and mind. With peace You can invoke the Goddess of Light.

When?

Waxing moon for spells of invitation or increase

-Examples: spells to find love or get a job

Waning moon for spells of banishing or decrease

-Examples: spells to end loneliness or financial problems

Full moon for:

-maximum power

-coven work

What for?

The spells are often made according to zodiac circle. Every sign has its traditional needs, like:

-Aries

battle, beginnings

-Taurus

money spells, sex magic

-Gemini

communication

-Cancer

psychic work, lunar magic

-Leo

leadership, solar power

-Virgo

purification

-Libra

balance, work in law or for justice

-Scorpio

power

-Sagittarius

honesty, expansion

-Capricorn

overcoming obstacles

-Aquarius

healing

-Pisces

psychic work, endings

But, often spells are not made for traditional purposes, but for custom.

Who?

This is very large question. It depends of what You believe in (I believe in Goddess, but for spells I use gods also). You can use Gods, Goddess, spirits, heroes, etc.

Examples:

Isis: Protection, magic

Thoth: Reincarnation and magic

Aphrodite: Love and passion

Invocation

Invocation can be as simple as they can get, like this:

O,____________

O, Isis

Just a little more complex:

Mighty ________, invoked by me

Mighty Thoth, invoked by Me

or very complex:

Seven stars of brightest skies invoke You, _______ to seek and find to love

in might, to give, to take and nothing to break.

Seven stars of brightest skies invoke You, Ra to seek and find to love in

might, to give, to take and nothing to break.

Make Your own and make it right, with the power of the Light. Find the way to Goddess word, as You can listen and You can heard.

The Answers You Seek

The Answers You Seek

Author: Lady Wolfwind

My daughter tells me that the answers that I seek are in the Bible. Oh, if she only knew. She doesn’t know me very well. I laugh to myself. I don’t seek any answers. I am at total peace within myself. I know that the answers will be revealed to me when I am ready. The more you chase after them, the least likely you are to find them at all.

True, at one point in my life I ran here and there. I was never satisfied. I was always reading and questioning everything. Surely, the great knowledge that I seek must be in a book somewhere. I was impatient and surrounded by chaotic thoughts. Caught up in the mundane world where money mattered above all else.

I don’t know when it changed. A few years ago. I’m not sure why. Some inner voice was whispering, nagging me. I wouldn’t ever listen. If I listened I knew I would have to take a different road, one no one else understood. I would stand out, I would not fit in. Long ago these were important things to me.

One day something changed. A new thought appeared. I had read and studied most of the world’s major religions. None of them appealed to me. What did appeal to me? Something I had heard long ago. A distant memory of quiet words spoken. “Follow your heart, for it will never deceive you. You are one of the few who has been chosen to walk with me.”

It seems like forever that I ignored that voice. That beautiful musical voice that one day would show me a path so magical that it seems an injustice that more people cannot hear. I now understand all that She had to tell me. To be quiet and listen. That all is not silent. The Universe speaks volumes to your soul. That I was born to be different; to march to a different beat and it is okay. That I have a purpose here on Earth to do Her work. To stop asking the questions and chasing answers.

The answers that I seek are on the wind. They are in the raindrops and the stars shining at night. Departed ancestors who deserve to be honored whisper them to me. They are heard in my children’s laughter and felt in my cat’s soft breath. They are all around me. I had to be still to hear. They’ve always been there.

When I first set foot on my path I was overwhelmed and could not learn enough. I read everything I could find, I researched terms and tried to find groups to join. I wanted to buy everything I thought I needed. I still wasn’t paying attention. Soon I learned to meditate, to open and heal my chakras, yoga. I learned and I practiced how to be still. Then I began to hear.

I am now a solitary and a very happy one at that. I don’t need all those fancy tools. Our ancestors and fellow wise women did not buy their tools. They didn’t gather together in secrecy. Most were loners who loved nature and knew how to use it to make the lives of everyone better. There is no chaos within me. I do not seek answers. The Bible, which my daughter speaks of, holds no interest to me. I feel that she is the one who has been blinded by false leaders and it saddens me.

Witches of old were wise women and men who knew the value of the silence. Great secrets are not written in books. They are not shared with just anybody. The witches of yesteryear listened and learned and healed. It was a mistake to forsake them, to bury them in history, to make them creatures to be feared. The true witches know the secrets and know how to keep them and who to share them with. The true witches are full of love for the world and all of the creatures in it. Witches do not need manmade laws to control their actions. We have a strong moral code within us that makes it impossible to hurt what we view as divine.

My daughter made a last ditch effort to convert me. It was a mistake. It made me think deeper. It made me realize how peaceful I was compared to others. She does not see the happiness in me. I sat and thought and really understood who I had become since I took the Goddess’s hand and began to walk with her. I am happy, I am wise and I am powerful. I am beautiful and I see beauty in everything around me.

I’m not so sure that her Bible will teach her any of this. Her words were filled with anger and disdain. Words that a child should never say to their mother. I had to step back and think about all that she had said. Were her words true? If so, I had made some terrible errors in my life. I talked to others who know me best, who have been with me for years. No, they didn’t understand what she was talking about or where this anger came from. It had been an attack that was unprovoked.

I listened and chose to write back. Why does it matter so much which path that I follow? Is this what she learns in her church? I chose not to send the letter. It is my belief to never do anything preceded by strong emotions. This is my child; I will not use words to hurt her. My answer is silence.

I say a blessing for her and her family. I shield my two younger children and myself. If anything, her mistake was to ingrain in the two younger ones the realization that Christianity may not be all that it is said to be. They asked me how her god could create such anger and pain. Didn’t her Bible teach her to love and honor her ancestors? Deep questions that I need to take the time to answer.

I suppose things will be a little different this full moon. We will need to send positive energy out to my daughter and her family. We will need to talk about forgiveness. We will need to discuss anger and pain and how it can be a bad thing as well as a good thing if dealt with properly. We will need to address how to deal with it properly and learn not to become consumed by it. I’ll need to teach them what happens when these emotions take control of your mind, how it will destroy you and those around you. How you cannot hear the Goddess speak to you if your mind is full of hate and not tolerance for others and their beliefs.

This morning I smile to myself. No, the answers I seek are not in the Bible. From what I can tell the answers my daughter seeks are not in the Bible either. All of this has confirmed that I am treading the right path, gently guiding the others who follow me. The Goddess has shown me how difficult life can become, even between a mother and daughter. I’m sure in time this will all heal. I know that I will forgive her, just not yet. I am human and first I must deal with the hurt.

It will be interesting to see what lesson comes from this situation and who was meant to learn it. I suppose there will be something for each of us. The question is, who will listen?

Let’s Talk Witch – Dianism in a Nutshell

Recently, I got back in touch with my teacher after nearly two years and dropped a couple of bombshells on her: I had changed gender identity and had come together with two other women to form a Dianic coven. When the initial shock wore off, Rita sent me a complete run of Protean Synthesis and a solicitation for this article.

Several years ago I subscribed to several stereotypes regarding “those peculiar Dianics”. They were theologically unbalanced, they hated men, they denied that men had souls, they were all lesbians, they couldn’t spell (in the orthographic sense; no one has yet accused Dianics of inability to work magick), etc. etc. When I came together with my coven sisters, I realized that these notions were at most partially true and some cases were patently false.

I believe there are only three valid generalizations that can be made about Dianics:

We are all feminists.

We all look to the Goddess(es) far more than to the God(s).

We are all eclectics.

Note well that there are plenty of non-Dianic feminist Witches, non-Dianic eclectics, and non-Dianics who are primarily Goddess-oriented. There are also doubtless a good many feminist, Goddess-oriented eclectics who do not choose to call themselves Dianic. In my own case I use the “If it quacks like a duck, it probably is a duck” argument, as well as the fact that my HPS learned the Craft as a Dianic and runs Dianic rituals.

Some of the stereotypical generalizations I can dismiss out of hand. I don’t know of a single Dianic who denies that men have souls. Even Z Budapest doesn’t believe that piece of tripe anymore! It is true that Dianism is particularly attractive to separatists, and many separatists actually hate men. Many Dianics are lesbians. Some misspell words like “woman”, women”, “egalitarian”, and “holistic” on purpose. Not all fit these, however, and I think that Z Budapest in her younger, or spiritual bomb-throwing, days represents an extreme and a small minority. There are a number of males involved in Dianism, and some of those are men [NB: I use the terms “man” and “woman” to indicate gender identity, that is, how one’s heart, mind, and/or soul are configured. I use “male” and “female” to indicate physical sex, that is, how one’s plumbing is configured. I hope this dispels confusion.].

Thealogical and magickal imbalance is not so easily dismissed and needs to be addressed further, as that is the most valid objection that thoughtful Witches have to Dianism. The apparent imbalance comes from the Dianic emphasis on Goddess-worship, often to the complete exclusion of God-worship. This upsets many Witches’ sense of polarity balance. The resolution of this apparent imbalance lies in the consideration of other polarities than sexual and/or gender as the primary polarity. There are indeed many other polarities to consider: true-false, life-death, dark-light, rational-mystical, creation-destruction, order-chaos, and good-evil, to name but a few. One problem with the masculine-feminine polarity is that there is a strong tendency to express all other polarities in terms of it. The Chinese were particularly fond of this, and mapped everything they liked into the yang side, and everything they disliked or feared into the yin side, the patriarchal no-accounts!

One thing I have discovered is that if you look hard enough, you can find goddesses to fit both ends of most polarities. Some even occupy both ends simultaneously. Inanna, my matron goddess, is a good case in point. She is the Sumerian goddess of love, war, wisdom (which she won in a drinking bout!), adventure, the heavens, the earth, and even of death (in the guise of her dark aspect, Ereshkigal). A very busy lady indeed is Inanna. At this point it becomes largely a matter of personal preference rather than of polarity, whether one chooses a god or a goddess to occupy a particular place in a ritual.

No Dianic I know of denies the existence of the God. Indeed, He gets mentioned as the consort of the Goddess with some frequency in Z Budapest’s HOLY BOOK OF WOMEN’S MYSTERIES, which is close a thing as there is to a Dianic version of the Gardnerian Book of Shadows. He is there, and sometimes we will invoke Him, when it is appropriate. He makes His own path, and we follow our own, and when they cross naturally we honor Him and do not avoid Him. We also do not force the paths to cross simply to lend an artificial balance to a ritual where none is really needed.

Now that I have spilled good deal of ink over what Dianismis not, I should now say a few words about what it is: a movement of feminist, eclectic, Goddess-oriented Witches.

Feminism: This covers a vast multitude of virtues and sins. I do not think the stereotypical radical lesbian separatist is as common as is believed. Moderate to liberal feminism is probably far more common, even among Dianics. Certainly my own coven contains no separatists! There are too many nice men out there, even though surveys have shown that 70% or more of all men are potential rapists. The nice ones are found among those who are not in that repulsive majority; you just have to look to find them. One of the places you might find such nice men is in Dianic covens! Some are mixed groups, at least some of those of the branch founded by Morgan McFarland. My own is something of a mixed up group, I suppose. While we do not currently have any men in the coven, two of the three of us were born male and still have original-equipment plumbing. The Goddess and our HPS accept us unreservedly as women

Eclecticism: If there is one dictum of Z Budapest’s that bears repeating to everyone in the Craft, and which gets followed by many, it is “When in doubt, invent.” Dianics tend toward creative ritual, drawing from any and all possible sources. I have yet to see a Dianic equivalent of the Gardnerian Book of Shadows, nor do I ever hope to see one.

Goddess Orientation: I’ve discussed this at some length while talking about polarity. There are some wags who have said that Dianics are nothing but matriarchal monotheists. I tell you three times: The Dianic Goddess is NOT Jehovah in drag! The Dianic Goddess is NOT Jehovah in drag! The Dianic Goddess is NOT Jehovah in drag! A much closer analogy would be that Dianics have taken the Classical pantheon and reclaimed most of the roles. This, too, is oversimplifying, but it is not nearly as wide of the mark as the usual criticism. At some point I may write up a long exegesis on the Dianic Goddess, but not here. My own personal involvement with Her comes from a great feeling of comfort I do not find elsewhere. She feels right. I have a great deal of difficulty accepting known rapists (most of the Olympian males are this, especially Zeus, Hades, and Pan!) into my personal pantheon. I also feel a personal vocation from the Mother; it is rather incongruous to me to embrace a male deity wholeheartedly when the Goddess comes to me and calls me Her daughter. This goes doubled, redoubled, in pentacles, and vulnerable for lovers of women.

I hope this little discussion of Dianism-in-a-Nutshell has proved enlightening to you. It is not a path for everyone, but it is a valid path for some, and in considering it I hope that you can now ignore the garbage that has been put forth in the past as “data” regarding it.

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Tag: Goddess

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Author Is Unknown To Me